A letter from Deputy Commissioner Nick Nimbus, Director of the Equestrian Weather Service - Rectifications Department, to Gusty Wind, Captain of the Ponyville Branch of the EqWS.
Dear Captain,
I am sorry to hear about your... staffing issues. However, I hardly feel that the vacation of a single weatherpony should cause a disruption to normal weather patterns as significant as we have seen in Ponyville in the past few weeks.
Due to the apparent incompetence of your current team, Ponyville is currently suffering a drought, and my department has been ordered to intervene. This comes straight from the top. As such, I am ordering one of my best agents to assume control of your district, and supervise a storm to help the area recover. Be advised, because of the amount of water that needs to fall in order to make up for lost time, this storm may reach up to Category 5.
I extend my sympathies to you and your team, for this will not be an easy job. However, hopefully after the water tables have been balanced out and this absent employee, this Rainbow Dash, has returned, you can resume normal operations, and we will never need to hear from each other again.
Yours,
Deputy Commissioner Nick Nimbus
Gusty Wind finished reading the letter, crumpled it up in a huff, and threw it over his shoulder. Rising from his desk, he stretched his pale green wings and contemplated the implications of the letter. An intervention by a Rectifications Agent was serious business. He had never met one before, they were something of a legend amongst Weatherponies. There were very few of them, mostly because maintaining the weather was typically a straightforward job. Rain when the land needs it, sun when it doesn’t. Snow in the winter, warm breezes in the summer.
He didn’t blame Rainbow Dash for any of this. She had earned that vacation time. Even if she was a tardy one sometimes, she did her job better than anyone else at the Ponyville branch.
He just hadn’t realised how much so.
After just a week and a half of her absence, the remaining ponies hadn’t been able to keep up with the amount of water that needed pouring. It was an intensely hot summer, which only made matters worse.
Well, at this point, there wasn’t much he could do. Wait for this agent to show up and do his job. Then, like the Deputy had said, hopefully when Dash got back everything would go back to normal.
He looked out the window of his office, floating over the edge of Ponyville. He could see the town laid out before him.
Category 5... Boy, I hope these ponies are ready.
“It’s sooooo hot...” complained Apple Bloom as she sold another apple to a passerby.
“Ya think Ah don’t know that, sugarcube?” replied Applejack, who was sweating visibly.
The two were working at the market, selling their crop. All throughout the marketplace, ponies were sweating from the heat.
“Well... Luckily we’ll be done this quickly!” Apple Bloom chirped as she sold one of the few remaining apples in their cart.
“Ah wouldn’t know if that’s exactly what you call lucky, lil’ sis. Our crop’s been getting smaller on account of the lack of rain! Without water, the apples can’t ripen! Darn those weatherponies, ain’t they got a job to be doing?”
“Yeah... Scootaloo told me that Rainbow Dash is on vacation, and that’s why there hasn’t been any rain lately.”
“Ya ask me, they ought to be pourin’ buckets on us, when the heat is like this!” Applejack leant against the cart for a moment, panting from heat exhaustion.
“You know, you should be careful what you wish for.”
“Beggin your pardon?” asked Applejack, turning to see who had made the remark.
Before her stood a tall, female pegasus. Her coat was a straight cobalt, her mane was made of several wide stripes of stark white and pitch black. It was drawn back around her ear, wild and spiky in a vaguely familiar way.
“Well, couldn’t help but hear you saying that you’d like it to be raining, and hard. Well, that might just be what you’re in for. If there hasn’t been any rain for a while, that just means that when it does rain, it’ll come down hard.”
Applejack couldn’t place it, but there was something about this pony that just got her riled up. Maybe it was the cocky look in her rose-coloured eyes, the knowing tone of voice, the confident, almost aggressive stance she was in... Everything about her screamed confidence.
“Yeah? Well, what would you know about it?”
“Oh, I know a little about weather.” It was obvious to Applejack that she really meant that she knew a whole lot.
“Now, are you gonna sell me an apple, or what?” the pegasus asked cheerfully, becoming suddenly amiable. This threw Applejack off guard momentarily, but she wouldn’t turn down good business.
Still wary, Applejack accepted some money from the pegasus and let her pick out an apple. As the pegasus turned and walked away, Applejack saw her cutie mark - a silver-white gust of wind.
“Man, what do you suppose that was all about?” asked a perturbed Apple Bloom from behind the cart.
“I have no idea. But it gave me the heebie-jeebies, that’s for sure.”
Gusty Wind heard a ‘poof’ noise, the sound of someone landing on a cloud. He looked up from his paperwork to see a gorgeous blue pegasus mare walking into the office.
“Can I help you?” he asked with his usual composition, despite his surprise. Not many ponies had reason to visit the weather office.
“Actually, I think it’s me who’s gonna be helping you.”
Aw man. Really? She’s the agent?
“Well then. You’re the one from Rectifications, I’ll assume.” He looked her up and down, not making any judgements quite yet. “Got a name?”
“Call me Tempesta,” she declared in a voice that was altogether too proud for Gusty’s liking.
“Uh huh,” he replied, “Well, I guess we’ll all be taking orders from you for a while.”
“You guess? Don’t sound too thrilled about it, champ.”
“Well forgive me if a major storm in a small town that shouldn’t need it isn’t my idea of a good time.”
“I don’t expect you to understand the beauty of a howling gale, the majestic power of wind and water as it flows over pegasus wings, capturing the imagination, beguiling the senses... I digress - I don’t expect you to understand, I only expect you to do your job. You can let me have all the fun if you really want to.”
“Hmmf. Well the aura of mystique and poetry might ensnare the minds of some other ponies, but I’m not really buying it. How’s about we just do our jobs, then we never have to see each other again?”
At this, Tempesta flared her wings, a dangerous glint appearing in her eye for the fleetest of moments.
“If you say so.”
“Great,” Gusty said cooly, “So. Orders?”
“None at the moment. The citizens of this town need to be warned first. It’s late to be starting today, so tell everyone they need to have their homes battened down and their hats held onto by tomorrow afternoon. I’ll leave that to you and the town’s administration.”
“And what might you be doing while we’re so gallantly spreading word?”
“Well, seeing what this town has to offer for nightlife, of course! Just because a girl takes her job seriously doesn’t mean she can’t have fun!”
Tempesta gave the Captain a wink with voluptuous ease, then turned, spread her wings, and leaped through the ceiling.
A weathercolt named Blitz walked in from another section of the building as she left.
“‘hoo was that, Cap’n?” he asked in a brogue.
“Our ‘assistance’ from Cloudsdale.”
“Oi. Well, that’s mighty interestin. She seemed a li’l familia’ to me. You get that?”
“Yeah, a little bit. I couldn’t place it though. Anyways, we’ve got work to do...”
