Rain Splash groaned as she shoved her blankets aside and fell out of bed.
"Oww.." she said softly, as she lifted herself up and trotted over to the door. She twisted the knob open with one of her hooves, and stepped into her kitchen. Rain reached over to a shelf and grabbed a stray hairbrush, yanking it through her dark teal mane a few times before giving up and sitting down at her table. She picked up a newspaper lying on the table, and started to read it as she sipped some coffee.
Rain sputtered as she saw the headline. "Pegatropolis Weather Team Experiencing Financial Problems?" She read aloud as she set the coffee down. "The head of the team, Cloudy Feathers, says that roughly half of the Team will have to be laid off..." She trailed off as she sat bolt upright. "I'm on the Team! Oh gosh!" Rain scrambled out of the chair and dashed into her bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror quickly and straightened her white feathers before dashing out of her cloud house, leaving the door swinging.
As she flew past the other Pegasi, she tried not to think about what would happen if she got laid off. She barely had enough money to afford her rent as it was, so she would have to find another place to stay. But where? She certainly couldn't stay in Pegatropolis...After all, a degree in Weather Engineering was pretty useless outside of a Weather Team.
Preoccupied with her thoughts, she almost slammed into the Weather Team Headquarters. Rain shook her head, clearing her thoughts, before she pushed open the door and walked into the bustling office. Ignoring the other Pegasi, she headed straight to her boss's office. She knocked on the hardwood door loudly, then leaned against a wall to steady herself.
"What is it this time?" A green Pegasus mare groaned as she stuck her head out of the office.
"Oh!" Rain said as she snapped to attention. "Miss Cloudy Feathers! Ma'am!" She said as she turned to look at the grumpy gaze of the other mare. "I was wondering, Ma'am, about my job? You see, I read the article..." She trailed off.
The green mare sighed. "Yep, you're laid off. Sorry, but the economy being the way it is...You have an hour to collect your things from your office." She shook her head, before retreating back into her office and slamming the door.
Rain blinked. "Laid...off?" She whispered to herself as she went over to her desk in the back of the room, picked up a few pencils, and trotted over to the door. She sighed dismally as she opened the door and flew back to her house. "I'd better pack..."
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A day later, Rain Splash was standing in front of the Pegatropolis Travel Agency. As she stepped inside, she looked around at all the different travel brochures in awe.
"May I help you?" A brown Pegasus stallion with a bored look said, interrupting her thoughts.
"Oh...oh, yes. I suppose so. I was looking for a place to move to, you see." She said with a half-hearted smile.
The stallion rubbed his chin. "Hmm...You're looking to move out of Pegatropolis?" He asked.
"Yes, I think so." Rain replied.
He turned around and led her over to a shelf filled with more brochures. "Well, then, this shelf contains the information on other Kingdoms. Now if you'll excuse me.." He finished as he trotted over to another customer.
Rain Splash hoofed through the brochures before trotting over to the stallion, who had finished with the other customer. "Excuse me? I was wondering, why aren't there any brochures on Dragonia, Equestria, Zebrica, or any of those other places?"
The stallion scoffed. "Ma'am, those are on the ground, and, as you are well aware, us Pegasi cannot live on the ground."
Rain blushed. How could she have forgotten? It was in every schoolbook she'd read...Pegasi were unable to live on the ground due to the thickness of the air and the high levels of gravity. The only Pegasi to attempt it, such as Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy, had never been heard from again. She sighed as she turned back to the brochures.
She idly leafed through the rest of them, unable to find a place that would work for her. As she trotted out of the Agency, though, saddlebags swinging, she stumble on a piece of cloud. She scrambled to regain her balance, but her saddlebags with her belongings weighed her down. She couldn't let her saddlebags go, though, or else they would fall and she might lose their contents! As she started to plummet, she looked around frantically for somepega, anypega, to help her, but the Travel Agency had soundproof cloud walls and nopony was looking out it's windows.
She screamed as she fell down, frantically trying to flap her wings hard enough, but failing due to the weight. She closed her eyes due to the pressure building up around her, and curled into a tiny ball, awaiting her fate. She knew she should have let go of her saddlebags, but their contents were too precious and held too many memories for her to run the slightest risk of losing them. She just hoped against hope that maybe the ground, miles below her, wasn't so bad after all.
*******************************************
Rain struggled to open her eyes against the pressure as she felt the ground looming up. She shrieked as she caught a glimpse of the rapidly approaching dirt, even though the sound was caught out of her mouth by the wind. She lost all hope as she frantically tried to flap her wings. Even if the ground was alright, it was approaching way to fast for her to be able to slow down enough so he wasn't killed by the impact...
"Gotcha!" A voice cried out as Rain felt herself slam into a soft, yet strangely resistant surface. She groaned as she lifted her head up, eyes spinning.
"Wh...whu?" She whimpered as she looked down. She was on a...cloud? As far as she knew, clouds didn't even exist this near the ground.
Suddenly, a blue-coated and rainbow-maned mare darted in front of her. "Was that cool, or what? I totally saved you!" The same voice from earlier cried out, as Rain felt herself drifting into unconsciousness from the impact.
