Description:
That evening while Applebloom dealt with a zipper distracted Stone Mane
Silver Mirror was a place where there was a party almost every night. Scratch might call it just a casual hang out or just kicking back with friends, but when there was always at least 4+ dozen individuals on the grounds the distinction between the them became rather irrelevant.
Because of her very short stint as public art Petina had a lot of ponies, zebras, and griffins who were interested to hear her tale of the experience. Carousel's dance rehearsal went way longer than expected so by the time she came wandering in for supper she was one very, very tired pony. After partaking of a meal she wandered off to our apartment for shower, a brushing, and then bed.
I hung out with Petina and Scratch for several hours but around 10pm I got a bit restless. At my weather pony job in Ponyville I routinely put in 6+ hours during a shift, and even when I'm not doing official weather work I still log a couple of hours of flying a day. However, except for brief morning warm up flights, and a couple quick hops down to Ft. Trotterdale to run errands my hooves had been more or less stuck on the ground since I'd arrived at Silver Mirror. I felt a need to address that.
It was a beautiful night to fly. The local weather schedule showed a zero percent chance of rain and there was steady, pleasant breeze blowing in off the ocean. Stepping out onto the main veranda I could see large, but not threatening, cumulus clouds a couple miles off shore. So after informing Petina I was going for a flight I donned my goggles and flight vest launched myself into the evening skies.
Even though the sun had set several hours ago I was still able to catch an updraft coming up slope that Silver Mirror was perched on. With its aid I was soon several thousand feet above Ft. Trotterdale. After memorizing a couple of important landmarks I turned and headed offshore. Continuing to climb as I head for my target. A modest cluster of cumulus clouds that maxed out at about 8,000ft. Based on the direction of the wind they would come ashore over Ft. Trotterdale in about an hour. My plan was to fly out to it. Land on them, and then just chill out until they drifted ashore; then I'd fly back to Silver Mirror.
Finding a suitable flat place to land with an excellent view of the night sky I turned into the wind and landed. Wielding my pegasus magic the cloud felt like a soft, bouncy mattress. Lying down on the cool, moist cloud I kicked back and took in the beauty of the night sky. Since at some point soon I was going for my advance nocturnal navigation certification I decided practice my constellation identification tables.
For a few minutes I did that, but eventually my mind just wandered off and I just watched the clouds lazily drifted around me. Just me, the clouds, and a wandering star. Wait. A wandering star? My attention suddenly locked on to a tiny reddish speck of light moving in the nighttime sky above me. As I watched it seemed to be growing larger. I thought of flying out and seeing what it was, but soon it became evident that the light was approaching me
As the reddish light grew larger and larger I realized it must some form of lantern. Finally I could make out the silhouette of pegasus pony, and as they got even closer I see they weren't any ordinary pegasus pony. Their body was about my size but their wings were easily twice as large as mine. This was one of the legendary Height Climbers. I'd met one once briefly in Cloudsdale
As they passed over me I called out. "Evening! Beautiful night for flying." This startle them a little and they made a long, slow circle and came back around to land about 20ft in front of me. The entire time they never flapped their wings. As they flared and landed I realized they were a mare. A mare that was wearing an extended operations flight harness that was covered in of all things camping gear. The source of the red light was small, but very bright for its size, glow lamp. Carefully she folded her wings and lifted her goggles. Then she addressed me.
"Yes. Yes it is a beautiful night for flying. She looked over her shoulder towards the shoreline. Would I be correct to assume you came from Ft. Trotterdale?"
I nodded. "Yep! Sky Brush is my name and who do I have the privilege of meeting this evening?"
"Slip Stream. Please. Pardon me. I need to take care of something." She sat down on her haunches and started pulling a vast array of items from a large front pouch on her harness. A small hardcover notebook, mechanical pencil, compass, joined a sextant, pocket abacus, a thermometer, barometer, altimeter, and finally a little hoof-held anemometer. All these items had their own lanyards attaching them to the pouch. For the next few minutes the mare took a myriad of readings with these devices, and recorded her findings in the notebook. With her observations completed she stowed her instruments . Then she closed her eyes and flopped onto her back and sighed. Lying there in the low, reddish light I was able to give her a better look. It was hard to determine specific colors but she seemed to have a coat of some violet or mauve color and short cut mane and tail of deep violet or blue. After a minute or so she spoke.
"I'm soooo going to enjoy getting back down to sea level and taking a long hot bath. Followed by a properly cooked meal, and sleeping in a real bed!"
"By the looks of all the gear you got on I'm going to assume you've been sleeping in the great outdoors for awhile?" I flopped on my back looked over at her.
She pulled a canteen from her kit and took a long swig then returned it to its home on her harness. "Been out here for 2 weeks now." she said.
"Camping up and down the coast?" I asked.
The mare gave a hearty laugh. "Oh I wish! I'm with the Royal Equestria Weather Service. In particular I'm with the Global Metrological Research Branch. I've been conducting long range offshore weather observations for the last 14 days." She glanced toward the coastline and the lights of Ft. Trotterdale. "I haven't seen land in 2 weeks."
I rolled over and stared at the mare with a mixture of wonder and horror. "You've been in the air for 2 weeks nonstop?!"
Slip Stream took another swig from her canteen and produced what looked like a granola bar from another pouch. She took a bite and chewed it slowly for a moment before having another sip of water. Then she spoke.
"No, no. The longest I've spent airborne this mission is 3 days. That includes cloud camping. There's a schooner the REWS has hired that's acting as an advanced remote weather outpost. I've returned to it several times to file my reports and check in with my team."
I still stared at her with awe. "That's still amazing. Why is the REWS conducting weather research beyond Equestria's borders?"
The mare finished off her snack and drank some more water. "There's a project underway to develop a new, more accurate version of the Grand Map in Cloudsdale. The projectionists and forecasters believe there are some subtle errors in the core algorithms of the current map that can be eliminated. This will allow more refined, and accurate scheduling. Also it'll allow us to assess what effects ponies manipulation of the weather and climate is having on local environments and the organisms that live there."
Slip Stream arched and stretched her back. "However there's a critical piece of missing data. REWS has no control of weather beyond our border, and only the most rudimentary information current of weather and climate conditions overseas. So REWS is establishing remote data collection stations and expeditions. That's my job, but tomorrow my schooner will sail into Ft. Trotterdale and my mission will be over. Then I'll get some well deserved down time!"
I nodded my head. "Well I'm assigned to the Ponyville REWS branch and let me just take a moment to thank you for your efforts."
Slip Stream sighed. "Just doing my job." She tilted her left front leg and looked at watch she attached to a leather strap. "And, my job says I need to fly back to the schooner and file my final report. Have a good night and safe flying."
Then she got up. Straighten her harness and then turned into the steady breeze and opened her wings. With the slightest flap of her wings she rose into the air and then banked and floated away.
To be continued.
