Chapter 66: Of White Lies

It had taken the ecstatic dark blue stallion a single minute of flight to reach the town’s prestigious apple farm. Near the farmhouse, he could see the big, red figure of Big Macintosh, pulling what looked like to be a wagon full of wooden baskets. In the attempt to divert the stallion’s attention to the sky, Dusk yells out to Big Macintosh from a distance.

“Hey Big Mac! Look, I can fly again!” He loudly exclaims, while rapidly approaching the farmhouse.

This grabs the attention of the stallion, who looks at the pegasus with a look of surprise, he could see the (almost) unnaturally large smile on Dusk’s face, even from a distance. Keeping his natural composure, he simply says, "Eeyep." In acknowledgment.

Dusk then started to hover about one pony length away from the farmer. Even though his wing began to hurt from the exertion, he just sucks up the pain and continues to hover in the air. He had to calm himself down a little bit, as he starts to talk to the Apple about his planned job. "It is pretty awesome to be able to fly again, but that reminds of something. You see the main reason why I wanted to go to Ponyville is because of the open weather job. Naturally, I applied, and somehow got the job, and I think you can see where  I'm going with this."

The farmer stands unmoving, betraying no emotion, and maintaining complete neutrality. His only response, is the infamous "Eeyep."

Hearing this, he continues. "But since my wing hasn't truly recovered as of yet, I'll probably still be working here for the next couple of days." He hesitates as he prepares to ask of him a favour. "Also, do you mind if I could leave the farm when it begins to snow? I need to go see Rainbow Dash so I can talk to her about the weather job."

He nods in approval. "That's fine Dusk."

"Sweet." He lowers himself down to the ground, since the pain in his wing grew rapidly. (Screw sucking up the pain)  His expression changes into a more focused, more confident look, as he follows the other stallion, waiting for instructions...

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Everypony in the farmhouse has been woken up, and the planned areas of the farm were all set up for the hard day of work ahead. Applejack had found out about Dusk's flight and briefly congratulated him, before she went off to do her plans. He hadn't told her about how he was going to temporarily ditch his job on the farm, in favour of another, and he planned to keep it that way. While he considered the mare to be a good enough friend, (or acquaintance?) the two never seemed to see eye to eye on matters, especially work. He know that things a lot better between the two, but he didn’t want to risk telling her. Much to his relief, he was working with Big Mac anyway, which made things a lot easier for him.

As he was prepping himself up for the very first apple tree, he could see snow falling overhead, meaning that Rainbow Dash and the small weather group from Cloudsdale were up in the clouds, creating the snow for town below. Seeing this, Dusk tests out if his wing has recovered by flaring it out, and giving it a few practise flaps. Happy by the fact that there is no pain, he launches himself up into the air, and flies up towards the clouds. Needless to say, he enjoyed the quick flight.

He flies around the thick, gray cloud cover, and immediately finds both Rainbow Dash, and the temporary weather team creating more snow for the town. He overhears a discussion of two of the Cloudsdale workers as he slowly hovers towards Rainbow.

"...and it's supposed to control the weather all by itself."

"Are you kidding?" Asks one of the mare workers, "Magic can't do anything like weather as well as us pegasi can. It's just unnatural. Could you imagine how weird it would be if the weather changed without pegasi control?"

The stallion voices his opinion, "Well... honestly, I wouldn't find it that strange..."

The mare's left eye begins twitching, "Are you kidding me?! *sigh* You are lucky that you're hot."

Dusk had stopped his initial plan of finding Rainbow, just to see how this conversation would play out. That is stopped however, when he heard somepony call him from behind.

"Dusk! Hey Dusk! I didn't know you could fly again." Yells a mare with a familiar tomcolt-ish tone.

He turns around, and sees Rainbow Dash hovering in front of him. She seems annoyed about something, but he had no idea why. "Oh, hey Rainbow. I have been-"

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?! Do you know how hard it has been to produce this weather all by my own? I was forced to get the weather team from Cloudsdale to create the snow. Cloudsdale!” She is really pissed off at the stunned stallion.

“But-”

“My life is over!” This outburst had gained the attention of the rest of the weather team, who had stopped their snow making to listen to this. “I’ll never be accepted into the Wonderbolts, I will just be the pegasus who can't create a simple snow."

"Wha-?"

She continues her dramatic rant, "It's just a stupid snow, and I can't even make one. It is all you're fault Dusk, if you hadn't gone and-"

"Enough." He interrupts, while giving her a dark look. "Your argument is just ridiculous. It makes no sense. Firstly, how would the famous Wonderbolts know about some random pegasi in Ponyville failing to create a sufficient snowy day?"

Her answer is almost instant, "They'll be rumours of my failure, and since they actually know me personally, they'll end up finding out about this."

Dusk grins smugly as he readies up another argument, "Ahh, but that brings up another point, why would the Wonderbolts know you?" It is starting to fall into place for Dusk.

"Well, I did save their lives during the last Young Flyers Competition in Cloudsdale." There were a few whoops from the weather team, which is ignored by both Rainbow Dash and Dusk. "Where are you going with this?"

"You'll find out soon enough. You see, not only did you win the competition, you saved there lives as well. If they lost interest in you over a bloody weather incident, I'd go up to Spitfire herself and give her a slap across the face. Seriously, I would." He hates it when ponies judge others by a single action, he loathes it.

"...Well this whole weather thing could've been prevented if you came earlier." Her argument may have not been well thought out, but it didn't stop Dusk's growing anger. All of his facial features seemed to get more dark as the argument continues.

“Are you bucking kidding me? You are still blaming me for all of this, because you assume that I have fully recovered and was just too lazy to help you. My wing hasn’t even fully healed up yet, and hovering in the air has actually started to hurt it again. I’ve only just gotten my flight back, and the initial euphoric feeling of it is now gone because of you. Thanks a lot Rainbow Dash.” He voices oozes with menace as he finishes.

The cyan mare’s willpower begins to falter under his dark gaze, his eyes seem to almost look lifeless on the inside. “Okay, okay then Dusk, I’m sorry okay.”

‘Well that’s probably the best possible apology I can get from her, especially when she’s like this.’

“Well then, I’m glad that could be absolved.” He says with little satisfaction in his voice, still bitter about the mare’s false accusation. He lands down onto the cloud, and starts to speak again, with most of the venom out of his voice “But while I occasionally enjoy being in the middle of a pointless argument with somepony, that isn’t why I’m here. I already told you that my wing is still recovering, and by the looks of it, it will be fully recovered in about two days or so. And so in preparation for the new job, could you give a quick tutorial about the intricacies of weather control?”

“...”

“..?” Dusk had no idea why she refused to answer his question, and yet, he thought it would be a bad idea to ask why.

“Damn it Zephyr! Why do you have to lie to me?!” She angrily yells out at nopony in particular. This gains the attention of the workers who had gone back to work.

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Rainbow thought that she owed Dusk an explanation for her random outburst. She had told him about how Zephyr went up to tell her about Dusk and all that, but this is all old news for Dusk. He already knew about this though, mainly because he planned it in the first place. However, one thing he is quite curious about, is what exactly did he tell her.

The cyan mare starts to tell him "So what Zephyr told me is that you were one of the best fliers in your old job. I don't remember everything he told me, but by the sounds of it, he completely lied about your skills as a weather pony."

He felt his self confidence take a hit, "Hold on for a sec, he may have lied about me and my expertise with weather control, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I won't be skilled with it. If you teach me how to do some of the more complex things before my wing forces me to stop, it would be appreciated."

"Well..." She took some time to think about her answer. it would be a good idea to train him before his wing had fully recovered, since it would save a lot of time in the long run. But on the flip side, it could be a potential disaster waiting to happen, and she couldn't really be bothered doing it anyway. After some deliberation, she makes her decision, "Buck it, I'm sure the rest of the weather team can produce the snow, follow me Dusk.”

“Wait a second.” He says while holding a hoof out to try and stop Rainbow. She stops mid-flight and waits for an explanation. “I need to check my injured wing, just to see if it is ready for flight again.” He doubted it, since his wing started hurting about three minutes ago, but he may as well give it a try anyway. He flaps his wings, and winces when he feels a sharp pain in his injured wing. He silently curses himself, before asking, “Where do you want me to go?

“Up onto that cloud over there.” She points her hoof over to a moderately sized cloud, which is (thankfully) close to their position. “You ready?”

‘Well, buck me. I’m going to regret this.’

“Lets go.” He says as he launches himself into the air. He had to suppress a pained grimace as he followed Rainbow Dash up onto the first cloud...

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They were finishing up on the third and final cloud for the day. Dusk had been taught how to properly and efficiently buck away a cloud. He had also learnt how to create a simple storm, and he had just been shown how to make snow with the clouds. They were now flying back to the main cloud again, where the rest of the weather team were situated.

Dusk is lagging behind Rainbow, since his pained wing forced him to a slow glide. He needed to glide so he wouldn’t lock up his wing and start falling clumsily towards the ground. He could feel his right wing growing more stiff as the trip wore on. Deciding that it is too risky for pride to influence his decision, he finally decides to call Rainbow Dash for assistance.

"H-Hey Rainbow, I need some help here... I think- I think I may lock up soon."

The rainbow maned pegasus turns around with a strangely happy look, "Finally, I was waiting for you to say something like this. You shouldn't over exert yourself like this. If your wing starts to hurt, you should tell me, I’m here to help you know.”

She starts to fly towards him, when he starts asking his next question. “Wait, you know?”

Rainbow had slowed down enough for her to be side to side with Dusk, “Of course I know, you look like you are in a lot of pain, but I wanted to see if you would tell me first. I’m disappointed that you didn’t tell me.” She starts to fly below the (barely) airborne stallion. “Dusk, sit down on my back so I can fly you back to the farm. You look like you are about to lock up at any second.”

He does just so, lowering himself mid-flight onto Rainbow Dash’s back, letting her fly him back to his destination. He relaxes his wings as gets flown across the snowy Equestrian skyline by the weather mare...

“You’re heavier than you look Dusk.”

“Thanks.” Next Chapter: Chapter 67: Treatment Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 5 Minutes