Written by Rumble & GeodesicDragon
Eat.Sleep.Work.Repeat.
The words echoed continuously through Thunderlane's mind as he glided through the sky, his eyes locked firmly on the Ponyville weather station in the distance. The place wasn’t much, even for an Earth pony town, but that didn’t stop it winning multiple awards for cloudbusting. The spotlight mainly shone upon a rainbow mare famous for her element of harmony — something that Thunderlane was envious about. He tried not to let it get to him, but everyone around knew that the success of the Ponyville weather team was down to her.
Thunderlane let out a deep sigh as he touched down on the cloud surface, his mind definitely not in the mood for work. He continued to play with the thoughts of the dull day ahead of him while trotting up to the small cloud building, on top of which stood a wind sock. Opening the door half-heartedly, he was greeted by the team who were all ready and waiting.
“Hey, Thunder.” Blossomforth flashed him a grin. “Five minutes late, as per usual.”
“Give me a break, Blossom, I’m tired enough as it is,” Thunderlane replied, taking a seat on one of the chairs surrounding the small table in the room. “Anyway, what’s happening today?”
“Well, Cloudchaser and I are on wind control again,” Flitter started as she sat opposite him. “Blossomforth and Raindrops are on weather and Cloud Kicker is teaming up with Dash again for cloudbusting.”
Thunderlane raised an eyebrow. “So, what about me?” he asked. “What am I doing?”
Before Flitter could respond, the doors to the station exploded inwards as a flash of cyan with a rainbow streak entered the room. Everyone turned to see Rainbow Dash with an excited smile adorning her features, and an envelope tucked under one wing.
“Morning, everypony,” she replied cheerfully, getting a few nods and groans in response. “Plans for today have changed, since I got a letter from the weather factory in Cloudsdale saying something about the cloud machines being broken — meaning we’ll need to make them by hoof.” She spoke, wandering back and forth as though she was a commander in the Royal Guard.
“So, I’m guessing you’re gonna say that we need to work our flanks off twice as much now?” Blossomforth asked. “What happened, anyway?”
Rainbow Dash groaned. “Apparently, somepony disobeyed the ‘No Smoking’ signs in the Rainbow Room,” she said. “The place was almost blown to smithereens.”
A chorus of groans was the response.
“Well that’s just perfect,” Cloudchaser growled. “We have to work ourselves into the ground, and all because some bozo couldn’t wait until they got outside.”
Rainbow shook her head before a smile came to her face. “Well, there is a good side to this fiasco.” she looked around the room. “You guys wanna hear something totally awesome?” She asked, to which the ponies in the room exchanged hesitant glances. Eventually, they nodded and Dash held up the envelope. “I got a letter from the Wonderbolts!” She shouted, causing a gasp to echo around the room.
Great, Thunderlane thought. She probably got accepted into the Wonderbolts. He felt a pang of jealousy coursing through him, but watched along with the other pegasi in the room as Dash ripped open the letter and quickly read its contents. Her excitedness faded as she continued to read, but then it picked back up again.
“Well, come on then!” Cloud Kicker shouted from across the room. “Don’t leave us in suspense, what does it say?!”
“Oh my gosh!” Dash exclaimed, as she threw the letter onto the table. “Soarin is coming to Ponyville!”
Well... that was unexpected Thunderlane thought as he continued to look on.
“Say what now?” Cloud Chaser leaned over to read the letter. “He’s coming to help with cloud manufacturing?”
Dash stopped her giddiness for a moment and read the letter over a second time as she began to read out loud. “With the Cloudsdale Weather Factory undergoing repairs... yada, yada… Wonderbolts will be assigned to specific stations across Equestria to help with cloud manufacturing, in order to ensure there will not be any shortage of clouds for the coming winter… blah, blah, blah… For the Ponyville weather team we have assigned Soarin.”
“So, does that mean he’s coming here?” Blossomforth asked.
There was a knock at the door, Rainbow Dash and the others turning round to see a slightly nervous looking Soarin. “Hey, uh… are you guys the Ponyville weather team?”
“So… awesome!” Rainbow Dash whispered to herself before taking a cooler looking stance in front of the stallion. “Of course we are,” she said proudly. “What weather team wouldn’t accept the fastest pony in Equestria?”
Soarin sighed a little in relief and chuckled somewhat at Rainbow’s response. “Well, I’m assigned here… but I’m guessing you all knew that already,” he said noticing the room full of ponies who all nodded in response.
“So, are you gonna do some cloudbusting with me and Kicks?” Rainbow asked hopefully as Cloud Kicker came up to her side.
“Uh, well...” Soarin replied. “I’ve actually been assigned to work with whomever is the normal duty cloud manufacturer around here.”
Everything seemed to go quiet at that point as all eyes turned to Thunderlane, who seemed to be the only pony left with no excited expression left on his face. The dark stallion looked up to Soarin, the wonderbolt trying his best at a friendly smile.
Dash sighed a little dejectedly. “Come on, everypony, the weather ain’t gonna clean itself up!” she spoke, taking to the sky along with the others and leaving only Soarin and Thunder in the small room.
Soarin gulped a little at the awkwardness, trying his utmost to keep his smile. “So, uh… hey,” he began. “My name is Soarin if you didn’t catch it already.”
Thunderlane rolled his eyes at the statement, getting up off the chair. “Yeah, yeah,” he snapped. “I’ve heard your name, now let’s get moving.” He let out a small sigh as he trotted outside.
Soarin raised an eyebrow at the stallions mood before following after him. “Hey, you seem a little unhappy,” he said, catching up with the pegasus before he took off.
Thunderlane only gave him a glance before spreading his wings and taking to the sky. Soarin was a little shocked by the other stallions attitude, but quickly took off himself. His athleticism meant that it didn’t take him long to catch up to Thunderlane, and the two stallions took a few glances at one another in silence as they flew over to the outskirts of the town.
As they flew, Soarin took stock of his surroundings. He could see Ponyville down below, the few ponies in the streets appearing as nothing more than specks to his eyes. Over in the distance, he could see Rainbow Dash and the other members of the weather team performing their tasks for the day. And to his right… he could see a stallion with face like thunder.
By Celestia, Soarin thought. This guy looks like somepony just insulted his mother in the most horrific way imaginable. Well, if I’m to work with him, then I need to do something about making him feel better. The art of conversation usually works wonders for me at home, so I don’t see any reason why it would fail me now.
“So…” Soarin looked over at Thunderlane, silently hoping that he would change his darkened expression. “Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself then?” He asked.
Why do you even care? Thunderlane thought. You’re just another big shot celebrity who has the world on a silver platter, while schmucks like me have to work ourselves into an early grave just so we can get by? He snorted a little. “Why in Tartarus would you want to know about somepony you're just gonna forget in a few days time?” he asked quizzically.
The Wonderbolt was taken aback by this. “Well, I’m gonna be here for at least a month.” he began flying closer to the stallion, nudging him in the shoulder. “So I think that’s plenty of time for you and I to become best buds.” He grinned.
He’s a frosty one, I’ll give him that, Soarin mused. But I know that if I can show him that not everypony is against him, he’ll change his attitude and give me the time of day.
Thunderlane turned to look at the stallion as they landed on a cloud, sighing as he spoke up. “Fine, if you wanna know that badly, I’m just a normal guy who is trying to earn a normal wage in cloud manufacturing. That’s all there is to it — now, are you gonna help or not?” he asked, gesturing to the stockpile of clouds that rested on the one they were standing on. “We need some lightning clouds for next week's storm, so get to it.”
Soarin nodded and quickly got to work, taking the clouds from the stockpile and giving them a blast of lightning. The stallion was so caught up in his work that he didn’t notice that Thunderlane, standing behind him, hadn’t even started on his. It wasn’t until Soarin turned around to place the cloud in another spot that he noticed him looking down on the ponies below.
Soarin was a little confused. “Whatcha doing up there?” he asked.
The stallion was a little startled by the sudden question and jumped before turning a stern look towards him. “I was just looking,” he said simply.
Soarin was blank for a few moments before a sly grin crossed his face “Oh yeah? What were you ‘looking’ at?” he asked.
Thunderlane tried his best not to act too suspicious. “Just... stuff,” he grumbled.
“Oh really.” Soarin slowly trotted over to the other pegasus. “Looking at what, exactly?”
Thunderlane sighed and crossed his forelegs. “Just the mares.”
Soarin’s grin widened. "That's funny,” he replied. “I don't look like a mare."
Thunderlane immediately dropped to the cloud, his eyes darting around. “What?! No, I’m not like that... I mean—”
He was interrupted by Soarin falling to the ground, laughing uproariously, to which he glared at him while grinding his teeth together. He eventually stopped, standing back up and shaking his head playfully. “I’m only messing with you, dude,” Soarin said. “Relax.”
Thunderlane thought about just dismissing the stallion again, rolling his eyes or just snorting derisively — but instead, he found that a smile had crept its way onto his face and he took a more gentle look at the stallion in front of him. Soarin just tried to put on his best smile as the two exchanged glances.
“Well then, are we gonna be friends or what?” Soarin asked confidently, holding out a hoof.
Thunderlane shook his head before trotting over and taking the stallions hoof in his, shaking it briskly. “I guess so,” he replied with some hesitation. “I don’t see any harm in it.”
“Brilliant,” Soarin’ said eagerly. “Now how about we get these clouds finished, and then you can show me around Ponyville? I hope you know a good bar…”
Thunderlane nodded happily, and the two of them got to work. In Thunders mind he began to think that in the end it might be fun to have a friend at work - not that he didn’t have many friends in general - but deep down he knew that it would only be temporary.
Might as well make the most of it, then, he thought. And then I can get back to living my usual dull life. After all, how many ponies can say they hung out with a Wonderbolt?
With this thought in mind he carried on working — oblivious to the almost sympathetic look Soarin was giving him.
