Pencil Pusher didn’t “land” in front of the Golden Oaks Library as much as he “collapsed at a relatively high speed” into the bushes near the front door. With the exception of his two-hour nap that morning, he’d been awake for a day and a half now, and after his second flight to Ponyville, his coordination was starting to suffer. “Ow...” the grey stallion muttered to himself as he stood up. Not only was he tired and sweaty, he was now covered in scratches and had little bits of twigs and leaves sticking out from odd places in his mane. It wasn’t exactly an ideal appearance for the all-important second impression, but at least the various forms and paperwork he’d brought along were still safely tucked away inside his saddlebag.
The bureaucrat might have taken the time to make himself look more presentable, were it not for the sudden intrusion of a mare’s voice on his thoughts. “Excuse me, but are you okay?” Pencil Pusher turned around and saw a purple unicorn standing outside of the library’s open door with a look of concern on her face.
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” he replied, stifling a yawn. “Is Fluttershy here? I was told that she’d made the library her headquarters for the fog response.”
“Oh... you must be from the Department of Weather. Yes, she’s here. Come in.”
Pencil Pusher took a deep breath as he followed the mare inside. He was calm. He’d practiced what he was going to say, going over every possibility he could think of until he’d determined the perfect way to reintroduce himself. All that was left was the delivery...
“Oh, Pencil Pusher! I didn’t expect to see you again.”
...which he promptly bungled when Fluttershy did the one thing he hadn’t counted on: remembering his name. “Oh, ah, well... yes, I... er, thought it would be good for you to maintain continuity as far as your liaison with the main office in Cloudsdale.” Gah! Smooth moves, Losinova. You spend three hours practicing what you’ll say, and you end up tossing out an unintelligible blob of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo.
“Oh,” the yellow pegasus replied. “Well, that was quite thoughtful of you. Um, is there a particular reason that you’re standing in the doorway?”
Pencil Pusher blushed as he skittered inside. “Sorry about that.” When the awkward silence that followed continued to persist after five seconds, the bureaucrat decided to force a change of topic. “Well, as long as I’m here, you might as well introduce the rest of your team.” He wasn’t particularly surprised to see the Mayor of Ponyville or the head of Ponyville’s weather team, but he had a decidedly more difficult time grasping the reason for the presence of the four other ponies—especially since none of them had wings.
“Uh, we’re the Elements of Harmony,” Rainbow Dash explained as if it that fact were blatantly obvious. “We always help each other out when there’s a problem.”
“Oh... that makes sense, I guess,” Pencil Pusher replied, “but how did you all get here so quickly?”
None of the Element-Bearers seemed to understand the question. “Uh, beggin’ yer pardon, but why wouldn’t we get here quickly?” Applejack asked. “We all live here.”
“Huh? Oh! Right, that makes sense. Of course the Princesses would want you all to move to the same town. Strategic deployment, or something like that, right?”
“Actually,” the white unicorn, named Rarity, answered, “five of us had been living here for quite some time when we were initially called to service, and Twilight moved here soon afterwards.”
“You’re... you’re serious? Celestia decided to choose five ponies from the same small town?”
“Oh, we weren’t chosen by Celestia,” Pinkie Pie said. “We were always the Element-Bearers, even before anypony knew about it.”
I really have to pay more attention to the news, the bureaucrat thought to himself. “Er, right. Anyway, besides your usual job of saving Equestria from evildoers, do you have any other qualifications that might be pertinent?”
“Well, I’m Princess Celestia’s personal protégé,” Twilight said. “Also, Rainbow Dash hired me as a consultant for last year’s Tornado Day.”
Pencil Pusher wasn’t quite sure what to make of the bit about being Celestia’s student, but independent contractors were more in line with what he was used to dealing with. He pulled out a lined pad of yellow paper and began scratching notes on it with a ballpoint pen. “Consultant, got it. How about the rest of you?”
“Ooh!” Pinkie Pie shouted, raising a hoof into the air. “Me! Pick me!”
Feeling a little silly, the stallion pointed at the excitable mare. “Uh, yes?”
“I’m the pony who discovered that the fog is super-duper dangerous for earth ponies and unicorns!”
“You did? How?”
“By walking into it and getting lost and also getting mild hypochondria.”
“Hypothermia, darling,” Rarity corrected.
“Right, hypothalamus.”
“I see, so, you’re a paid consultant as well,” Pencil Pusher said, making another note on his legal pad.
“Oh, no,” Pinkie Pie replied. “I’m just a volunteer.”
There was a clatter as the bureaucrat’s pen fell from his grip and hit the library’s wooden floor. “You... you volunteered to go into potentially hazardous conditions? And you’ve never been on the Department of Weather’s payroll?”
“No. Why? Is that a problem?”
Pencil Pusher briefly considered brushing this question off, but then he realized that he had an opportunity to bring up the subject of his own volunteerism without sounding like a pious blowhard. “Well, the Department’s procedures require that every pony working for it sign a liability waiver, but that doesn’t cover outside volunteers. As a result, there’s an unofficial rule that you have to be on the Department’s payroll to volunteer your time, because then there isn’t much extra paperwork to fill out.” Most of the other ponies in the room looked either confused or bored, which was just as well, as it gave the stallion the chance to segue into the part that he really wanted Fluttershy to hear.
“For example, before I flew out here, I just signed some boilerplate that we keep on file, and thus, none of my coworkers back in Cloudsdale will be complaining anytime soon. On the other hoof, the forms for processing outside volunteers can be... well... complicated. But there’s no need for you to worry about that!” the bureaucrat added hastily. “I can take care of that. It’s just a few extra minutes of work, that’s all. Anyway, how about you two?” he asked Applejack and Rarity.
“Er, well, I’m a local apple farmer...”
“...and I am an up-and-coming fashionista.”
Pencil Pusher looked downcast upon hearing this. “I suppose it’d be too much to hope that you have previous Department of Weather experience.”
“Sorry,” Applejack said.
The stallion sighed. “Never mind. We can deal with all of that later. Right now, I need the details about your plan.”
“Well,” Applejack drawled, “the basic idea can be summed up in four words: Kill. It. With. Fire.”
“Excuse me?”
Fluttershy began fidgeting as she explained the reasoning behind the plan. “Well, um, under normal circumstances, fog only appears when the level of humidity is high relative to the temperature. Obviously, this fog isn’t normal, but I don’t know how it isn’t normal yet, so for now, I’m assuming it’s just a really strong fog.”
“Actually,” Pencil Pusher said, “I’ve already taken the liberty of coming up with a solution to get you the information you need—but we can talk about that later.” The bureaucrat would have told the fog specialist more about the proposed arrangement with Caligo, were it not for the skeptical glare he was getting from Rainbow Dash.
“Anyway,” Fluttershy continued, “since warm air can hold more water vapor than cold air, if the fog runs into a large amount of hot, dry air, that might help it dissipate.”
“And... you’re going to do this by starting a fire?”
“No,” Rainbow Dash replied with a smirk, “we’re going to start a whole bunch of fires.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded. “Based on the most recent available data concerning the fog’s size and movement as well as the local topography, a series of strategically placed bonfires north of the Unicorn Range should cause the fog to start dispersing, or at the very least, slow it down.”
“We’re calling it ‘Operation: Heatstroke,’ because that’s pretty much the opposite of hypodermic,” Pinkie Pie explained. “I came up with the name!”
“Oookaaay....” Pencil Pusher replied, mostly because he couldn’t come up with a more intelligent response. “So, I presume we’ll be able to use timber from that area for these bonfires?”
“Not exactly,” Applejack admitted. “That’s rock farmin’ country, and soil that makes for solid rocks doesn’t normally support plants all that well. They need every tree they can get.”
“So, how do you propose to pull this off?”
“There’s a donkey named Douglas Fir who lives on the southern side of the Unicorn Range,” Mayor Mare explained, “who harvests trees in the area to sell as firewood. I’m sure he’ll be willing to help us out once I’ve spoken with him. I know from past experience that he responds quite well to appeals to his civic duty, particularly when they’re combined with financial compensation.”
“Alright, but are you going to be able to get the fires lit in time? It’s going to take a while to get that firewood over the mountains.”
“You ain’t seen the ponies of Ponyville in action,” Applejack said. “Once I get the help of the local farmers, we’ll be able to haul that firewood without any problem. Fringe benefit of bein’ an earth pony, ya know.”
Pencil Pusher looked slightly pale. “Earth pony? Are all the farmers in the area earth ponies?”
“Most of ’em. Why?”
“Uh, how many ponies are we talking about here?”
“Eh, if I call in a few favors, I can probably get seventy, maybe eighty ponies.”
The bureaucrat looked like he’d been hit in the head with a cast-iron skillet. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that any of them have previous experience with the DOW....”
“Does requestin’ additional rainy days count?”
“Not really.” Great. Hello, fetlock-tunnel syndrome. Why did I ever agree to do this? An image flashed in the stallion’s mind of Fluttershy sitting by his side, leaning into his shoulder as the two watched one of Princess Celestia’s brilliant orange sunsets. Oh, right. “That doesn’t matter,” he said. “I—that is, we can deal with that later. So, then what happens, Fluttershy?”
The fog specialist, however, didn’t answer; it seemed like she’d been lost in thought ever since Pencil Pusher had initially brought up the subject of bureaucratic red tape. “Oh, um, sorry. I was just... thinking about some things. Um, where were we?”
“The earth ponies get the firewood over the mountains.”
“Oh, yes. Well, then the Ponyville weather team builds the bonfires and tends to them until the fog arrives.”
Pencil Pusher thought about this, and then nodded. “Well, that sounds like a plan.” Granted, he still wasn’t sure if it was a good plan, but she was the specialist, and he was the office drone. “So, when are you doing this? Tomorrow morning?”
“Actually, I’ve done all the pertinent calculations, and given the prevailing wind speeds, the optimal time to put this plan into action would be this evening, before eight o’clock,” Twilight Sparkle said.
“But... that’s only five hours away.”
“Actually, we’ll probably want to get the fires started well before the fog arrives in the area, so it’s really closer to four hours.”
“But how can you pull that off?”
Applejack laughed. “Like I said before, you ain’t seen us in action yet.”
“Okay, well, if you’re sure—”
“Wait!” Fluttershy suddenly cried out. “What about all the paperwork?”
“What do you mean, darling?” Rarity asked.
“Um, well, isn’t all the paperwork going to be a problem? Like, maybe the kind of problem that would make it difficult to go through with the plan the way we expected and that means that if anything goes wrong everypony will be too busy complaining about the bureaucracy to figure out what the real problem is?”
Parsing the soft-spoken pegasus’ run-on sentence wasn’t easy (particularly because Fluttershy’s voice almost sounded more hopeful than worried for some unfathomable reason), but eventually Pencil Pusher managed to make some sense of it. “What sort of problems are you worried about, exactly?”
“Um, well, what about all these new volunteers?”
“Oh, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
“But what if it is?”
The bureaucrat wasn’t sure why Fluttershy had suddenly decided to play Discord’s Advocate, but that was neither here nor there. C’mon, Pencil Pusher, he silently told himself, now’s your time to shine. He quietly ruminated for a few seconds before inspiration, egged on by physical attraction, hit him. “Actually, if the volunteers were all members of an established nonprofit group, there would only be one form to fill out—and it wouldn’t take much time at all.”
“Oh, is that all?” the Mayor asked. “Well, it shouldn’t be too much trouble to form a new organization.”
“But you won’t be able to get it officially registered as a nonprofit in four hours,” Pencil Pusher said. “Is there any preexisting group here in Ponyville that would be willing to take on new members?”
“I doubt that,” Rarity replied. “There seems to be something distasteful about allowing one’s organization to be used as a pawn in a bureaucratic game.”
This led to several more seconds of silence, during which it almost seemed like Fluttershy was about to break out into a smile—but that didn’t make much sense. Finally, however, Applejack spoke up. “Uh, well, it is kind of ‘out there,’ if y’all catch my drift, but it seems like SPHERE is always lookin’ for new members.”
“SPHERE?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Who’s SPHERE? Why haven’t I heard of them? Are they new in town? Did I miss my chance to give them a welcoming party?!” The earth pony looked horror-stricken at her last suggestion.
“Uh, no,” Applejack replied. “SPHERE is the Society for the Prevention of Human Exploitation in the Realm of Equestria.”
“What’s a human?” Pencil Pusher asked.
“It’s a mythical creature from parts unknown,” Twilight explained. “There are a few enthusiasts here in Ponyville.”
“Hang on,” Rainbow Dash said. “Are they trying to prevent humans from being exploited, or are they trying to prevent humans from exploiting Equestria?”
“I dunno, actually,” Applejack answered. “That seems to depend on whether it’s Lyra or Bon-Bon y’all are talkin’ to.” Lyra Heartstrings was a local musician, Bon-Bon’s best friend, and easily as enamored of humans as the candymaker was paranoid about them.
“Well, what about the other members?”
“Near as I can tell, they’re the only members.”
“And do you think somepony will be able to convince them to agree to this little scheme?” Rarity asked.
“Ooh! Ooh! I can do that!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she bounced in place repeatedly. This was met with unspoken agreement from everypony else in the room. Somehow, it just seemed like Pinkie Pie would be the perfect pony to convince a pair of amateur cryptozoologists to go along with such an idea.
“Well, that’s that,” Pencil Pusher said. “Now, I just need to fill out some preliminary forms, and then I can head back to Cloudsdale.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Twilight Sparkle replied. “You’re in no condition to fly, if what’s left of my bushes are any indication. Given your bloodshot eyes, I’m guessing that you need to get some sleep.”
“But... I’ve got to...” the stallion didn’t finish his sentence, as he was interrupted by an inconvenient yawn.
“Yeah, you need some shut-eye,” Rainbow Dash concurred. “Tell you what: you fill out the forms for the other desk jockeys, and I’ll take it to Cloudsdale.”
“Um, actually, I need you to do something else,” Fluttershy said.
Rainbow Dash winced as she tried to ignore the horrible feeling of déjà vu that welled up in the dark recesses of her mind. No, she’s the fog specialist. You need to trust her judgment. “Oh. That’s... okay, I guess. I’ll have one of my team members handle that. What should I do instead?”
“I, um, need you to oversee the actual bonfires, if you don’t mind.”
“What? You aren’t going to do it?”
“I can’t fly fast enough to cover the area effectively, and you have speed and leadership skills to make quick decisions while things are unfolding.”
The blue pegasus chuckled amicably at her friend’s praise. “Yeah, I guess I do, don’t I? Okay, Fluttershy. I’m your mare.”
“Oh, that’s good. You and Rarity can go back to her shop and get ready, then.”
“Huh? What are we doing at her boutique?”
“Well, darling,” the fashionista answered, “you’ll be needing a fog suit.”
“I’ve got a fog suit at home.”
“But Fluttershy informs me that a standard suit adds far too much extra weight and air resistance for you to do your job effectively. Thus, you’ll be needing a customized fog suit with an extra-snug fit.”
“Oh. Well, you have my sizes, right? I’ll pick it up once I’m ready.”
“Actually, that won’t work. You see, Fluttershy gave me the fabric, as well as the basic outline of the suit, and there’s not enough give to allow you to simply put it on and take it off at will.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I’ll have to sew the fog suit around your body directly, and when you want to take it off, you’ll need to use scissors. I suggest you make sure you’ve used the little mare’s room before we begin.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Fine. I’m willing to do whatever’s necessary.”
“Oh, I’m oh so glad to hear you say that, darling,” Rarity replied. “You see, the suit also covers your legs in their entirety, which means that you’re going to have to let me touch your hooves.”
The pegasus shuddered, but soon regained her composure. “Okay... let’s just get it over with.”
“Um, so, does everypony know what they’re going to do?” Fluttershy asked as she tugged nervously on her cravat. Upon receiving a nods all around, the fog specialist continued. “Then I suppose we should get started. I’ll be going with the Mayor to speak with Mr. Fir. Everypony who’s involved should meet there before... five, I suppose.”
As the ponies began to disperse to attend to their responsibilities, Pencil Pusher pulled a sheaf of forms from his saddlebag and started filling them out. He soon paused, though, when he heard the sound of a mare clearing her throat. The stallion looked up and saw Rainbow Dash looking at him with suspicion evident in her eyes. “Um, aren't you going to go with that designer friend of yours?”
“Rarity needs some time to get set up, and in any case, I need to talk to you.”
Pencil Pusher swallowed hard and ran a hoof through his still-unkempt mane. “R-Really? What about?”
“Don’t play innocent with me. You’re way too eager to help for a normal bureaucrat.”
“Well, maybe I’m exceptional.”
“If you were exceptional, you’d be in management. Let me guess: you figured out that Fluttershy’s single, and you thought this might be your chance to get a date with a supermodel.”
So she really is single, the stallion thought to himself before shifting his attention back to the conversation. “Uh, come on, now, Ms. Dash. There’s no reason to be, um, cynical.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining. Fluttershy could probably use a special somepony. If you can actually do that for her, I’m all for it.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
This was going better than expected! Pencil Pusher now had the support of one of Fluttershy’s closest friends. He could almost hear the wedding bells ringing... until they were interrupted by Rainbow Dash’s voice.
“However, if you hurt her, you’re going to find out what it feels like to get blindsided by a Sonic Rainboom. Capisce?”
Pencil Pusher nodded apprehensively.
“Good,” the blue pegasus said cheerfully. “I’d better let you get back to work, then. Good luck!”
“Thanks,” the bureaucrat squeaked as his interrogator’s multicolored tail slipped out the library door, “I think....”
Cracked up during my lecture at that.
RD is best wingmare/big sis
2085101 *laughs* Yeah, I'm with you there. Pencil Pusher's been hovering on that fine line between 'smitten, well-meaning everyman' and 'creepy opportunist' for a while now. I suppose we'll find out where he lands by the end of the story, but for now it's fun to imagine Rainbow Dash showing up every now and then, polishing some wing-blades and watching him to keep him honest.
Ooooooh! Killing fog with fire. Hopefully the fact that this stuff was constructed to withstand desert conditions doesn't foil the plans.
Yes let the basic sexual desires flow through you.
2085141
that would be hilarious
Kill it with Fire? Short, easy to remember and makes my inner Pyro giggle, I can go for it.
Fire is the cleanser love this story
Oh great!
The fact that the local "human" group is suddenly going to gain almost a hundred new members at once and mobilize en masse to go fight the "fog" is certainly, indubitably not going to give crazy ideas to a certain trio of fillies... right? RIGHT?
The plot thickens and twists in delicious ways. This is a truly awesome story!
I see no problems with this plan!
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw4206-Rainbow_Dash_Awesomeface.png
...was there a reference to Hiccups in there?
Kill it with fire. That is the solution to most problems, right there. Including bureaucrats who hurt Fluttershy.
2085937 - No, it's a reference to the Gabby Gums episode.
to non-pegasi it's a patch (a big one) of localized death by freezing. to pegasi it's a slow-moving tsunami of death by freezing... "killing it with fire" is actually a good idea, but to achieve that they would need a linear firestorm, not a line of relatively small bonfires. in any case though, one that fails; things will get real interesting.
why didn't fluttershy like that plan by the way? something im not remembering?
Whoo! You go, Rainbow!
Though, I don't think one Sonic Rainboom's enough punishment for such an offense.
That is never not a good plan.![:ajsmug:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/ajsmug.png)
“Well,” Applejack drawled, “the basic idea can be summed up in four words: Kill. It. With. Fire.”
I have never loved Applejack more than right now... Best. Pony. With a flamethrower.
2086028 - It's not that she doesn't like the plan. She just wants to be able to avoid scrutiny if something goes wrong. In other words, she didn't want a solution to the bureaucratic problem, because she wanted to use the bureaucracy as a scapegoat. Pencil Pusher, on the other hand, has no way of knowing this.
2086070 2085141 - Really? There's something creepy about a guy putting forth extra effort to impress a girl?
2086352 Well, it's more about how he seems to think about Fluttershy. At times, he comes across as being more interested in dating a supermodel than he is in her, like his primary interest is in getting her as a trophy or for bragging rights. Just how I read it, sometimes.
2086331
ah. poor flutters though, she risks falling under scrutiny with anything she does at this point, if she doesn't solve the problem they will (probably) blame her, if she doesn't solve the problem in a smooth fashion without any lasting consequences, that they'll approve of later, she will probably be faced with legal consequences as well.
I'm not usually so supportive of Rainbow, this is rare for me. Rainbow may be trying to protect her friend, but for me, it's a combination of this trope and this one. The former amplifies the latter, if that wasn't obvious.
2086424 - Well, keep in mind that his goal right now is simply to get that first date to see if they might be compatible (notwithstanding the fleeting idea of "wedding bells"). If that doesn't work out, the "I dated a supermodel one time" thing is the consolation prize.
2086659 Yeah, I'm willing to concede that it may be that his approach is how dating is handled in the real world, and that my impressions are colored by my own lack of experience or inclination toward the rituals involved in seeking a romantic partner.
Kinda sad I was too busy to help with this chapter.
This one was amazing, though. It hit all the right buttons, and was just cynically hilarious enough to make me go mad.
Madder?
I love this story. When it's not exciting, it's hilarious. I'm kinda surprise it was RD that called Pencil Pusher on his motives. I would have said Rarity was more likely. If only because she is more romantically inclined. This was better though.![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
I really hope Pencil Pusher gets the girl after all of this. With everything he's been through, he deserves that much.![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
–“Well,” Applejack drawled, “the basic idea can be summed up in four words: Kill. It. With. Fire.”![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
Expert deployment of memes, ahoy! Well done!
–“There’s a donkey named Douglas Fir who lives on the southern side of the Unicorn Range,” Mayor Mare explained,
Ha, another excuse to get a human name in there, I love it.
–“Yeah, you need some shut-eye,” Rainbow Dash concurred. “Tell you what: you fill out the forms for the other desk jockeys, and I’ll take it to Cloudsdale.”
Desk jockeys – the lame kind of DJs.
–“However, if you hurt her, you’re going to find out what it feels like to get blindsided by a Sonic Rainboom. Capisce?”
Capisce is seriously the best word ever.
Nice touch having Rainbow actually be somewhat supportive of Pencil Pusher's endeavors at earning Fluttershy's favor; It seems surprisingly in-character.
I get the feeling this is headed toward "You're gonna need a bigger fire" territory.
Quick, get Celestia to crash the sun into the planet!
What? Not able to run properly on only two hours kip? Wimp. You don't need to worry until you start trying for another all-nighter on top of that - _that's_ when the weird things start happening.
Also - no, Fluttershy, you _really_ haven't thought this through.
Yes, having the failure wrapped up in bureaucratic red tape would disguise it and possibly deflect questioning from you. However, a disaster as large as this is going to require an investigation - and the DOW will be looking for a scapegoat, so they can get out of paying compensation. Do you really want even the possibility they could balme you for incompetence?
Enjoyable chapter, though I'm starting to get really tired of basically rereading the old "if you hurt her" speech.![:ajbemused:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/ajbemused.png)
Hah, and Pencil Pusher completely forgot to give Fluttershy informations about what is fog made of.
Go Casanova!
Um, but that fog was made specifically to withstand the arid heat of a desert, so wouldn't the fires possibly not work at all?
Oh, but Pencil Pusher didn't tell her that, so that is gonna be a heck of a story.
I had to do it because of the plan's name:
static.fjcdn.com/pictures/kill+it.+with+fire_1f90ba_3236875.jpg
th02.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/i/2011/290/6/a/kill_it_with_fire_by_mizu_mitsuname-d4d5xws.png
d22zlbw5ff7yk5.cloudfront.net/images/cm-47062-15105b2fdd885c.png
demotivationalposters.net/image/demotivational-poster/1006/kill-it-with-fire-zombies-bp-oil-spill-tony-hayward-fire-demotivational-poster-1277336775.jpg
files.sharenator.com/48_plan_b_kill_it_with_fire_KILL_IT_KILL_IT_WITH_FIRE-s479x599-132450-580.jpg
cdn.motinetwork.net/motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0902/kill-it-with-fire-demotivational-poster-1235695993.jpg
2094203 - But... the plan's name is "Operation: Heatstroke."
2094284
![:twilightsheepish:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/twilightsheepish.png)
Im a moron. I guess it would be more proper to say that I posted all of those pics because of what they are going to do rather than plan name.
Great chapter, wishing the best towards Pencil Pushers efforts!!!![:yay:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/yay.png)
![:moustache:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/moustache.png)
![:trollestia:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/trollestia.png)
Good luck to him.
And REALLY looking forward to see how the SPHERE thing goes, I love how humans are finding there way into a non-human story.
Looking forward to more!![:pinkiehappy:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiehappy.png)
Aw man, it's like everything is converging towards one big clusterfuck of mistakes. I swear, it's almost going to hurt to see how everything comes into play. I can't wait!
Ah, Rainbow. One can always count on her and great name for Lyra's group. Will Spike be in this at all? Or Derpy? Have no problem with Fluttershy/OC, all for it
But I have a feeling something bad is about to happen, like a shiver down my spine....how odd![:applejackunsure:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/applejackunsure.png)
Give rainbows narcissistic, self centered attitude some food, and she'll do whatever you want her to do.![:ajsmug:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/ajsmug.png)
Alright, this has become epic writing. You have managed to spin a complicated, interwoven, interesting plot on the basis of fog. That is a damn accomplishment if I've ever seen one. Definitely comparable to when another fanfic author made me actually interested the outcome and events in a cooking show. I will never understand how people do these things.
It's black magic, I swear it!
It takes a special sort of protagonist to, in the face of an incipient natural disaster, worry about making sure the paperwork for combating said disaster is perfectly in order. Perhaps that's just what Equestria needs, though.
Ha! "Kill it with fire". I had that exact same idea.
Sorry, no time for anything more. Love the story though!
Hmmm, either the fire will work...
...Or it'll just introduce an updraft, and the super-dense clouds will be given lift, and possibly rotation. Supercell thunderstorm, anyone?![:applejackconfused:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/applejackconfused.png)
I added my like, looked at the like count... 666
WHAT IS THIS BLACK MAGIC!?![:pinkiegasp:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/pinkiegasp.png)
![:derpytongue2:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/derpytongue2.png)
Just thinking out loud but this should be Pastern-Tunnel Syndrome, not fetlock. That is assuming that ponies have a banding for their Median nerve (If it's called that) located in a similar location with their Pastern bones as it is to our Carpals.
Otherwise, the actual Carpals of a equine are located towards or at the knee. I'm not to sure exactly where.
In real life if they get Carpal-Tunnel Syndrome it results in Lameness when it is at it's worst.
Even forgoing accurate taxonomy, it wouldn't be called fetlock anyway as it's an internal problem related to an exact point of disfunction whilst the use of fetlock would relate to external or whole issues of the fetlock area.
Sorry, just my inner anatomy student coming to the fore; otherwise I'm really liking this so far.
2085202 You know that's pretty much guaranteed to happen, right?
2166535
Okay, maybe. But still, I can hope!