Smoke Break

Well... that was certainly good business sense. Immoral, probably, but good. She considered the salespony apprehensively, while her hooves ripped off the shiny wrapper. He seemed to enjoy brisk business right outside the CWB. Now, all she could do was wait, and the appearance of somewhat overpriced but still eminently affordable smokes have had to be intentional - there were at least three other pegasi doing the same thing as she did. Central Weather Bureau usually conducted their business briskly, but even then, it took a better part of an hour for them to process an application and suggest suitable vacancy.

Rainbow Dash glared at the neat tubes of paper. She promised herself to kick the habit. Really, she did. Well... almost did. Its just... every time she was starting to feel good about the decision to quit, something happened that just asked for a drop of nicotine to kill the horse out of her. Last time she slipped was when Fluttershy didnt come back. Course, she wrote back, but... jeez. Settling in an earth pony town?

She tapped the shiny box irritably, biting the end of one cigarette as they bumped out, and pulled it out. If Fluttershy was there, shed quietly but politely ask if maybe Dash wants to spit the disgusting thing out, and then try to stand upwind. If Gilda wes there, shed bum a smoke off Dash a moment shed see her getting one. Alas, neither was around. Truth to tell, she wasnt sure Gilda would be back at all. Some brouhaha happened back at Whateverstan she came from, and off she goes. Bloody loyal of her, given it wasnt even a certainty there was a home to come back to. Oh well. If there isnt, she`d be back. No?

Dash frowned. Her hoof was trembling a little as she scraped the tip against the little wheel, rough metal scraping sparks out of flint right on the oil-soaked wick. Her nose scrunched from the heat as she stuck the tip in and inhaled deeply. Oh, damn it all to Tartarus, she NEEDED that smoke. Acrid smoke wafted out of her nostrils, replacing the worry with heat and bitterness. Logically, she shouldn`t be worried. Rainbow Dash was an awesome flyer, no? Snagging a decent job ought to be piece of cake. Right? Right?

Flicking lighter closed, she took another drag quickly, left eye pinching as a bit of smoke wafted in it. Bugger it all. She cursed quietly, turning upwind a little more, winking the errant tear out of her eye before someone drew wrong and embarrassing conclusions. The only thing worse then being pitied was being pitied for something that didn`t happen to her. Oh, for crying out loud, what took them so long? Surely there was some town in need of weatherpony. Weather job was always in demand. Especially, good fliers for the weather job. So what was wrong?

She snorted, letting out two jets of smoke and wiggled her hoof in irritation, shaking the ash off. It fell on the cloud and promptly disappeared, soaking into the water. Lye rain, heh. A problem with pegasi cities, if there ever was one. Heating makes ash. Ash plus water makes lye. Lye rain makes crops go bye-bye. SO did she just wreck someponys crops?... Nah. Cloudsdale lemoned the foundation cloud routinely. She should know, shes been picking extra bits doing that. A sour work, but eh... it was there, at least.

"...Miss Dash? Miss Rainbow Dash?!" Huh. Someones... out... Oh, snap! She flicked the stump away like it was poisonous, and turned to face the clerk with a fake goofy grin that just screamed "ohcelestiapleasepretendyoudidntseemesuckingsmokejustnow". Clerk replied with his own facial rictus, clearly sending along - "isawwhatyoudidandi`msilentlyjudgingyou". Time to face the music. She followed the clerk with more bravado then confidence. Still, it meant they did find her something, if she was asked to go in, no?