open Ponyville Weather Team

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy was taken aback by the first comment, looking a bit embarrassed, "Now hold on, I don't hate the way we wrapped up winter yesterday, it was just different and unfamiliar is all! Sure, I miss some of my old traditions, but I'm allowed to, right?" While her question was phrased as a rhetorical, her expression indicated that she was somewhat concerned that the answer was not what she expected.

That cleared up, she continued to her actual question, "We didn't use Unicorn magic, at least, not primarily. In Dappleshire there's a strong emphasis on cooperation, working together, so rather than giving us individual tasks, we'd be in pairs or groups of three whenever something small was needed, or all flying together for the daily push." She used her wind to draw in the cloud so the others could see, making a rough depiction of the town, the forest, and the mountains, then pulling over a small tuft of cloud to be the cloud cover. "All of us would get in a large V formation," She drew out the formation, similar to migratory birds, "And thus working together we can push the whole column of cloud off at once, rather than needing to break it up and move it in individual chunks."

 

Sandy was somewhat disappointed to hear that fires were uncommon, "Oh, Well, I guess that's good then. I just figured, with all the thatched rooves, that it would be amore common issue."

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

"Hey I get it: Change is hard." Rainbow Dash said to Sandy. The rest of the weather team nodded along. They seemed to agree that it was ok to be nostalgic about the way the other weather teams did things in the past. 

"Yeah I used to work on the weather team down south where there wasn't winter and it rained a lot. We had different traditions to deal with the fact that it rained so much, and I missed those, but I got used to what it's like here," Sunshower Raindrops explained. 

The weather team seemed quite interested in the way Dappleshire did things. They listened to Sandy attentively as she described how it was done. "Huh. Maybe you could teach us a thing or two about clearing the weather," Rainbow Dash remarked.

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy shrugged at Dash's suggestion, "I mean, maybe? I'd have to see how you guys do things here first, just because the methods I know worked for Dappleshire doesn't mean they'd work well here. So why don't you catch me up to speed on how you guys do things here? Is there some weather work that needs doing today?"

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

"Oh yeah, the weather for today. One second," Rainbow Dash said as she darted into the weather team office. She came back out with a piece of paper. "Ok, just clear the clouds for today," she said.

"Normally, each of us has does our own thing because each of us has a technique that we are best at. Maybe we could set up a way to compare both methods? We could start by doing the method we usually do today," One of the weather team members said from the other side of the bonfire. The weather team scattered, each member finding their own area to start busting the clouds.

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy had been about to ask exactly what the usual method was, but everyone rushed off to do their own thing, leaving Sandy to wonder at how inefficient that method was. It would be one thing if they had already divided the sky into designated sections, or all worked generally from one side to the other. Still, today she was here to observe, not to make changes, who knew? Maybe this way could work faster? Still, she'd have to bust the clouds herself in this function, which she was not strong at...

She turned her attention to the bonfire, the fire should make short work of the clouds if she shoved it inside, that would certainly make up for her lack of cloud busting strength. "Hey, Twilight? Could you clear the fire off of half of one of the branches so I can carry it like a torch?"

If Twilight indulged her, she'd take it and go about evaporating the clouds from within. If Twilight were unavailable though she'd simply do as she had done the previous day, gathering the smaller clouds so the stronger pegasi could break them.

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way the Ponyville weather team cleared the clouds. Pegasi flew wherever they wanted and it seemed like each pony had a different way to clear the clouds. Some pegasi bucked them, others sliced through them with their wings, others still head-butted them, and then there was Sprinkle Medley, who appeared to be biting them.

"Uhh, sure," Twilight said, handing the magical torch over to Sandy Fire. "I don't think I looked into how the fire would work on clouds. Would I need to cast a spell on the clouds like I would on the papers though?" Twilight asked. "Because I don't exactly have time for that. In fact, I should probably get going now..."

"I'm going to bust some clouds," Rainbow Dash said as she shot off with a rainbow contrail. 

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy shook her head at Twilight's question, "No need, I'm not planning to set the clouds on fire, although that would be pretty cool, I'm just going to use the fire to evaporate them. Thanks for the help!"

Sandy then, torch in hoof, would try and see what clouds she could help with, but with the haphazard nature of the other pegasai, and how they were faster than her without drafting, it would be rare for her to get to a cloud first. When she did manage to get to one though, stabbing it with the magical fire made short work of it, causing it to dissipate into steam after just a few seconds. She'd continue like that until the clouds were gone.

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

With a flash, Twilight teleported away.

Despite the seeming randomness to the way they cleared the clouds, most of the weather team had a certain groove to it. While Rainbow Dash could have cleared the sky easily by herself, she slowed down to watch Sandy Fire clear the clouds. It definitely wasn't a way she had seen it done before, but it intrigued her. 

When the weather pegasi finished, they all gathered back on the cloud in front of the weather team office. By then, the bonfire had dissipated and there was just a huge pile of papers.

"We cleared that sky in ten minutes flat!" Rainbow Dash announced, pumping her hoof in the air.

"Well we don't really have anything scheduled for the rest of the day, who wants to do something?" Rainbowshine asked.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Skylight Scintillate

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

While she hadn't cleared as many clouds as the others, Sandy was proud of the effort she had contributed to the cause.

When it came to Rainbowshine's offer of doing something else, she was intrigued, maybe it would be something in town? She nodded, "I don't have any commitments, I'd be happy to do something."

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

Rainbow Dash pondered for a second before speaking up. "Hey weren't we going to burn those papers from several years ago?" Rainbow Dash asked, pointing to the pile of papers still on the cloud.

"Oh yeah, let's do that!" Sprinkle Medley said, bucking the cloud that the weather team was sitting on. It caused the papers to flutter to the ground below.

"Hey, you young hooligans better get all these papers off of me this instant! I'm going to need to speak with your manager!" somepony grumbled down below. The weather team pegasi gasped and looked down. Sure enough, there was an old pony buried by all the papers.

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy was caught by surprise when the cloud got broken, falling almost the whole way with the papers before she caught herself just before the ground, "So sorry! We didn't se you there! We'll get you out of there real quick."

She'd immediately set to work moving the papers, she didn't want to try and blow them off as that could easily cause quite a few papercuts that the old pony would no doubt not appreciate. Therefore she'd move them away with her hooves as fast as possible. 

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle

The other weather ponies quickly realized what happened and flew down to help Sandy Fire, grabbing the papers off of the old pony. "I need to speak with your manager!" the old pony shouted at Sandy Fire as he freed himself from the last of the papers. 

"About that..." Rainbow Dash said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof.

"You're the manager? Oh come on! Is there anypony on the weather team that isn't some rambunctious rascal?" The old pony grumbled. "Back in my day, weather ponies didn't do anything crazy. They just managed the weather instead of throwing papers at ponies! Whoever did this should be fired!" The old pony demanded. This caused Sprinkle Medley to hide behind one of the other weather team pegasi.

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy would be taken aback at the old pony's reaction towards Rainbow Dash, "Hold on, do you have any idea who this is? This is THE Rainbow Dash! You know, one of the Elements of Harmony! The ones who saved us from Nightmare Moon, Discord, and deserving of your respect!" (Depending on how far along the timeline you've set this, I can correct it if it's not true.)

She snorted, "Where I'm from we're taught to respect our elders, but where I'm from our elders have earned our respect. It was an accident, you're not injured, accept the apology and move on!"

She was surprised with her own fiery response, and inwardly she was sure she was going to get fired for this, she'd gotten in trouble for her temper back home too. Still, she wasn't going to falter in front of this grump.

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

Everypony stared in surprise at Sandy Fire when she snapped at the old stallion.

"I wasn't yelling at Rainbow Dash!" the old pony lied, "I was only yelling at the pony whose brilliant idea it was to drop papers on me! So who did it!?"

"Hey, can you defend me too?" Sprinkle Medley asked, tapping Sandy Fire from where she hid behind Rainbowshine.

"Uh whatever. I'm writing a complaint," the old pony grumbled, grabbing a blank complaint slip from pile of papers and writing a scathing complaint. "I bet it was Sprinkle Medley again. That mare is always up to trouble. She always pranks me for no reason. I swear if this happens one more time I'm moving back to Dappleshire."

Once the old stallion finished writing his complaint, he hoofed it to Rainbow Dash and stormed off. The weather pegasi sighed a breath of relief. 

"Hey thanks for saving me back there. I think we will get right along. You know, that old stallion complains about everything. The weather's too hot, too cold, too dry, too humid, too cloudy, too rainy, nothing we ever do is right..." Sprinkle Medley rambled, casually leaning on Sandy Fire.

"Wow..." Rainbow Dash murmured to herself, not quite sure what to make of Sandy Fire's rant and blushing slightly at Sandy Fire's compliment about her being an element of harmony.

Edited May 24, 2022 by Skylight Scintillate

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Most of the fire went out of Sandy once the old stallion got far enough away, causing her to drop to the ground and sit down, clearly embarrassed by her actions. She was right back to being the reserved pony she had been all morning, "No, no, I shouldn't have done that, that was so rude. I... I don't know what came over me, but I couldn't let him get away with calling Rainbow Dash a rambunctious rascal!"

She turned to Rainbow Dash, "I'm sorry, I must have broken some sort of rule with that outburst. I- I'll do better going forward I promise!"

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

"Well, the only pony that he called a rambunctious rascal in this complaint was Sprinkle Medley. So that means you and I aren't in trouble," Rainbow Dash explained, glancing over the complaint slip.

"Let me see that!" Sprinkle Medley demanded, ripping the slip out of Rainbow Dash's hooves. She glanced over it agitatedly.

"That old grump complains about everything! Why am I the only one that gets complained about officially? This must be some kind of mistake," Sprinkle Medley grumbled, tearing the slip to shreds. If Sandy Fire observed carefully, she would notice that the shreds fluttered down and landed on a mountain of complaint slips all complaining about Sprinkle Medley.

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy was still unsure, but figured if Sprinkle had been complained about that much, and was still allowed to work here, maybe there was a chance for her yet.

She looked around at the others, "Weren't we about do do something? You know, before all this happened?"

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

At the mention of that, Sprinkle Medley lit up. "Oh yeah, we were going to burn all those complaint slips about me, like seriously, why does everypony..." Sprinkle Medley trailed off and curled up under the glare of all the other weather team members. "What I meant was burn all those papers from last season that are no longer relevant!" Sprinkle lied.

"Yeah uh huh," Rainbow Dash said. "Tell me: what is this doing here?" Rainbow Dash asked, handing Sprinkle a box filled to the brim with complaint slips of Sprinkle Medley. They weren't just from the old stallion from earlier either. "I asked you to deliver this to the CWC headquarters last week. So tell me: why is it in the discard pile?"

"Uhh..." Sprinkle Medley stalled. She glanced over to Sandy Fire with a desperate look. "Help me," she mouthed, nervously sweating from the glares of the other weather ponies.

Edited May 30, 2022 by Skylight Scintillate

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

The fact that the stack of complaints were in fact not an indication that mistakes were tolerated here, and were actually something that indicated that the authorities simply didn't know the extent of Sprinkle's failures, put Sandy back on edge that she would potentially be in trouble again. Unlike Sprinkle, Sandy didn't have the will to try and hide her mistakes from authority.

 She also wasn't about to side against the pony she had put herself on the line to defend just moments earlier. Unfortunately for Sprinkle, that pony was Rainbow Dash. Still, she didn't like that Sprinkle was putting her on the spot like this, given how many complaints had been levied against her, it seemed there was far more to her history than Sandy knew, and as such she wasn't about to stake her reputation in this town against it. So she remained quiet, surely Sprinkle had a good explanation? And if she didn't, well, then it was the right thing to do for her to make up for her mistake.

Also, she had been the one who had pranked her the previous day, so she wasn't exactly in Sandy's good graces at the moment.

Still, she would look conflicted, as much as she hated to see another pony get stared down, she dreaded the possibility that those glares could get turned on her if she spoke up.

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

"Hey," Rainbow Dash said, putting a hoof on Sandy Fire's back. "You aren't going to get fired, ok? There is nothing in the complaint slip that mentioned you." Rainbow Dash tried to give the best reassuring smile she could, even though this wasn't exactly her strength.

One of the other weather team members spoke up. "Hey uh, wouldn't it make sense for somepony other than Sprinkle Medley to deliver the complaints given that basically all the complaints are about her? She wouldn't turn herself in, right?" Cloud Kicker said.

"I can deliver it!" Ditzy Doo said, appearing out of nowhere. She wrote 'To CWC headquarters' on the box, slapped a stamp on it, and carried it away.

"Yeah I'm going to go now..." Sprinkle Medley said as she dashed off. Unfortunately, she was spotted by the flower trio and the trio chased after her. "Hey! There's that pegasus that flooded our flowers the other day!"

The tense atmosphere immediately disipated once Sprinkle Medley disappeared from sight. "You ok? You look really hurt by what the old stallion said," Sunshower Raindrops asked Sandy Fire.

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sandy relaxed as the tense atmosphere left with Sprinkle, "I... I'm okay, now at least, thank you. I wasn't hurt personally by what he said, I just, I don't know, I don't like seeing ponies get yelled at who don't deserve it." She shook herself off as she stood back up, "We should move on, put that behind us, and not let it put a damper on the rest of the day, right? So, what's next?"

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

"Well originally, I was in the mood for a bonfire, but after what Sprinkle Medley did, not so much..." Rainbow Dash said, waving her hoof in the air with a sigh. Even though the tense atmosphere had dissipated, now it seemed like the weather pegasi didn't really feel like doing anything.

"Hey what do you like to do in your spare time in Dappleshire, Sandy Fire?" Sunshower Raindrops asked.

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

"Free-time?" Sandy looked confused by the word, then she seemed to understand, "Oh! like ide moments? Um... well, not being busy is frowned upon in Dappleshire, you're supposed to be constantly working either to improve the town or yourself, or you're not really pulling your weight you know?"

It was likely obvious that those around her did not, in fact, know what she meant, so she continued, "Well, I liked to practice when I wasn't working, mostly flying, but I also wanted to practice putting out fires. The town elders... they didn't like when I did that. They were really not happy when it got me my cutie mark," she showed it off to them, a lit torch in front of a rain cloud. She sighed, "I think some of them wanted me out of the town starting then."

She shook her head, "I don't think you'd be interested in doing that sort of thing though. I haven't really gotten the chance to see Ponyville yet, maybe you guys could show me the best parts of it?"

[Skylight Scintillate 1,849]

@Illiad Easle 

"Hey if you want flying practice, then Rainbow Dash is your pony. She's the only one that's in the Wonderbolts academy after all. As for putting out fires, well Sunshower raindrops knows a lot about dumping a lot of water over a small area in a short period of time. Mareami where they have do do the weather like that," Cloud Kicker explained when Sandy Fire talked about what she liked doing.

"Sure, I'll show you around," Rainbow Dash said as she took off. The rest of the weather team dispersed given that they didn't have anything else to do.

Rainbow Dash bounced from location to location, pointing out all the most notable locations along with interesting tidbits she knew about Ponyville. She also waved to her six friends (The other mane six and Spike) if she saw them outside. She made sure to slow down so Sandy Fire would be able to keep up and take in the sights. They finished at Sugarcube Corner near the town square.

"And this is Sugarcube Corner. Any questions about Ponyville?" Rainbow Dash finished.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Skylight Scintillate

[Illiad Easle 2,968]

@Skylight Scintillate

Sadny honestly looked a little overwhelmed by it all, "It's... it's just so BIG! Not just by space there's just so many ponies here, I never thought so many ponies could live together like this. I mean, sure, I saw a lot of ponies at the wrap-up, but to see them all just going about their lives... it just hit differently you know?"

She sighed, then gestured at Sugarcube Corner, "And this whole place! Back in Dappleshore they would have called it 'an egregious waste of space and resources' but here, it's not even the most extravagant building on the block! Let alone the town!"

She tapped her hooves nervously on the table, "It's just... so different from what I'm used to, how am I even supposed to fit in to a town like this?"