"Of all the things that could happen, this has to be the! Worst! Possible! Thing!" A hoof slammed the desk, sending all the files flying. "And now I talk like Rarity! Ugh, could this day get any worse!" For the emphasis, a face was slammed right into a desk, sending whatever was left around the office, aside from the few pages that just got smashed by a hollow-boned skull.

Rainbow Dash was officially the most depressed pony in existence. Or at least in Ponyville. Or at least in this office, where she was alone. She barely recovered after hearing it yesterday from a doctor. Just a routine check-up, they said. Just to make sure she's still fine and dandy, as if she wasn't 'Rainbow Danger Dash', most definitely the most awesome pony in the entire town and quite possibly (she left a margin for error, being humble) the most amazing creature that ever lived. Life was awesome and then WHAM!

"Why me?" She lamented, looking over the small, rectangular shaped purple, plastic box on the table. Her first idea was to slam it into the wall, jump on it a few times, strike it with lightning, slam it into wall again, pummel it with a hammer and finally throw it in the trash. But she couldn't. This little thing cost her a hundred bits. An equivalent of hundred cupcakes for a small piece of plastic. Actually, it was the content that was the pricy part, but when you're 'Rainbow Panicking Dash', all that matters is what's in front of you. And around you, like all the paperwork she just recently decorated the room with.

Surrendering to the inevitability of bureaucracy, she cleaned up the mess she made, stacking the files into neat piles (the rhyme did not cheer her up). As much as she hated paperwork and always desperately threw it at anypony else (IE: Thunderlane), this one had to be done by a weather manager, not 'assistant weather manager filling in, because the real one feigned food poisoning and didn't bother coming to work'. That's why she woke up earlier today at 6 AM, a time which didn't exist on Rainbow's clock, unless we're talking about late night Pinkie Parties. But anypony who counts time at Pinkie Parties has to be the saddest pony ever and “Rainbow Party Dash” was anything but.

She sat down and grabbed the first document from the pile and put it in front of her. Her first instinct was to grab a stamp and just get it over with, but since the last fiasco she decided it was safer to actually, and her head hurt even thinking about it, read them before signing for additional ten tons of unneeded snow clouds in summer. That had to be the worst day for Thunderlane to take a free weekend, but she was 'Rainbow Progress Dash', she learned from her mistakes. Sometimes.
She took a deep breath and leaned over the piece of paper. She went a little closer and carefully looked over the text. Few seconds later, she backed away and wiped her teary eyes. One more try, she leaned over the text again and proceed to decipher it again, with same results.

She sighed. There was no other way of looking at it (no pun intended), she was indeed, doomed. She once again looked over at the treacherous, purple box, taunting her with it's... boxiness. She shook her head, swallowed her pride (almost choking on it) and grabbed it, finally opening it with a loud snap. There it was, the object inside which was supposed to be her savior, but at the same time her curse. She knew it was good for her, like alfa-alfa, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

She finally summoned enough courage to reach for it and slowly, carefully put it on her face, closing her eyes in the process. It took her a while before she finally opened them and blinked a few times. She looked around the room noticing no difference. She leaned right back at the documents, only now instead of blurry mess were letters, words, sentences even! She turned towards a small mirror on the wall and looked at herself. She was, as always, pure 110% awesomium ponified, with her multi-colored mane, light blue coat and magenta eyes. What's new, were a pair of brand new glasses.

"Okay, they don't look THAT bad!" She admitted. She expected to see a four eyed monster, with two inch long glassy beads as eyes, but in all honesty, the rectangular, small frames were rather endearing. She left her seat to take a closer look. She lifted her hoof and touched the left side of it, delicately adjusting them, reflecting the sunlight in the process. She giggled, reminded of a certain comic book where a rather cool stallion used to do the same, especially in his awesome moments. He was really cool, despite being an egghead. Having powers to reshape reality helped.

Slowly the idea of wearing them seemed like a less of a pain. Besides, they were just reading glasses, she would only ever have to use them for paperwork and when reading books. Which was never. She didn't need them in flight and everyday life and even if, she heard that Wonderbolts used specialized goggles anyway, so she was safe so long as nopony ever witnessed it.

"Excuse me, anypony here?"

All colors of the rainbow dulled, as she heard an ever familiar voice coming from the door, which was just opened revealing a figure she least wanted to see.

"Hey, I just wanted to get this book back to Thunderla--..." Shining Armor stopped mid-sentence and looked at 'Rainbow Busted Dash'.

And then there it was again. The awkwardness, the ever hated, burning like flames of Tartarus, except harder to extinguish. Their eyes met, his were especially fixated on the new addition to Rainbow's awesome image. His mouth opened, but no words came through. He knew he had to choose his first words wisely and avoid saying anything stupid or reckless.

"So," he scratched his back and looked around the place, looking for anything to say "I like your new gla--"

"Out."

"What?"

"I said out."

"But..."

"GET OUT!" She screamed, grabbing the first brick, actually a tome of regulations and protocols, she could find "GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!" And proceed to throw it right at the stallions face. Shiny gasped, instinctively conjuring a shield before his face which stopped the book from crushing his snout.

"I'm sorry, I didn't..." he tried to stop her.

"GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!" But her rage was not contained that easily and soon another tome rushed his way, followed by another and at least ten more, before he got the right idea and ran away from the room, closing the door behind him with his magic. Just as the last tome made a sizable dent in the door, Rainbow Dash's tantrum slowed, now reduced to loud breathing and eye twitching. She quickly grabbed the accursed object from her face and raised it above her head.

"STUPID, BUCKING, CURSED PIECE OF CRAP!" She really wanted to smash it on the ground right here and now, but a quiet voice in back of her head kept shouting something. 'One hundred bits! One hundred bits!', it kept chanting. Eventually, reluctantly, she settled on just putting it back in the box, shutting it tight and spending the rest of her time wallowing in self pity, for reasons she couldn't fully understand herself.

Her wallowing had to stop when the door opened once again. She stood up and grabbed the last remaining tome and threw it at the general direction of the door.
"I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT!"

Time stopped to a crawl. Now Rainbow could see everything in excruciating detail. She saw the door, opened not by Shining Armor, but by her lavender coated youngest worker, Cloud Kicker. Cloudy, being a military dropout, trained in martial arts, noticed the book flying her way and immediately, using muscle memory only, ducked under it. Her moment of triumph was short lived and lasted about a nanosecond, before she realized she wasn't alone and right behind her was her BFF and co-worker. Raindrops was not a military kid, just a regular, if a bit too ordinary pegasus without any special qualities, aside from, as of right now, a bleeding, broken nose and a mild concussion.

"Uuh..." Rainbow Dash stopped in her place and looked over her workers. Cloud Kicker looked at her boss wide-eyed, then at her Raindrops, then back at Rainbow Dash. Dash herself smiled sheepish and scratched her head "...duck?"

"Quack!"

"We're almost there, little friends," Fluttershy announced to a small flock of ducklings that followed her through Ponyville "Just a little bit longer to the lake."

"Quack!" The ducks replied, to which Fluttershy nodded and proceed to guide her flock, just passing three particular fillies that stopped on their scooter ride.

"Maybe a bird guiding cutie mark?" Asked Sweetie Belle, looking over the passing birds. Her friends looked at her bemused. "I mean, it's worth a shot." She shrugged. Her friends, as much as they hated to admit it, had to nod and sigh.

"I'd rather have a cooler cutie mark than bird guiding," admitted Scootaloo, leaning on her scooter, resigned.

"Ah'd rather 'ave any cutie mark!" Said Applebloom.

The three let out a collective sigh as their heads fell down. It was over three months since they established their organization, complete with clubhouse, board meetings and a lot of trial and error, usually ending with a sizable amounts of cuts, bruises and property damage they either had to pay for (as in, their parents/guardians had to) or work off. The latter part happened to backfire on many business owners, as the trio went over themselves to try their luck at their new workplaces. With mixed results and no cutie marks.

"All right girls, you know what this means, right?" Scootaloo suddenly perked up and raised her hoof into the sky, triumphantly "Time for plan D!"

Two fillies gasped.
"Plan D?" Sweetie Belle repeated "Don't you mean..."

"Yes, exactly. We will..." she tried to say, but was interrupted by Applebloom.

"But where are we going to find a giant, industrial drill?"

"Uhh... what?"

"You know, so we coul' drill to da core of Equestria! Tha's wha' plan 'D' stands for."

"Wasn't that plan H?" added Sweetie Belle, earning a set of glares "You know, for piercing the heavens?"

"Did ya read another one'a those Rarity's weird books again?"

Sweetie Belle's eyes shifted "...maybe?"

Scootaloo facehooved and groaned before bursting at her friends.
"No, plan D is asking Rainbow Dash for help! Geez!"

"Ooooh!" Two fillies hummed.

"Wait, wasn't that plan R?"

"Nah, that was da gian' robot cutie mark."

All three fillies looked down and went silent over repressed memories. It was too soon. After a minute of silence, Scootaloo was the first one to recover.
"Anyway, if anypony can help us get awesome cutie marks, it has to be Rainbow Dash! I always wanted to get an aerial stunt cutie mark. Or a super fast cutie mark! Or a barrel roll cutie mark!" Her eyes beamed as she mentioned it.

"Why would you want to have a barrel on your flank?" Asked Sweetie Belle.

"Come on girls, with a cutie mark like that, next thing you know we all become Wonderbolts!"

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, then glared at Scootaloo.
"But we ain't even pegasuses!" said Applebloom.

"Pegasi." Sweetie Belle corrected her.

"Pfft, we'll sweat over details later. First, we're gonna take some flying lessons from the most awesome flier in entire Equestria!"

"Spitfire?"

"No, the second one."

"...Cloud Star?"

"Ugh, you know I mean Rainbow Dash!"

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom giggled, having fun at their feathery friends expense.
"We know."

As Scootaloo was about to once again groan and mutter some barely safe for work adjectives, she was interrupted by some voice.
"Hey kid, tell me more about that Rainbow Dash gal, will ya?"

Scootaloo almost jumped from the shock, then quickly turned back and faced the stranger. She witnessed a light turquoise pegasus mare, with a short, styled back amber hair with golden highlights. She looked with an amusement at the three fillies.
"Well? What's so special about her?"

Three fillies looked at each other, and then inspected the newcomer once again. They noticed her cutie mark being a lightning bolt with three stars under it and she was carrying a large saddlebags on her back, but despite their size and probably weight, she wasn't at all bothered by them. They once again looked at each other and, for once, decided to play it safe, learning from their adventure with the giant robot from week ago. It was still too soon.
"Ahm sorry, miss, but we ain't supposed to talk to strangers." Applebloom muttered, earning a surprised eyebrow raise from the mare.

"Yeah, my sister told me to stay away from ponies you don't know!" Added Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo feigned courage, but was as intimidated as anypony.

The mare chuckled, before finally bursting out with a loud laughter.
"Oh, wow, didn't see that one coming," she said after calming down, wiping a tear from her eye "tell you what kid; your sister is a smart pony. Those are some words to live by," she coughed and fixed her hair "but I guess we won't be strangers for much longer," she extended her hoof forward "the name's Lightning Dust, I'm Ponyville's new Weather Consultant. Now, about my question..."

"I already apologized three times already! Besides I wasn't even aiming at YOU!"

"Yeah, that makes the pain go away." Raindrops deadpanned while holding an ice bag at her snout.

Several minutes passed, which meant that it was only a few more days before Raindrops gets over her grudge against Rainbow Dash. On the bright side, it only takes less than hour for the nosebleed to finally stop, which means the tissue rolls she had to keep in her nostrils to keep from bleeding out were only temporarily annoying.

"Sorry Dropsy," Cloud Kicker patted her friends back, carefully avoiding her glare, sparing her the goofy smile she couldn't hide "if I knew you were behind me, I would've taken the bullet for you instead. Ask my friends back at the academy, I have scars to prove my chivalry!"

"Joy," Raindrops' humor remained as nonexistent as it was. "And don't call me that."

"And speaking of aiming," Cloud Kicker turned to Rainbow Dash "why were you assaulting Mister Shining Studley Mac Studderson? With books, no less?"

"Umm..." she reached back in her memory, five minutes ago. His voice was still fresh in her mind. 'I like your new gla--. I like your new. I like you.' She immediately covered herself in blush and looked away "None of your business."

Cloud Kicker, however, was not a pony who gave up easily. Or ever.
"Wait, let me guess. He said something like 'oh, Rainbow Dash, you look so dazzling', or 'oh Rainbow Dash, your eyes are so deep I could swim in them' or 'oh Rainbow Dash, are you an angel that flew from the heavens' or..."

"One. More. Word." Rainbow Dash grabbed the nearest object, this time an olive lamp "I dare you!"

"Careful Dashie," Cloud Kicker smiled, taunting "you might hurt somepony with that!"

"That's the idea!"

"That's cruel! Didn't Raindrops suffer enough?"

"Leave me out of it!" Raindrops made a few steps to the side, placing herself in a safe distance, with a table in between the two ponies, one already aiming a lamp, while other assuming defensive position. Raindrops had little hopes of surviving the next strike, she knew her partners stance. Flailing Monkey was used to deflect projectiles, not catch them and knowing her luck, it was going to gouge her eye out, in best case scenario. At least her insurance covered “Rainbow Danger To Others Dash”.

Eventually, the two mares slowly, but surely left their combat positions. Rainbow Dash put back the lamp, carefully observing as Cloud Kicker lowered her hooves, also glaring at her. Few moments later, they went back to their usual business, which didn't always include death threats.

"So, Bossmare, what's today's agenda?" Asked Cloud Kicker, peeking over at the documents that Rainbow Dash was stamping blindly (no way in Tartarus she would let Cloud Kicker see her in her glasses) "Any rains to make today?"

"Actually, yes, there are," Rainbow quickly answered, gaining some interest not only from Cloud Kicker, but even Raindrops, whose humor only ever showed during rainy days "we'll be preparing and placing clouds all over entire town and surrounding farms from today till Thursday. Late evening Friday will be the biggest rain this season."

"Wait a minute!" Raindrops interrupted her "Do we even have enough rain clouds stored?" She asked. Cloud Kicker took a moment to realize what was coming at them and her face cringed in fear.

"We don't," Rainbow Dash answered, looking smug at the two. "but we have ten tons of snow clouds..."

Two adult mares rolled their eyes and groaned very, very loudly.

"...Which is why you'll have to reshape them by the end of it. Enjoy!"

Most ponies think Rainbow Dash is a dumb pony that only got as high as she was because of wing power and connections. That's why nopony noticed the mess in timetables. That's why nopony batted an eye when she chose this week for everypony to be on morning shift BUT herself. That's why nopony saw it coming, despite preparing everything weeks in advance. She might not be the most educated pony in Ponyville, but "Rainbow Mastermind Dash" always takes everypony by surprise and nopony expects it.

"You're despicable!" Cloud Kicker muttered at smugly smiling Rainbow Dash.

"Whatever, blame Thunderlane for taking free day when I ordered the wrong batch. Keeping me from screwing up is his job."

And speak of the devil, the door opened and the only weather stallion entered the office, in all his mohawk glory. Cloud Kicker immediately turned at him.

"Thunderlane, I blame you!"

The answer she got, was the last thing she expected to hear.

"GRRRRRR!" He groaned at her, then went past and sat down at the corner, much more interested in some papers than his coworkers. Cloud Kicker gulped.

"On second thought, Rainbow Dash is way more guilty!"

The three mares looked at Thunderlane, then at each other and shrugged. Short moment later, the door opened and this time it was the pink-green maned co-worker without a single weather related thing in her cute mark.

"Hiya Blossom!"

"GRRRRR!" She groaned as well, spooking Cloud Kicker away. Blossomforth went further and stopped when she noticed Thunderlane sitting by himself. Their eyes met for a moment, then both pouted at the same time and Blossom turned the other way and sat in a different corner.

It was at that moment, that all three sane pegasi joined in the facehoofing. They huddled up together, far from the pair and spoke in whispers only. All conflict from a moment ago was gone, they had a common enemy that required an uneasy alliance.
"Damnit, this is too soon!" Started Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, it's not even Friday yet," admitted Cloud Kicker "something new had to happen!"

"If you want to ask them, then don't count on me, I'm already injured!" added Raindrops "What's the plan?"

"Too dangerous to try anything new," Rainbow Dash hummed. She was 'Rainbow Untouchable Dash', but her co-workers didn't have that luck "we'd better stick to the usual. Everypony know the drill?"

"It's practically in our blood already!" Cloud Kicker nodded. The trio smiled uneasily, realizing full well that this sentence was more true than any one of them wanted.

The plan was simple. Raindrops and Cloud Kicker would take Blossom on one end of the town, while Rainbow Dash would take care of Thunderlane. Even though she was supposed to have a free day today, she couldn't leave her friends hanging. Plus, she knew Thunderlane from way back and if anypony could keep him in check, it was only 'Rainbow Best Friend Ever Dash'. Also, she was faster than him by a longshot, so she had the best odds at surviving his temper.
With that plan in mind, the rest of the day should be easily salvaged. Nothing could possibly go...

"...right, just like that!" Scootaloo finished her story with a loud stomp for emphasis. Lightning Dust couldn't help but smile, seeing a little filly that not only told a story of one of the coolest stunts, but pantomimed it almost perfectly, despite still not being able to fly. If nothing else, she admired the zeal.

"Just like that?"

"Just. Like. That!" Scootaloo nodded and proudly beamed, as if any of these feats were her own.

"Heh, if even half of it is true..."

"I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!" She immediately went in front of the mare and looked her in the eyes, shooting metaphorical daggers at anything that sounded even slightly like insult of her idol. Lightning Dust found this cute, but decided not to provoke her any longer.

"Alright, alright, sorry, I believe you!" She rolled her eyes when Scootaloo immediately got over it and went back to her over excited persona. Her two friends, whatstheirnames, remained silent all the while, letting their friend do all the talking. After all, she was the number one fan of Rainbow Dash (even had a business card to prove it) "Your sister sounds like a cool pony, I admit."

"S-sister?" Scootaloo repeated that word and smiled, her eyes becoming beady. It was a short lived fantasy, as her ears fell down and she looked away "She's not my sister."

"Really? She sure sounds like one to me."

"Well, we kinda are like sisters..." the filly scratched her head "...almost. Sometimes. Maybe."

Lightning Dust once again raised her eyebrow and looked at Scootaloo with suspicion. She went over to her two friends and noticed both fillies looking away, whistling and feigning ignorance. She shrugged and patted Scootaloo's head.

"Bet she's proud to have a cool little almost sister like ya, then."

"Aww, stop that!" She said, but kept raising her head as if wishing for more. That was something Lightning Dust learned in her life- nopony hates being patted on the head. Some may think it's childish, that it's embarrassing or humiliating, but the truth was, everypony liked being cherished by others. Especially those that didn't experience it often enough.

She eventually stopped and decided it was about time to leave. After all, she was here on a business trip.
"Anywho, I'm looking for the Ponyville's Weather Patrol Branch office. Wanna give me some directions?"

"You'll go here, here, here and here," said Rainbow Dash, pointing at several areas on the giant map on the wall "Menawhile, team B, that's me and Thunderlane, will go here, here, here and here. Everypony got that?"

"Rodger-dodger, bossmare!" Cloud Kicker cheerfully saluted, earning an eye roll from everypony else. Whenever Thunderlane and Blossom had their... episodes, she was the only cheerful pony around, so she had to double the whimsy to keep this place from falling apart. It was a thankless job, but somepony had to do it and Raindrops was too ordinary to pull it off.

"I still can't believe we have to spend hours reshaping the clouds!" lamented Blossomforth "Whose bright idea was it to order tons of snow clouds?"

"We're supposed to blame Thunderlane!" Cloud Kicker raised her hoof with an answer. She earned a head smack from Raindrops instead "What? He took a day off on a resupply day. You know we can't trust Rainbow Dash with it alone!" saying so earned her another smack, this time from Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, don't shift the blame on me!" Thunderlane interjected,

"Figures," Blossom rolled her eyes "every single bad thing comes from you."

"I didn't sign that paper!" Thunderlane protested "And I took the day off to go with you to visit your parents!"

"Oh, so now it's my fault?" she faced him with dagger shooting glare "Well then I won't be bothering you ever again!"

"Good, I can finally have a peaceful day!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

The two growled, snorted and faced away, leaving Rainbow Dash with a severe headache.

"Damn..." Cloud Kicker shook her head with disappointment.

"Yeah, they never learn." Raindrops nodded.

"No, not that. I just don't have any popcorn on hoof. Gotta resupply after the shift."

Just as the two teams were about to leave the place and head over to do some more productive work, away from source of headaches, they all faced the door to the office, which was now open and somepony looked at them, with one eyebrow raised. None of them recognized the giggling, turquoise coated pegasi.
"Well whoops, wrong door! I thought this is a Weather Patrol office, not a Comedy Club!" she chuckled as she looked at the ragtag bunch of pegasi.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, slowly but surely losing any and all the patience she had.
"This is a private meeting, only authorized personnel allowed. Now scram, we're not buying anything." She waved the hoof at the newcomer, swaying her away. It wasn't very effective.

"I'm Lightning Dust. Pleased to meet you, I guess." she extended her hoof. Rainbow Dash looked at her hoof, then at her face and raised an eyebrow.

"Cool. Am I supposed to care?"

Lightning Dust blinked.
"Umm, yeah. I’m the new Consultant, from HQ. Sorry I'm a little late, I had to ask for directions. This really IS the Weather Patrol office, right?" she asked again "At least that's what Scootaloo said."

Rainbow Dash tilted her head.
"Who?"

"You know, that little filly," she asked, trying to provoke a reaction from Rainbow Dash. All she got was a puzzled look "Orange coat, purple mane, about this size." she waved her hoof.

"Umm..."

"Your biggest fan?"

"You need to be more specific, I have a lot of fans and they all claim to be the biggest."

Cloud Kicker leaned over to Rainbow Dash and whispered.
"She means the 'squirt'."

"Ooooooooh! The one on a bike!"

"Scooter."

"Yeah, that too! Of course I remember him!"

“Her.”

“Whatever.”

Lightning Dust opened her mouth, but couldn't quite say anything. She really pitied Scootaloo for picking such a lousy idol, if first impression was anything to go by. She shook her head and coughed before getting straight to the chase.
"Don't you remember the letter? About getting a new Consultant assigned to work with you? One month ago?"

"Uhh..."

"You signed it."

Rainbow Dash looked back in her memories. One month ago, that was when they were running out of rain clouds and had to order new ones. The same day Thunderlane took a day off to visit Blossom's parents. The same day she had to all the paperwork herself and accidentally, totally not because she couldn't decipher the brackets, checked the wrong position on the shipping form. The same day she also signed some other stuff she couldn't be bother to read.

"Well buck me..."

"What?" Lightning Dust asked, but didn't get a proper answer. Rainbow Dash slowly turned to her second in command.

"Thunderlane...” she muttered at her assistant “...I blame you!"

Author's Notes:

It's not a Stallionverse story until someone gets hurt, in the face. Check that one out.

Next chapter, Thunderlane actually gets some development. It's all his fault.