On The Wings of Wind

*Ah-CHOO*

Zephyr had just walked into his room at the hotel when the sneeze caught him off guard.

That's not a good sign. Am I getting a cold already?

Shaking his head, he plops down on the bed, exhaustion beginning to overtake him. Zephyr figured that he must of been out of shape for the two months he had quit his job as one of Manehatten's Wind Managers.

The Head Manager looked rather disappointed that I was leaving after three years of managing the wind currents in the Residential District of the city. He did have a back-up plan, but stated that I was welcome to come back at any time. Hate to disappoint further, but the only times I'll ever go back is to visit my mom...

Mom...

"Oh crap!"

Zephyr realized he blatantly forgot about sending a letter to her about his progress and what he had seen in his travels so far.

She must be worried sick... Like all mothers are when they don't hear from their children. I swear, she's too good for me...

Grabbing his quill, ink-pot, and a piece of parchment, Zephyr sat down at the desk provided in the room and wrote:

April 21, 20XX

Dear Mom;

First of all, sorry for not writing to you sooner. The first day I was here in Ponyville was rather... hectic, to say the least. Getting thrown a 'Welcome to Ponyville' out of nowhere would certainly be out of left field even for you. While I have discovered that alcohol is not needed to make a party (shame on me for not realizing it sooner), Being forced to sing for what appeared to be a portion of the town killed a lot of my nerves. I still don't understand how you manage to get over stage fright. I might have to ask for advice on that one day...

Something I noticed during the ordeal is that the pony who threw the party, Pinkie Pie, is a bit... unique, putting it nicely. She seems to pop out at the most random of times and even at random locations, making her difficult to predict. However, I was also getting the vibe that she threw the party just so that she could be 'friends' with me. That only made me more wary of her and her little circle, as I had bad experiences with such circles as you already know. I'm sorry to say, but she is going to be sorely disappointed when I denounce her as my 'friend.'

Anyways, the morning after the party, the wind started going nuts for some reason. Apparently their Wind Manager had retired three days ago and the currents had decided overnight to go haywire. The Ponyvillians(?) are lucky I happened to be in town for it, although it delayed my departure to Vanhoover until nightfall. Minor setback, as the hotels here are very cheap compared to Manehatten hotels.

I'll be sure to write to you again when I reach Vanhoover, or if something happens, be it good or bad. Say hi to the rest of the band for me.

Love, Zephyr.

As he rolls up the letter and sealed it for delivery, Zephyr's thoughts turned to his mom's band, Harmonecence. They were the only ponies to ever get close enough to what he consider friends in the past five years, though they felt more like extended family.

That is, until Zephyr remembered one mare who he still considered a friend. However, the two fell out of contact with each other when she had a bout with success, something he'll never hold against her. She had earned it, but there are times when he wonders if she even remembers the time they spent together.

Shaking his head, he prepares to head to the post office to have his letter delivered. Just as he reached the door to the room, somepony knocked. Answering it brought him face-to-face with the prismatic Pegasus from last night and this morning, sporting a slightly puzzled and irritated look on her muzzle.

While he wasn't really in the mood for anything past getting his letter deposited, Zephyr decided to humor her a bit. "Can I help you?"

"Somepony from the Weather Factory in Cloudsdale wants to meet you."

That got a raised eyebrow. "Huh? What for?"

"She wanted to know, and meet, the one who managed to stabilize the currents around Ponyville. Because I'm the Weather Manager, she dropped by my house first to ask about it, then asked me to bring you to her."

This mare is the Weather Manager? With how lazy I saw her yesterday, she could of fooled me three times over. "Right, uh... lead the way I guess..." This better not be something bad...

Rainbow Dash gives Zephyr a small glare before grinning and saying, "wanna race there? You called my speed useless earlier, but now I'm going to prove my worth!"

She's really trying to get back at me for saying that? And declining would be a big time waster. She seems like the highly competitive type, something I failed to pick up on last night.

"Alright fine, I'll race you to the Factory. I want to get this over and done with anyways, so this will speed it up nicely."

"Why are you in such a hurry? Anyways, prepare to taste defeat at the hooves of the speed you called useless!"

She is really not going to let it go, is she? Anyways, if my stamina earlier is any sign, I'm going to lose horribly anyways.

Heading outside, Zephyr managed to deposit the letter for delivery. Ditzy happened to come by right then, so it got sent off immediately. After that, the two Pegasus lined up on a nearby cloud facing the supposed direction of the Factory. he gave his wings a stretch as to lower the chances of a wing cramp.

"Get ready to be amazed by the lightning fast Rainbow Dash! On your mark..."

The two got into the ready position.

"Get set..."

Good thing I put a bit more distance between the two of us. The extra width of my wings could have brushed against hers, and we did not need the situation to become awkward.

"GO!"

When the two launched at the same time, they were equal distance for a little bit before Rainbow Dash started gaining a lead on Zephyr. Depsite not caring about winning or losing the race earlier, Zephyr felt his competitiveness surge, causing him to try and close the gap by straining his wings. While the race didn't last very long, Rainbow got there a full three seconds before Zephyr. While the distance wasn't expansive enough to warrant tiredness, it was still a tiring experience due to the strain from earlier in the day.

Rainbow did a victorious flip in the air, clearly relishing her victory. "HAHA, YES! Told you!"

"Ugh... yes, yes, you proved your point. Now can we get this over with?"

Talk about leaving a sour taste in my mouth. I'll be glad that I never have to see her again after this.

"Sounds like somepony is sore over losing."

All that statement did was warrant an eye roll. "Just bring me to whoever wanted to see me..."

Rainbow had a noticeable extra spring to her step as the two entered the building. Zephyr realized he was still disgruntled by the race and shook it off to take in the sight of what the largest Weather Factory in Equestria looked like. It was his first time seeing a massive cloud building too, despite being a Pegasus. While that one house in Ponyville was fairly impressive, the Weather Factory took the cake and ran with it.

Rainbow motioned towards one of the doors. "Here it is, the Head Manager's office inside the Weather Factory."

Inside the room, there was a royal-purple mare with a somewhat wavy teal mane. Her cutie mark was two intertwining gears, one green and one blue, on a white cloud. Looking up from her paperwork, she smiled and said, "is this the one who corrected the wind currents?" One nod from Rainbow Dash and she clapped her fore-hooves together. "Oh, wonderful. Thank you Ms. Dash. You can go back to Ponyville now.

After Rainbow Dash left, though not before giving Zephyr another smug grin that renewed his sour taste, the Head manager stood and walked around her desk and offered a hoof. "I'm Cloud Conduct."

"Zephyr Earthwing." He shook her hoof, biting down his resentment towards Rainbow in order to maintain professionalism.

She smiles again. "Ah, son of the famous lead singer and harp player, Harpsong."

I never realized how widespread my mom's name is.

"But that's not important. Since Rainbow Dash brought you here, I must offer my most sincere gratitude for sorting the wind currents out."

Zephyr simply rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "It was nothing, I couldn't very well leave the place while that was going on."

She raises an eyebrow. "You were planning on leaving?"

"Yeah, I plan on traveling around all of the cities and towns in Equestria. Ponyville was my first stop and I arrived yesterday."

"Aw, and I was going to offer you the job as Ponyville's Wind Manager. Our last one retired three days ago suddenly, and we are having a rotten time trying to find a new one. It didn't help when I remembered the memo from the Manehatten Branch saying one of their best had quit."

Zephyr quickly realized they were talking about him. They flatter me, but I see it as an attempt to butter me up so that I come back to work for them. I felt more like a possession there. "That was actually me who quit then. It was in preparation for the trip I'm currently going on."

Cloud Conduct's eyes widened in surprise before she adopted a panicked look. "Is there anything I can do to make you reconsider staying? I don't want Ponyville to get blown away simply because we couldn't find somepony to manage it. And you are a pony well-suited for that job."

"Eh, I don't know..." The situation was beginning to raise a red flag in Zephyr's mind

She panicked a bit more before looking like she had an idea. "How about I give you one of two options; we pay you the same wage you had in Manehatten, while we also cover hotel costs for your stay in Ponyville, or we can give you a twenty-five percent decreased wage, but we outright buy a house for your stay. And you only need to stay until we find somepony to replace you with."

The desperation is ringing pretty clear through her voice. Still those are tempting offers, and who knows when they will be able to get a new Wind Manager. As much as I would like to leave and avoid any more of the more crazy population down there, they don't really deserve getting blown apart.

"Alright I'll stay. BUT, I have to add one more condition." Seeing the hopeful look Cloud Conduct had, Zephyr continued, "you must find a replacement in one years time. I'll help with the search, but I will be leaving regardless if somepony has been found or not. I deeply apologize, but that term in non-negotiable for personal reasons."

Cloud Conduct adopted the panicked look again, which made Zephyr feel a bit guilty. He's willing to admit that he's being a bit of a hard-flank in the moment, but he genuinely didn't wish to overstay his welcome in any one place. Plus, being denied seeing what all of Equestria was a killjoy for him.

"A-alright. and what option are you..?"

"I'll go with the house option. I really don't need any more bits than I have, plus the hotel does not need anypony occupying one of their rooms for a whole year or so."

"Then I'll arrange for the transaction to be made when you pick a house out. However, we will only get a house that is within a certain cost threshold."

"That's perfectly fine considering my terms. I shouldn't need anything beyond simple housing anyways. Another benefit is that when I leave, you can have the house for anything you see fit. In the incredibly unlikely event that I do stay, I'll continue taking the lower wage. I'll warn you now, chances of that happening is about as likely as a bipedal creature never before seen landing in Equestria."

Where did that analogy come from?

That earned a relieved nod from Cloud Conduct, who then gives a nervous smile. "Thank you for doing this for us. Meet up with me at the Ponyville square and I'll see to getting your house paid for."

"Alright. Just don't mention the whole leaving after one year this to anypony. Last thing I need is other ponies getting flank-hurt over me eventually leaving." Zephyr figured Rainbow Dash would probably be the only pony who would be happy with that bit of news

"I don't know why you are so hung up on leaving. I'm pretty sure you already got lots of friends in Ponyville."

That got a snort of laughter from Zephyr, but he decided not to aggravate the issue. "When should I meet you?"

"How about five? That's usually the time I get off of work."

"Fair enough. For now I'm going to go back to my hotel room and rest up a bit more."

She gives a friendly wave. "See you then!"

After leaving the factory, Zephyr flew back to Ponyville, hoping to get the rest he was denied before by his letter and Rainbow Dash's interruption.

Cloudsdale Weather Factory, ten minutes later

Cloud Conduct had just finished the paperwork for getting her temporary employee a house when she heard somepony knocking on the door.

"Come in."

Looking up, she scowled when she recognized the stallion who walked in.

"I take it he accepted staying?"

"Yes, although he added the condition that he's leaving in one year regardless."

"That's perfectly fine. It is more than enough time for us to--" Noticing her continued scowl, he asked, "what has you so upset?"

"The fact that I had to stomp on my pride and practically begged him to stay. I also had to lie to him in saying that we couldn't find a new Wind Manager. The only reason why I did so is because of your promise of making the Weather Factory more efficient."

The stallion chuckled before saying, "don't worry, I'll keep my end of the bargain. It's one more reason why we need him to stay put for now."

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying Zephyr is the key to a more efficient factory? Outside of being a 'natural born', he looks like a regular Pegasus stallion to me."

"Don't worry about the details. And send the bill or mortgage to me, I will cover the cost of the house for you."

"Then hurry up. I have a business to run, and more efficiency will bring in more bits."

"Of course. For now, I must bid you adieu."