Flight of Crows [Open; Paging: Cloud Twister]

[licorice]

Things were churning along smoothly at the Weather Factory, for a change. Clouds were being puffed at a steady rate, their damp fleecy forms being carefully grown and herded by various pegasi. Occasionally, two would collide and merge into a bigger lump of cottony vapor. The weatherponies were attentive, though, and these larger clouds where quickly split apart again.

Nearby, Microburst stretched his wings. The hard-hat on his head greatly reduced his upward vision, so he couldn't see the faces of the taller ponies, and his uniform, covered with a safety vest, seemed to be particularly itchy today for some reason. Must be the summer humidity - ah, the woes of living on a cloud. All of these little annoyances had combined to make the ill-tempered pegasus particularly cranky. He braced his short forelegs apart and stretched his neck up as he supervised the cloud production. Not that it was his job to supervise them today.

No, today he had been assigned "ground maintenance" - and to add insult to injury, he had been assigned to work with some of the laziest ponies he'd ever met.

Sure, some of them did their jobs, and a couple did them well and with enthusiasm - not something to ignore when the job is something as menial as "go fix up the Cloudville cloud." Most of the pegasi, however, didn't look like they could be bothered. Microburst really couldn't blame them to be honest. It was a boring job.

Micro had just been a little - ah - distracted by the more interesting job. As he turned back to his duties, his frown deepened, and he snapped his wings out and rose onto his hind legs - a stunt that put him at about eye level with most other ponies. The entire crew was sitting in a loose circle and just - chatting! Like he wasn't even there. "Stop chittering and get back to work! You're pegasi, not gryphons!" His voice was a near-growl.

Never mind that there was probably a reason that work had stopped completely instead of just slowing.

[Deleted]

Work, work, work. Was that all these ponies ever did? Further more, why the heck did they expect him to feel the same? He was a pegasus for goodness' sake. A Flying creature that embodied freedom itself! So why couldn't he be free to take a nap in the middle of a shift? It wasn't like this mattered anyways. If he didn't clean the ground one of the earth ponies would soon enough. A better question was why a pegasus even had this job. He certainly hadn't made this mess, he was barely ever down here and he had been extra careful with his storms after an accident at apple acres.

He briefly wondered if anyone had heard of that. He didn't need any critics stressing the importance of 'proper wing strokes', 'correct kicking technique' or 'how to spot dangerous clouds.' He was great at his job whenever he wanted to be. His enthusiasm just hadn't lined up with that particular storm.

So, in spite of anyone who disagreed with his actions he was sleeping on a really low cloud which he had stolen off the main steam of clouds had drifted down from above. Safely out of the view of most ponies, mostly. He was unaware that his red rail was dangling off of the cloud. His slacking attitude wasn't well received by everyone, a few of which came over to tell him off, he literally slept it off, ignoring them and drifting to dreamland. Until a sudden yelling picked up and they quickly dispersed.

However one wasn't satisfied with simply letting Mr. Grumpy pants rip twister's ear drums apart. No, he flew back and kicked the cloud Twister was on straight into thin air. Cloud Twister, who had been drifting to sleep yet again while praying Micro didn't notice him, was suddenly left without any support. He quickly plummeted to the ground below, before opening his wings just in time to slow his fall and send him forward a bit. Causing him to tumble and roll to a stop.

As he got up he shook loose leaves and grass from his coat before looking around "Hey! That really hurt you know!" he yelled at the, now laughing, group of weather ponies. He then turned around and noticeably jumped at seeing Microburst "Hey there buddy, I was just taking a short break up there, tired wings from some fun yesterday. he said, of course his wings didn't look much more tired than usual. But that was probably because he practically dragged them everywhere. Even at this moment his wing tips were brushing the ground. "Well, break over I'm just going to go...what was it we were assigned to do again." he said, realizing he hadn't been listening at all when they were sent here.

[licorice]

Micro snorted and frowned. He made a mental note to thank the pony that had woken up Twister before dropping back down onto all fours, his hooves sinking slightly into the cloud. His gaze snapped to Twister as he began to speak. "Fun?" Microburst questioned, one eyebrow raised. "You work at one of the most important places in Equestria, and your wings are tired because of fun?" He snorted disdainfully.

Cloud Twister had always irked Micro in some manner. As much as he hated to admit it, they were matched nearly perfectly in their skills - both excelled at windstorms and flight. But Twister's lazy, laid-back attitude never failed to get on Micro's nerves. The lack of work ethic, the sheer sloppiness of his work when he wasn't engaged. Micro's scowl deepened.

"You bet your break's over," He huffed. Apparently the kick had knocked Twister's brain around, anyways. "Maintenance. Someone noticed that the ground was thinning here and we're supposed to fix it - but it appears that you don't think the safety of unfledged foals is worth your effort."[/color]

[Deleted]

Twister should've known that even mentioning the word 'fun' around micro here would have ended like this. His fuse was about the size of him after all, which made the first half of his name just great as a nickname. Twister never could figure out what this pony's problem was, so what if he was lazy, he still did just as good a job... eventually. "Hey, I was just testing out some tricks, but you know how that goes, bruised wings and junk." he said with a shrug.

This could be proven by the fact that, unlike his usual self, he wasn't flying. He had actually landed for once. Now if one could see under his feathers they would see several black and blue spots from trees, the ground, and some older ones from falling barrels. "Besides, You'll get done either way." he said yawning directly afterwards. "Oh! Right! That's what we're doing." he said, stretching his wings with a hint of a wince. He then pumped his wings and lifted into the air. Quickly raising up to the level of a few clouds.

He quickly grabbed one and spread it out a bit before returning to a spot and trotting it down into the ground. "Never really had a problem with flying you know, since the day I was born I was in the air." he said quite proudly, striking a pose, one where his wings spread out fully, but he quickly winced and lowered. He also quickly acted like that didn't happen. "Happy? how much longer we got?"

[licorice]

Microburst snorted and eyed Twister, one eyebrow quirked in disbelief. "Tricks. Yes, I 'know how that goes'," he stamped a hoof, "But it's no excuse for laying around when you're supposed to be working!" The last word came out with such unintentional force that he actually took a step back. Micro opened his mouth to yell again, but snapped it closed when he saw Twister launch into the sky towards a cloud. Sure enough, he actually did something that might be confused with work. It was like he was allergic to it or something.

"I know all about your flying, Twister, you don't have to tell me about it every time you take off." Micro glided over to join Twister and inspect his handiwork, bouncing across the newly repaired surface and then bouncing back across. It was fine - better than anything Micro could do - well-placed and not so trodden down that it had become dense and gummy. He trotted a few feet away when he reached Twister again and stood there silently for a moment. It was hot, none of the other ponies wanted to be there, and they'd done enough work to remove the immediate danger...

He sighed deeply and turned back around to face the group. "Go home," he huffed, shoulders tense and standing on the tips of his hooves. "Enjoy your afternoon. And go put some ice on those wings," Micro added, turning to look at the taller pony.

[Deleted]

Huh, Twister just couldn't seem to get pm Micro's good side today. With his hoof stomping and, of course, yelling about work. Something that no conversation with Microburst would complete without. Perhaps it was the way Twister never seemed to try but always seemed to get things done. He certainly did procrastinate, but almost always got done roughly on time. Always before it caused major problems anyways.

Twister smiled as Micro tested out his cloud floor and didn't seem to find anything wrong with it. Hah, that'd show him to try and rush perfection...though in a way he sorta did. Whatever, Cloud was still going to be proud "Who knows, maybe I do need to remind you every time I take off. Then you might remember that I'm not called 'Cloud twister, weather pony extraordinaire' for nothing." who cared if he had been the one to start that name, ever since he started introducing himself as that people seemed to sorta believe him and while no one else used it, it certainly was true. He considered himself great at weather pony-ing.

In fact, he felt so great at the moment that he- wait had Micro just cut work short? What sort of miracle was this!? For a second Cloud Twister thought he must've turned himself into an allicorn and used magic to change Microburst's personality. But no, Twister looked about to see many of the other pegasi just didn't look into their work today. He flapped his wings twice, strongly now. He even made a slight breeze on accident before lifting into the air. He gave Micro a crazy look, this pony had known him for long enough to know that cloud twister couldn't just sit at home and ice his wings. He needed to do something. Even if it meant his wings would be even sorer tomorrow. He certainly could treat his wings better, but he never had paid attention during health.

"I will tonight. I'm planning on joining the next young flyers competition. If that pony Rainbow Dash doesn't enter, I think I have a chance...If I could make a decent routine" he had been really excited until the last bit, his tone had actually had a hint of doubt in it. Maybe more than a hint but tha;ts as much as he would ever admit to voicing. Everything he was coming up with just couldn't even come close to a sonic rainboom.