The afternoon sun shone down on the city of Cloudsdale, vainly trying to heat the thin air. As the name suggests, the great pegasus capital is made up entirely of cloud, formed into buildings and pillars that floated miles above the ground, but never blew away with the wind. Like any other day, pegasi of all colors flew between the many buildings, making weather and greetings friends, some of them having lived in the clouds their entire life. One pegasus in particular flew above the buildings as if his tail had caught fire.
High enough above the city to ensure not hitting anything, Caddo Lightwing flew at his top speed dodging between wild clouds. His fur made it hard to spot him against the sky, being a bluish gray, but the light gray streak his mane and tail left in the sky as he flew marked him to anypony that was watching. He wasn't trying to impress anyone with the spins and tight turns he was pulling, he was trying to build up the courage to stop in one of the higher buildings in the city. Caddo had grown up in a small backwater town barely within the boundaries of Equestria, having a small town education that only touched weather training in that "gray clouds mean rain" and with a local weatherpony that seemed to think that teaching younger pegasi to work weather might hurt his chances of getting on a bigger weather team. However, if his passing the provisional weather exam in Cloudsdale didn't mean he knew what he was about in the air, then the three gray clouds on his flank should mean something. His cutie mark literally represented storm handling. There was no way he would be turned down for a weather team of SOME kind. At least, that's what he kept telling himself as he tore through the sky feeling more and more panicked. His next turn, taken at top speed and made as tight as possible, faced him west. Seeing the sun going down was enough to finally force the pegasus to land in front of the weather office. After all, the ponies that assigned weather teams probably went home in the evening, there wasn't much time left today. And if Caddo didn't go in today it was likely he would never be able to make himself. Taking a deep breath, he walked towards the door.
The building was rather small, just big enough for a large desk buried in paperwork. The cloud walls had holes cut into them for storage, though there was no markings that should have singled out what each one held. Behind the huge pile of paper on the desk was a tan mare with a curly orange mane stubbornly trying to get the mess sorted. Caddo strode up to the desk, trying his best to appear confident. The mask might have worked if not for his voice. "Um... excuse me? Miss?"
"Whatever it is, make it quick." The mare said without hesitation. The colt visibly jumped, she had never even looked up to see him enter and he was the one startled.
"U-um... I was wonde-" He croaked, then swallowed and started over. "I was wondering if there were any weather team positions available." Now Caddo was sweating, and not just for the effort it took to make himself sound collected. As if his image wasn't already spoiled by his entry.
She looked up for a moment, a bare glimpse, and then continued shuffling pages about. "None."
"W-wait... none, in Equestria? At all?"
Sighing, the mare looked him in the eye, "No, none at'all. Weather team positions are first come first serve, and all the new ponies fresh outta the academy have snatched them all up. Try again next week, or find something else to do." Shooing him away, she buried herself back into the paperwork looking to ignore anything else the colt said.
Dazed, Caddo turned and walked towards the door. Something else? Weather is all I have... I suppose I can wait, if I can find some other way to make money in the meantime... Not really looking where he was going, he was nearly trampled by a gray mare with a blond mane burdened with several bags. "Mail call!" She chirped, dropping several letters on the cluttered desk. Before the clerk could even complain she was flying back out, nearly taking part of the door frame along in her haste. Shaking her head, the clerk started reading into the first letter as Caddo righted himself and made it through the door. Her voice followed him out, "Hold on a sec, hun. Looks like we just got an emergency weatherpony request in..."
The colt was back in front of the desk almost before she finished speaking, "I'll take it!"
Nearly a hundred miles south of Cloudsdale, Caddo awoke with the morning sun. It had been hours of paperwork before the clerk could officially send him off, checking town information and examining his provisional weather diploma, and he had only a few hours flight before it was too dark to see. Having parked himself on a lone cloud, he spent the rest of the night mulling over facts in his head before sleep finally took him. Being a slow pony to wake, Caddo took the chance to pull some of the paperwork back out; aside from being an available job for new weather ponies, the rest of it all seemed bad. A small town hundreds of miles south of Canterlot, with a community that had been there decades before becoming an official town a year ago. In that year, every pegasus that lived there had moved out. The official request had not mentioned why the entire population of pegasi had up and left over the course of the year, but the clerk and the examiners had heard rumors. Nothing bad about the town in itself, but about the region it was in. Bordering the large farm that the town was founded next to was said to be a vast expanse of swamp, where anypony that entered was lost forever. This wouldn't bother pegasi that stayed out, of course, but there was also the region's dense humidity and high natural heat, something that the regularly scheduled showers only held off for the hour or two they were there. And this in a town with no entertainment or signs of growth. All in all it was a job that only a desperate pony would take, but then Caddo was desperate. Having no real talent in anything but flying or working weather left him out of options. And if there's nothing for it, might as well get on with it. Stuffing the papers back into his saddlebags, Caddo gave the cloud he was lounging on a good kick that vaporized it. Diving down to treetop height, he leveled off and flew straight south, working hard to maintain the speed he had gained from the fall. Wind whistling in his ears, he couldn't help but laugh. Difficult, boring job or not, I still have my tricks to keep me entertained. Wooping and laughing like a madpony, he sped south at a pace that had left every pegasi in little old Manesfield in the dust.
By the time Caddo reached the town of Ternion he was panting, seemingly exhausted. He had slowed his pace to keep from tiring out hours ago, but a half hour before his hooves touched the gravel in the town square he had hit what seemed like a solid wall of humidity. The smallest movement made him sweat like he was flying through an oven, and after what seemed like hours going through it, it took all of his will not to collapse when he landed. It's like I'm melting! How does anypony put up with this for an hour, much less LIVE in it? Looking past the empty fruit stands at the few buildings near the square, he singled out a two story, square building with a new Town Hall sign and walked toward it. Gah! Even walking is tedious... This heat is crazy, it's no wonder there's nopony outside. It took him a moment to realize that there was actually somepony on the steps, he shook himself to rid his eyes of sweat. The light green mare had a worried look in her purple eyes.
"Oh my! You loo..." She suddenly shook her head, blue mane nearly coming loose from her hairband in the process, obviously taking back what she was about to say, "You're early!"
"I... I..." He gasped. The colt had a knack for recovering from workouts in a hurry, but this humidity was much worse than the paperwork made it sound. Still, he took a deep breath and tried to make himself stand up straight. "I was in the office when the letter arrived. The weatherpony request... Cloudsdale sent me right away." At least he managed not to wilt under the oppressive heat until she turned away to lead him inside.
The inside of town hall was filled with desks for a dozen clerks at least, but there was only one in there working besides his guide. Another mare was peering intently at paperwork on what almost seemed like a stage. The only thing on it was her desk and chair, but perhaps it was used it to give speeches or some such. Caddo had no head for politics. The pony that met him on the steps led him to a desk near the stage, which was the only other one with papers at it, and lay Caddo's papers in a clear space. She poured a glass of water from a pitcher and pushed it at him before stopping to read over what he had brought.
"Hmm... Caddo Lightwing? Nice to meet you, I'm Terra, the assistant mayor." She said, smiling. Caddo returned pleasantries, but he wasn't really sure what he said. He was eying the rest of the pitcher. He didn't actually remember finishing the glass of water, but it was empty now. She continued reading down the sheet, "Hmmm... Manesfield... weather talents... yadda yadda yadda... Um, provisional?" Seeing that word on the sheet, her face suddenly became unreadable as Terra looked up at him. If he wasn't already sweating from humidity, that look would have made him anyway. It was like she was weighing and measuring every strength and weakness he might have. Caddo couldn't see what she might think of him on her poker face, but he had a fair guess. She doesn't think I'll last a week. Ugh, I'm not sure she's wrong. Caddo tried grinning, but as nervious as he was it probably didn't help his image. Without stopping the blank look she was giving, she suddenly raised her voice.
"Floret, it seems our weatherpony is here."
The pony on the stage suddenly looked up from her own pile of papers. "Already? I expected another three days at least." The mayor of Ternion was a dark orange mare with a blond mane, wearing what looked like a cowboy hat that was all white with a red band. Pulling herself away from the work in front of her, she hopped off of the stage and gave Caddo a look similar to the one Terra was still giving. It was only seconds before she nodded, turning that nod into a tip of her hat, "Floret Sapin, mayor elect of Ternion. Nice to meet you..." She paused to lean over Terra's shoulder and scan the paperwork, "Caddo. I wish I could say we were ready to receive you, but I expected more time before any pegasi turned up. Well, I should be able to give you some kind of weather schedule to work with by tomorrow. Until then, I need a rainstorm ready before dark." She spoke as a mare that was used to being listened to, even though by the numbers she had only been mayor for a year. Caddo barely had a chance to open his mouth before she continued, "It doesn't matter how big the storm is right now, son. We've been without rain of any kind for over a week." That was quite a surprise to the colt. Having grown up in a farming community, he knew how important the rain schedule was to keeping the crops alive. How long did they wait to send in a request? He shut his mouth to stop from gaping, but she had already turned to her assistant, "Right. Terra, get a hold of Ria and have her spread word to the farms that rain will be hitting tonight. They'll need time to pull everypony and their gear indoors. Then get yourself down to the Harvest Inn and get Tress to lease out a room for our new weatherpony until something more permanent can be arranged. Once you're done there, find young Caddo here and set him to rainmaking."
The assistant nodded quickly and dashed out of the building. The mayor was already behind her desk again by the time Caddo managed to stand. Everything was decided just like that? She said they weren't ready for me, but gave orders like she'd had them ready a week in advance. And they apparently waited that long before deciding to tell anyone that they didn't have a weather pony. "Um..."
Looking back up, the mayor waved a hoof at the door, "There's no need for you to wait here for Terra to get back, she can find you in town. And get yourself something to drink, this heat can wear you down if you're not used to it."
He managed a "Yes ma'am" before heading back outside, silently swearing to himself that he would get a full sentence in on her next time.
The heat outside the town hall was the same as it was when Caddo left it, but the drink from inside somehow made it seem less. That's the first good sign all day... It's only been a half hour here, and already my first weather job is setting up to be a spectacular failure. Sighing, he took to the air long enough to land on the two story building, getting a better look at the town he had been assigned to. There wasn't much to really see. Aside from the town hall he was standing on, there was a dark library with no windows, what must be a hospital but with no sign except a large red cross, and a four story inn with a large pink sign. Those, plus five or six assorted houses, made up the entire town. The rest of the townsfolk must live directly on the farms, then. To the north he could see part of the orange orchard, which would be the largest farm in town, and to the west there was a few apple trees and tilled fields that marked the smaller farms. Nothing else in sight seemed interesting except for some dark trees on the eastern horizon, and he would bet every bit he had that it was the swamp mentioned in the paperwork. From his perch he could see the entire town, but the few ponies moving about seemed to have already heard the news and were hurrying home. There was no sign of the pony rushing about giving the warning. What was her name? Shoot, I've forgotten. I've got to get better at remembering names. He certainly wouldn't forget Floret's name, the way she saw questions he hadn't asked yet and answered them while giving orders in the same breath. He didn't think she could actually talk without turning the sentence into some kind of command. A sudden image of the mayor with a boyfriend nearly had him giggling like a filly. She'd tell the poor guy the exact amount of seconds he was late for the date, and probably pick out HIS food for him too. While making smalltalk FOR him. While his mind was wandering off the rails in this manner, he suddenly realized somepony down below was talking to him. It's her, what's-her-name... Oh!
"Terra."
"Very good, you managed to remember my name since I told you ten minutes ago." She said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, the farmers and everypony in town are pulling everything indoors, you're free to start doing... whatever it is you do to make it rain."
Caddo smiled, nodding. Now was the fun part. She seemed to want to say more, but the pegasus flew straight up before she could delay him any more. Just a little rainstorm, not even a real storm. No sweat... except for the sweating. Ugh, I hope it actually cools down during the rain. Spinning up into the air, he quickly had all of the stray clouds in the area in sight and began moving them towards the center of the town. The clouds seemed odd, they would resist moving at first and then keep moving well after he let them go. Still, there was plenty of them around. Something isn't right here. But... I can't stop now, rain is already on the schedule. Kinda. Having to manually stop the clouds by flying in front of them slowed his progress considerably, but by the time all the loose clouds were gathered in one place it covered most of the town. With still at least an hour until full dark, too. Ha! Take that miss I-won't-last-a-week! Well... she didn't actually say that did she? Maybe it was just my nerves. Under normal circumstances, they would start raining on their own after a minute or two. For some reason, however, they decided to start growing instead. Half panicked, Caddo's jaw dropped as he tried to take it all in. Nononononono, what's happening?! Clouds don't grow on their own like this! ... But these are. Where is it comin- Oh turnipstalks, it's the humidity! Swearing to himself half aloud, he started moving. If he didn't do something quick, this rapidly forming thunderstorm was going to be far to big to control on his own and might very well start dropping hail on the town. Flying in at top speed, he sliced large chunks of cloud away and shoved them hard away from Ternion. Once he finally had the storm back down to roughly the size of the town again, it seemed to stop growing. Panting and sweating, the pegasus then sped off to catch some of the still moving storm chunks. He couldn't bring them too close to the city without risking them reforming into a full blown thunderstorm, but he couldn't leave them drifting through Equestria either. Catching the first chunk that was still moving north, he stopped himself just before starting to clear it away. After all, the farms would need rain too. Maybe I can get the thing over a farm without it sinking into the town storm...
A half hour later saw the rain begin just as sunlight was failing, the town and the two major farms in the area with their own storm clouds and another covering the smaller farms. Caddo stood in the dirt road in front of the inn letting the downpour wash away the sweat that the day had brought, the cold rain a welcome change from before. The relief was lost on him. If my own talent hadn't been storm handling, that storm might have grown big enough to wash away the entire town. I almost ruined everything... my career in weather right along with the town and everypony here. Shivering more for the thought than the cold, he looked up at the light pouring from the inn windows. Was that a pony watching him he had just seen? It looked like Terra, and she didn't look happy. He needed to go inside and get dry, to sleep, but his hooves were leaden. His wings felt like he had spent the day lifting mountains. He may have been crying too, but with the constant rain it was hard to actually tell. Caddo might have remained there rooted all night, but he was suddenly pushed towards the door from behind. He let out a yelp and nearly fell face first in the mud before a laugh sounded behind him.
"You can't sleep out here, silly, you have to go IN the inn!" The red filly who had sneaked up behind him was no older than he was, and had her brown mane curling over her head. Of course, it was now plastered down with rain, but she didn't seem at all perturbed. In fact, she continued nudging Caddo towards the door before he could reply. "Just because you make rain doesn't mean you can stand out in it all night!" Being shoved bodily through the door and nearly landing on an inn table drew him out of his haze.
"Gyah, I was just enjoying the cold, no need to go throwing me around."
She shook dry almost like a dog, her mane somehow resettling as if it had been carefully combed out, and winked at him, "You don't have to be scared of Tress, he's not a monster. He just sounds like one!"
Scared? What's a Tress? I didn't say... A large stallion was suddenly in front of him, "I see you've met our Ria! I'm Tress, the innkeeper." The off white earth pony had a voice like thunder, and the image was not improved by his red mo-hawk mane.
Suddenly Caddo's head was splitting, and it took him a minute to realize why. He had tried to fly through the roof when that pony spoke up. His reply was given through gritted teeth while trying to make sure his skull was still in one piece, "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure." The giggles and thunderous laugh that met him assured him that he definitely looked foolish.
"Oh WOW! I've never seen anypony scare that badly, even meeting Tress for the first time! Bweeheehee!"
"Haahahahaw! That's quite a mark you left on my ceiling, young 'un. Can't wait to see your face on Nightmare Night!"
Half convinced that the entire day was some sort of elaborate prank on him, he couldn't really take offense to something like this. Recovering any sort of collected appearance after that was probably impossible though, so Caddo decided to pretend it didn't happen instead. "I'm Caddo Lightwing, the new weatherpony."
Barely suppressing laughter, Tress managed to give his name again. The filly who had ambushed him outside finally controlled her giggles, but her blue eyes still shone with it, "I'm Ria Sapin, the senior Social Event Organizer!"
The bemused face he made at that had her in giggles all over again, so Tress explained, "Basically, if there's a party or a concert or anything, she runs it. It's not an official position really, but she's been taking it really seriously since Floret came up with that title..."
Floret. She'll probably be wanting a new weatherpony after tonight's mess. "Interesting, I'm sure... but if you don't mind I think I'd like to sleep for a while." Caddo's eyes seemed to try and drift shut now that he had voiced his exhaustion.
For such a big pony, Tress has behind the front desk and back with a key before Caddo realized he had actually left. He tossed it to the pegasus, "Top floor, last door on the right! Try not to go flying through the window, the hinges haven't been oiled yet this year and you'll wake everypony in town."
For a moment they frowned at each other, then Caddo realized it was supposed to be a joke of some kind. At the very least, he winked at Ria while he said it, but nopony laughed. Convinced that he was making a horrible first impression but too tired to care, he gave a half bow to the two of them, "In that case, I'll see you in the morning... G'night." The looks they gave each other as he turned towards the stairs only confirmed that he was missing something important.
The room itself was bigger than most in any inn Caddo had been in, and bigger than most of the others in that very inn. He supposed it was supposed to be a semi-permanent affair or something. Tossing his soaked saddlebags that he probably shouldn't have worn weatherworking into a corner, he took a last look at the town through the window. Odd... the window won't open at all. The latch is fine, but the hinges must be rusted tight. Just before he turned away to bed, he saw somepony down in the road looking at the inn. Odder still, why would somepony get soaked in the rain just to look at an inn that's been here as long as the town? No, not at the inn... at this window. Oh forget this, I'm going to sleep. Things will make sense in the morning. In spite of exhaustion, it was some time before sleep overtook Caddo.
