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Deke was out of the house before anypegasus was awake. He skipped breakfast and picked up a meal on the way to the school. He had gone through the paper material. It all was dated. Deke would have to sell them the old fashioned way.

The school was locked when Deke arrived, but he was fifteen minutes early. He sat down on the steps and ate breakfast.

Gale Academy was a late primary school, covering things after early primary school, what was often called “Elementary School,” the first few grades. Unlike Elementary School, late primary had some flexibility with classes. You had a teacher for most things, but “electives” allowed the student to branch out and choose some other things to explore with their learning. Some were brand new things, other were going deeper, past where the regular classes stopped.

Principle Starfire was along shortly and smiled at Deke as she walked up. “Here again early, Derecho?”

“Somehow it feels right,” Deke smiled back and getting to his hooves.

Principle Starfire looked Deke up and down. “You are going to present wearing that?”

Deke looked himself over thinking something was wrong. He chuckle. “Oh, yeah. This is my work clothes. Its not fancy like the weather factory and their embroiders uniforms. We do heavy lifting. Its all about protection and safety. I’m not going to try and pull anything over their eyes. After all, the uniform doesn’t make the Pegasus.”

“Very true,” Principle Starfire replied, her smile getting deeper. “You are proof of that yourself. Let’s get you inside to set up. I know you have plenty to do.”

“I’ve reviewed most of the printed materials. What I do not know is the slides. I never got a chance to review them yesterday.”

“Is that a problem?” Principle Starfire asked.

“No,” Deke chuckled. “I could do this without slides and keep their attention. But I have them, so I’ll use them.”

It had been years now since Deke had walked the halls. It was more than just being nostalgic, Deke felt so much more grown up than the simple time it had been. His job, it wasn’t the job of a Pegasus of his age. He was several years ahead of the curve, to start. Still, it felt right to walk the halls.”

The gym was already set up. Seats, projector, stage, sound equipment and whatever else was needed. Deke had never seen the gym set up like this, since he got to skip the whole week.

Deke dropped the papers off at the front and brought the slides to the projector. He figured out how to work it rather quickly and began to brows through them. Dated was an understatement. They needed to upgrade it all. Deke would be speaking to the board about it. It wasn’t just about the pegasi in it, some of the slides were showing the wear of 20+ years of service. Deke organized them how he wanted them to present by how he was going to attack the topic. The stage had a remote that looked like a microphone. It would allow him to flip backwards and forwards through the slides.

Deke got himself familiar with the stage and how far he could pace before it ended. It would be important. To effectively speak in front a crown you needed to emote. Too much was a distraction, but standing there was boring, even with slides. Deke could move around a bit to drive the energy up and focus it where he needed it to be directed.

The students would arrive at 9 am, after having their opening time with the teacher. The teachers didn’t know who was talking, only that it was a former student. Deke got fitted for the microphone and did a sound check. The microphone was a headset, making moving easier. Deke wasn’t going to bore them by starting on stage. He needed to make an entrance.

Deke sat down with the sound guys in the back corners. They were all purpose workings who did maintenance, cleaning, and when needed, ran the sound for events. Deke couldn't believe he had never struck up a conversation with them. They had a lot to offer and he had missed out. But Deke had so much that he hadn’t been missing out of back then.

As the students settled down, Deke put on his eye protection and face mask. It was something they would not easily recognize and draw their attention. Of course, Sun Shower and the Twins would recognize him easily.

Deke flipped the microphone on, but sat in the corner. “Can you hear me?”

The students were talking back and forth, trying to find him, not answer the question.

“I didn’t ask can you see me, I asked if you could hear me?”

“Yes,” The replied in unison.

“Good,” Deke replied. “I’m here to talk to you about a critical job that most forget about. Its more than you heard about the other day. I know some of you know where this is going.”

Deke stepped out from the booth and began to trot towards the stage. “Well here I am!”

Deke came to a stop in front of them on the stage. “Yeah, what I wear isn’t as nice as some of the other places, but the clothes don’t make the Pegasus. Graduate of your very Gale Academy from a few years ago…”

Deke dipped into a bow, allowing his loose safety helmet to fall off and then he pulled the mask and goggles off together, with practiced precision.

“I’m back!” Deke said flipping his head and mane back for flare. “Derecho!”

Sun Shower, Golden Front, Wispy Cloud, and Lightning Strike cheered loudly. Winter Low clapped, along with a few others.

“That’s it!” Deke said shocked. “Lets see, you are Diamond Strawberry’s younger sister, Topaz Carrot. You are Amethyst Wind, and you Snowy Twister. Where is your twin brother?”

“Out sick,” Snowy Twister replied a bit sheepishly.

“Too bad,” Deke replied. “This is the fun week. But yeah. It was just a few years ago I was walking and learning in these halls, besides many of your siblings. Or I know you because of my sister, Sun Shower and my twin cousins, Golden Front and Winter Low.”

They were relaxing because he was one of them.

“Yeah, I am here to talk to you about jobs. But I hope that you will see me, and know that you don’t have to settle with a job, but you can enjoy it and that you can rise above the others, even the older coworkers if you plan ahead and put some effort into it.”

“You heard my sister’s group talk yesterday briefly about the Recycling Plant. Do you remember that, or did it get lost in between all the others?”

“Well?” Deke asked them when he got no response. “Yes, I ask questions and expect answers. Do you remember about it yesterday?”

About a third of the class raised a hoof.

“Some of you were napping,” Deke poked, grinning. “Alright, so yesterday was mostly about you exploring options and learning for yourself. Now its time to hear from other job opportunities around New Cloudsdale. And that starts with me and the Recycling plant.”

“Who brought paper with them? Outside of my family.”

Sun Shower lowered her hoof and Apple Tart raised her binder.

“I have paper in here,” Apple Tart said.

“Perfect,” Deke smiled. “Flip to the front and tell me is there a green recycled sticker on it?”

“No,” Apple Tart immediately said. “My mother thinks that the recycled stuff doesn’t work as well.”

“Sad,” Deke shot back. “Because that paper in there took a tenth of a tree to produce. These trees they use for logging are not the same ones they make into furniture and decorate with. Yes, they are bigger, but if every one in this room used those, for each class, you use 150,000 pieces of paper for your class in a year. That's 6 subject notebooks at 100 pages each. By tree count, its 15 trees a year. And it takes about 15 years to grow a tree to the right size. This isn’t like harvesting food every few months, its years. And how much of that paper are you actually recycling?”

“Paper has a high recycling factor. Which means, you put a piece of paper in, when it’s recycled, you get most of that piece of paper back. Who has a blue recycle sticker?”

A binder was lifted up. “It’s a binder. I don’t know what kind of paper is inside.”

“Perfect!” Deke smiled. “You are holding a recycled product. The recycling plant does the work, and then companies buy the recycled materials and make them into the finished product. That whole binder can be recycled. The plastic is recyclable and so is the metal inside. Just make sure its put in the miscellaneous bin and the plant will do the rest.”

“Does anypegasus have something with a green recycle sticker on it?”

Nopony had one.

“Fine Sun, show them yours.”

Sun Shower lifted her paper folder up.

“Some of you recognize that folder. Sun Shower and the Twins use a product until its useless. She has drawn all over it and enjoyed it. But the important thing is that it was actually produced in the recycling plant.”

“Blue is recycled, green was done at the plant. At the plant is always cheaper and its the same quality product. Now, the plant can’t produce products like binders, but the can produce base materials. At least for paper.”

“So what does it look like to get recycled?” Deke flipped to the first slide. “This is a sorting line, specifically for paper. Once its made sure that it is only paper, no plastic or metal bits, its pulped up, just like regular paper is made, and then the process is the exact same as if it was made from fresh wood.”

Deke flipped through slides, explaining each part of the process they showed.

“That’s paper. And that process is similar to everything. Bring it in, sort it so its all the same, break it down, and then make the final product. You can see that hunk is paper. It will go to another plant to be broken back down and then colored or bleached and made into something like that binder. But through each step, you need workers.”

“I am wearing the basic working uniform for all workers. All workers have to use goggles, like these. I bought these because they are better than what are provided. You can see the hard safety hats, they are standard, and the masks are only needed in certain places and times. But the base uniform, its heavy denim to protect you and thick boots to do the same.”

“Like I said at the beginning, the clothes don’t make the Pegasus, what that Pegasus does is what counts. All of these pictures are sorting lines, and all have the same thing in common. There are three types of pegasi on it. Apprentices, Journeyers, and Masters. This applies in all departments and all parts of that department.”

“Apprentice is the new guys, just learning. After a while, you should stop needing somepegasus to be looking over your shoulder and guiding you and you become a Journeyer. Class, A, B, and C. C is the newest, and you earn your classes as you master your job. Master happens when you have proven yourself beyond the rest and that you can think about more than just yourself. You should be a leader.”

“Any management positions require you to be a master. It takes time and dedication, but it can be achieved in a decade if you want it. It comes with the highest pay grade. If you put the time in and become a master, the most you will make in a month is 4000 bits.”

“Guess what, 4000 bits a month is what you need to feed and cloth a family of 4. And that means only one needs to work. Yeah, I am a master sorter. And I also make more because I am a Line Head. I control this line!”

Deke flipped past a few slides to an overview of the Glass Department’s sorting lines.

“I am the second line from the bottom, line 3. But this picture is like thirty years old. It’s all old photos. You can see the Glass Department is small. Just four sorting lines. This is the Metal Department First Sorting Floor. They have to have multiple sorting floors to refine it all and not mix metals. You can see this floor requires a lot of Line Heads, the first level of management, and a lot of sorters. A lot of the sorters are Class A journeyers.”

“A job means money. We need money to live, sadly, so we need to work a job to get that money. A Class A Journeyer maxes out at 3500 bits a month. Still enough to feed and care for a family of 4. And a lot can make that in 4 years, 7 at most.”

“By the time you get married and have a foal, you can care for your family on your own, or almost on your own. A lot of families choose to work two jobs. It has more coming in and a more comfortable life. That comfort allows you to make memories with the pegasi you love. And that is what matters. Making memories with the ones you love.”

“Starting pay is 2000 bits. That's more than a good chunk of jobs and the same as the weather factory. Yeah, it doesn’t have the same prestige the weather factory has, but do you know what most workers there do? Boring, monotonousness labor. Few charge the lightning bolts and even fewer can craft the snowflakes. You don’t get to do the job defining stuff in the weather factory without years of experience. And often, without going to secondary school. And secondary school is something most can’t afford. Especially when there are a lot of good jobs that don’t require it.”

“I love my job. And I sort glass all day! But I find my self worth not in the job I do, but in how I do that job and how my family loves me. I do one of the best jobs there. This last year, I was the employee of the month, four times. All Departments, all floors, every job type. And then yesterday morning, I was awarded the Employee of the Year.”

“That’s the real job I do. I care enough to give my all to do it right. And that is what any job is looking for and what is desperately needed in the Recycling Plant.”

“I’ll show you some fun shots in a moment. Because I am here to teach you about the job and the prospective jobs that you can do. You should have gotten a good grip on why we are needed by now. And that is why the Recycling Plant always has to stay on top of hiring. The goal is to get every worker to be a Master. About half will become Masters, the rest staying at Journeyer A and few at Journeyer B. The Masters are the real teachers and are always needed. Its up to you how you perform and what level you stay at.”

“Now, this shot is about 20 years old. This is Featherlight. He is the Floor Director of the Glass Department. The guy over the entire Glass Department. He is just an Apprentice here, moving that block of glass. That block weighs 84 pounds, which looks to be about half his weight here.”

The kids laughed at the comment.

“You want a job you can be proud about your labor. If you want something physical, the final floors do a lot of hoof on moving of the finished products. The glass gets moved from the molds to the warehouse where it will be sold and reshaped at another facility that makes that type of product, like the cola bottles. They buy exclusively from us, so we have a different mold, this one, that we use to shape the glass for them so they have to do less work reshaping it. But these guys sweat and all of them are some of the strongest pegasi I know.”

“There is a lot of places for you to go in the Recycling Plant. And right now, they are starting students with good grades at higher rates than that 2000 a month. They are looking for students who have shown they are smart and can not just become Masters, but improve the plant.”

“And there are always ways we need to improve. This picture is… okay that is the paper warehouse, where did I put it? Ah! This one. That is a pile of glass to be recycled. No, its not gotten smaller. Its grown. And we are now addressing it.”

“I am in charge of rebooting the Glass Department. We will be hiring a lot for Temporary Work, and I know many of you will kick around a job or two in the next year or two. And that’s fine. But you can still make that base rate as a temporary worker. There is always a second shift happening in some department. They stopped two years back in the Glass Department, but especially in metals, they always have stuff that starts after school. Which is what I did. So you can start trying it out now, or soon after, without committing fully.”

“What really matters? The answer is simple, that you can support your family and make memories with them. And the Recycling Plant has ample opportunities available for you to do that.”

“And I am going to need extra hooves to be working all the different parts of the Glass Department, because I am leading the operation to get that pile down to a manageable size. And all of this here, is gone. It just broke on us. Its been there since the beginning of the plant. So we are getting a new one built. A more efficient one with a few more sorting line. In a few weeks we will begin for the Glass Department.”

“I know, you are still in school, but after school job? Many of you are looking at them. We can work with you. And you can hopefully turn that after school job into a career, with a good jump on it before you graduate. It’s what I did, and I know half of your names and a good chunk of your older siblings. Its not been that long and I’m already at the top.”

“I’ll be the next Floor Director if I pull this operation off. And Gale Academy will always be in my mind. I know the teachers, I know the quality standards, I know the school. Its not just a great school to go to and graduate from, its a great school to hire students from.”

“Now, how many of you know of Virga Tower?”

Everypegasus put their hoof up. Deke smirked as he clicked the next slide.

“Well this is a beam being produced to be used in the tower. That thing is in the tower. This is a window pane from the old building they tore down for it. This is being broken down in this, then this, and then its small enough to feed into the system.”

“And here it is, coming out. No, its obviously not ready to be a window. Unlike the metal department, the Glass Department can’t refine the glass to be panes. It takes more than just recycling it to turn out so perfect, and then a pane of glass has binding agents to help it withstand use outside of a building. You saw how big it was going in. Plus, glare reducers need to be added.”

“This is wood from the tower. Real pieces of wood, not composite. And here is plastic. This wood becomes furniture like your school desks. The plastics go into a variety of things.”

“That is the production side of the story, but PR needs workers, and secretaries, security guards, and all of the other standard jobs can be found at the Recycling Plant as well. But the big thing is production workers.”

“I already mentioned the Recycling Plant wants students who can learn the job quickly, and then, begin to offer solutions to anything we could be doing better. Fresh blood who are smart isn’t the easiest to come by. That doesn’t mean our workers are dumb either. Any of the Masters are extremely intelligent. Few turn to a production facility labor job as their first job, and none of them are top students.”

“We are looking to change that balance, offering you that first rite. The Board is looking for the smartest students to take the factory to the next level by learning it from the inside out. It is why they are willing to offer up to 25% more than the starting salary, if you have the grades and the references. That's a maximum starting income of 2500 bits a month. You will find it difficult to go anywhere else that starts at that rate.”

Deke turned things over to the students. He could tell they had plenty of questions. And he had plenty of answers. The prospect of the starting income being that high was visible in many of their eyes.

Next Chapter: Story 2 - Terminal Error Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 35 Minutes