Chapter 3: The Weather Team

It was finally time for Dusk to leave he hospital, much to his relief. He wants Fluttershy to follow him, as he needs to know how to get to back to her cottage, and he also needs to know how to get Mayor’s office, to ask about the weather job. He walks through the hospital’s double doors, with a cast on his left wing. While his other cuts and bruises are healing quite nicely, he was forced to keep his left wing fully stretched for two weeks. He had to make sure he didn’t walk near anyone on his left, or else he would hit them with the rather hard cast.

As he looks at the town of Ponyville, he notices that it is a lot more peaceful than Manehatten. Replacing the towering skyscrapers and dull buildings of Manehatten, were rustic houses, merchant stands and the beauty of the land. There were quite a few landmarks which stood out from the rest of the town.

About one kilometre west of the hospital were many acres of apple trees. Dusk presumes that this was the Sweet Apple Acres farm that Applejack worked at. If he looks close enough, than he could see the farmhouse in the distance.

Another thing that stood out in the town was the grand tree in the distance, which has been converted into Twilight’s library and home. Despite the size of the library, there was no doubt in Dusk’s mind that fewer ponies visited it.

Quite close to the library was the Sugarcube Corner. The architecture was nothing that he had ever seen before, it looked like a gingerbread house with a giant cupcake sticking out of the middle of the roof. He would be willing to bet that a few fillies would have taken a bite out of it at some stage.

Finally, there was the Carousel Boutique. Its design look more upper-class than the rest of the town (as things are with Rarity) and it was two stories tall. The bottom floor was looked a bit like a carousel, (What’s up with that?) was most likely her work shop or her display area.

Dusk finishes his quick look at the town and asks Fluttershy something.

“Fluttershy, do you know where the Mayor’s office is?”

“Yes, she should be in the Town Hall in the centre of town, I’ll show you where it is.”

----------

“So Fluttershy,” inquires Dusk, “How do I get back to your house later?”

“If you take the path to the Everfree Forest...

‘...?!’

“...you will see a small bridge to the right of the path, my house is past the bridge. It is near the outskirts of the Forest.”

“Alright, thanks for that. I’ll probably be able to take it from here. See-ya Fluttershy.” He waves his hoof.

“Bye Dusk.”

----------

Dusk sees the town hall and he starts to think. The whole reason why he came to Ponyville in the first place, is to get a job as a weather pony. Unfortunately, with his crippled wing, getting a job that requires flying would be impossible. Also, another pony could get his job before him while still injured. He will try to make sure that he gets the job despite being injured and stop other applicants from joining. He would then start working when he could use his wings again. The perfect plan.

When Dusk tries to enter the Hall, he is stopped by the doorframe. It seems that everytime he attempts to go through, his fully stretched left wing, rather comically, hits the door frame preventing entry. After numerous failed attempts, he tries to side step through the door, but realizes that this would be even harder. The length of his body is about twice the width of the doorframe, which makes entry even harder. For another attempt, he first gets his wing through the door, then rotates his body so that the wing ends up on the other side of the doorframe, which lets him walk through into the hall.

‘Three epic minutes, of intense door-puzzle solving’

As he walks in, he sees a young, unicorn receptionist and greets her.

“Good Morning, miss.”

“Hello, what business do you have here?”

“I’m here to see the Mayor about the weather pony job opening.”

She doesn’t even try to stop her chuckling after hearing that. “I’m sorry sir,” said the amused mare, “but I think you are a bit, crippled, to become a weather pegasus.” She points at his left wing.

“That is one of the main reasons why I’m here.”

“Alright then... her office is on the second door of the right hallway, and good luck.” She says in a sarcastic tone.

“Yeah, thanks.”

As he is about to enter Mayor Mare’s office, he faces another problem.

'A smaller doorframe?!'

---------

After using a bit more effort to squeeze through, Dusk makes it through the accursed door and meets Mayor Mare. She is a tan-brown, earth pony with a scroll as her cutie mark. She looks to be middle aged, as she has a greyed mane/tail, but has the physique of a younger pony. She wears two pieces of clothing: a pair of reading glasses, and a collar with a green, fuzzy, bowtie ...thing? (You just can’t explain it.)

She speaks first, “Ahh, the injured, pegasus stallion is looking for work I see? My receptionist told me using a communication spell about why you came here.”

“Yes Mayor, as you may well know, I want to fill the role as weather pony, but my wing is injured, So I ask a request. Can you give me the job as weather pony despite my injury? I’ll be sure to start work as soon as I can.”

“Hmm...” She appears to be deep in thought, “I thought this would be a simple ‘do you agree to the terms’ and ‘sign this please’. Since this hasn’t actually happened before, I’ll give you a chance. I can only tell you what you have to do if you pledge your commitment to the job. Deal?”

“Deal!”

----------

After asking around town, (and going through those two doors again *shudder*) Dusk found out where the boss of the weather team usually is, at the end of a day’s work. He ended up in Ponyville Park looking for a particular low hanging cloud when a darkish tan, stallion pegasus landed next to him.

“Hey, what happened to your wing?” asked the unknown stallion.

“Let’s just say, an incident with a manticore, and a bad time to start flying.”

“Ouch, that would kind of hurt.”

“Yeah, you could say that. My name is Dusk.”

“Name’s Zephyr.”

Zephyr has a spiked, royal blue mane and tail and light green eyes. He is slightly taller than Dusk and he also looks to be the same age as Dusk. He has a very intriguing cutie mark. It looks like a thick wavy blue arrow, with two small lines on the top and bottom of the arrow.

“Why are you just looking up at clouds near Ponyville Park?” asks Zephyr.

“I heard the the boss of the weather team is supposed to be here somewhere. I need to talk to her.”

“She should be here, I’ll just go get her.”

Zephyr flies into the air to find the weather pony, whom he finds almost almost immediately.

“Wake up Dash, someone needs to talk to you.”

‘Rainbow is the boss, this may be easier than I thought.’

She wakes up and groggily asks, “Where is this pony anyway?”

“I’m down here Dash!” shouts the crippled pegasus.

“What is so important that you had to wake me up to tell me?”

“I want to take the weather pony job.”

Rainbow gives me a quizzical look and then points her hoof at his injured wing.

“Yes, I already know about that, but i need to ask you something. Can you give me the job now? Once I can fly again, I’ll be sure to start working as soon as possible.”

“Ugh, shouldn’t you ask the Mayor about this?” questions Rainbow.

“Yeah, she told me that you can choose to do it.”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash thinks hard about what she should do. On one hoof, she has an understaffed team and he needs the job. On the other hoof, she barely knows him. After a minute of thinking, she comes up with an answer.

“I’m sorry Dusk, but I don’t know you enough to just, let you have the job. You’ll have to prove yourself when you can fly again.”

“Oh... OK.” says the dejected Dusk. He walks away with his head low and curses himself for the injury. That was until Zeph decides to fly near Dusk.

“Tough break huh?”

“You could say that.” says a deadpanned Dusk.

“You know that the only ponies in the weather team are just Rainbow and myself.”

“Really, I thought that it would of been at least 5 in a team.”

“I wish there were 5 in a team. When Ditzy Doo left the weather team so she could work as a mail pony, we were pretty devastated. She always did a lot of the work, it made things a lot easier and she always gave us free muffins.” say the disappointed Zeph.

“So it sounds like you two need to do double the work.”

“Yep. I think that Rainbow really needs the help, so a bit of gentle persuasion could give you the job. Do you want to hear the plan?”

“I’m listening...” Next Chapter: Chapter 4: The Forgotten Memory Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 12 Minutes