Down Home

by Autumn_07

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 1060

Short story based on a day in the life of my OC pony, Autumn Breeze.

Autumn Breeze is a simple pony, with an ordinary life… Living in Ponyville can be dreary, and his work; tedious. Growing more restless each and every day, he begins to contemplate his future prospects elsewhere in Equestria…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-09-19 03:00:02 UTC

New Day

A young Pegasus stirred, as the sun’s first light crept over the rolling green hills. Birds began to chirp lively from their nests, and squirrels scampered down from their treetop homes. Equestria’s snow capped mountains stood proudly beyond the deep country valleys, and concealed forests hid behind the veil of early morning mist. Sparkling rivers ran by, flowing away from many lakes; meandering on for miles...

This rich, beautiful land surrounded the pastoral village of Ponyville. Established around half a century ago, this modest community consisted of ponies of all races and backgrounds. Some residents were Unicorns, adept in magic; arriving from all corners of Equestria. Others were Pagasi, born for flight; gliding down from their native home of Cloudsdale. There were also Earth ponies, was it not for them, Ponyville would not exist...

Towards the North-east of Ponyville, there was a small house, with a simple infrastructure. It was a little run down, but was good enough for its occupant; who was currently shoving his face into his pillow. As glistening beams of light flooded into the compact, untidy room, the dozy lump cursed.

“Pony feathers! Raise it later sun butt...” the disgruntled Pegasus groaned, as he pulled off the covers and sat upright.

The stallion was generally well built, and had dark rugged fur. Both his mane and tail were a two toned mix of inky black and crimson red. His eyes were strongly hooded and deep blue in colour, while his eyebrows were fairly simple and straight. These features formed an all around stern, no nonsense expression. Though strangely, he seemed a little beaten; even at the best of times.

Turning his attention downwards, he focused on the elusive symbol; overshadowed by the tip of his wing. The mark displayed on his flank resembled a rain cloud. Although, he’d never understood what it meant, as he was no better at activating rain clouds than the last Pegasus. Perhaps it was a metaphor? 'Am I just skilled at being low-key? What sort of destiny is that?'

Now fully awake, the stallion stretched himself out, flexed his wings, and in an attempt to clear his vision, ran a hoof through his mane. He then got up and entered the bathroom. Glancing at himself in the mirror, he noticed his scruffy facial hair, was forming an extended goatee shape around his muzzle. ‘Eh, looks alright’ he thought, stepping into the shower and turning the hot water on.

While he washed his tail, he tried to psyche himself up for a day at work. It wasn’t that he was lazy (most of the time); he just wasn’t fond of his job. Moving clouds around all day, often took its toll on the young stallion’s patience. He got along with his colleagues just fine, but found the team captain; Rainbow Dash, to be too brash and cocky for his liking. However, he needed the money, and didn’t want to sit around all day feeling useless.  Deciding he had nothing better to do, than help separate the 'Cumulus' clouds from the 'Stratocumulus' clouds, he dried himself off and began packing his stuff.

Trotting towards the door, he gave an an exasperated huff. As left his humble abode and closed the door, he wondered if he would behold a certain benign mare down the line...

“Just another day...”

Rumination

Before joining up with his co-workers, he made his way to town hall, to sign in. He worked with Ponyville’s weather team, which mostly involved relocating and clearing clouds from the regional airspace. On arrival to Ponyville, the stallion struggled to find a job that appealed to him; even more so, one that paid well. Ideally, he wanted to play Guitar for a living; or perhaps be a writer.

The problem was, his flank insignia said otherwise!

Besides, it was difficult to come up with original pieces in the creative industry. He simply wasn’t rousing enough with his... um... ‘borrowed’ Guitar, and he constantly hit writer’s block; lacking that inspirational flare. Having no one to give their opinion of his work didn’t help either. With those facts in mind, he decided to keep his creative side to himself; in order to keep finding salvation in his practices. This left fewer options, but things also became clearer to him. He then concluded that 'a simple, active job should fit the ticket.'

Considering himself to be fairly well built; and physically able, he knew he could handle anything from apple bucking; at the local apple orchard, to stacking hay bales, wherever they were needed. Because he was a Pegasus, he felt he would be most useful as a weather pony. Feeling fairly confident, he went ahead with his decision to sign up for the vacancy in Ponyville's weather patrol.

Trotting at a slow pace, he witnessed a young couple, sitting at a table; nuzzling each other. A pang of jealousy flared up inside him, as it sometimes did upon seeing a couple of his age. Despite his solitary lifestyle, he found himself desiring that close bond. But he’d never been infatuated with likes of any pony, except perhaps one soft-spoken mare in particular.

The self-immersed stallion was so lost in his cogitation; he almost missed the door to town hall. Before he entered the building, he cleared his head of intensive thoughts, and reiterated his schedule for the day: ‘Sign in, work, pick up book, Park, and Home.’ With a clear structure of the day memorized, he felt confident to move on.

Ounce inside Town hall, he ambled towards the check in area, where a middle aged unicorn mare; with thick-rimmed spectacles, was organizing an assortment of papers. Unsure if it was rude to distract her, he cleared his throat and proceeding with:

“Hey there, I’m here to sign in for work."

The secretary discontinued the levitation of a plethora, the mayor had her archive. After asking his initials, she retrieved a brown folder; which contained a series of official documents.

”Hmm-hmm... Autumn Breeze, weather team?” “That’s correct.” He replied, confirming the details with surety.

“Alright, if you could just sign here...”

Autumn endorsed the sign in sheet, by scrawling his half-baked signature.

After the secretary had taken in the sigh in sheet, Autumn was free to go.

Primed and ready, Autumn headed off to the assemblage at the edge of the Everfree forest...