SILT BEND — West Pad held 11 inches at 02:14. The seal crew had signed the surface at 16:40 nine days earlier. By the second weather shift, three courier relays and one storm leg were off the board. Councilmare Aster Quill told the afternoon sheet the pad may have to move.
The Canterlot Council released 27 million bits in Frost Month for the raise, the reseal, and a lamp line entered on the bid as flood-minded. The Canterlot Institute had priced a move to the reed shelf at 6.1 million in a sheet dated two winters back. That sheet remained in the bid folder. The contract that cleared kept the pad where it was.
Gale Report posted a basin watch at 21:00. The watch matched the spring sheet. Median water at the west markers is 14 inches. The upgrade bought eight inches of freeboard and a new paint line at 30 inches over the old clay. At 02:14 the water sat 11 inches over the new surface.
Works Director Bram Holloway said the pad had performed inside the design envelope. He said it from the rail above the lamps. Two of the eight posts were still lit. The other six stepped into the basin in a row. A junior from his office held the slate over his head when the drizzle returned at 02:40.
"We built to the line on the drawing," Holloway said. "Anything over that line gets handled on the shift."
Late-shift crew chief Harp Keel had already walked the east marker with a staff and a piece of chalk. Keel has held 22:00 to 06:00 for four seasons. The ribbon list on seal day carried twelve names. Keel's name was on the shed board, third from the bottom, in pencil.
"Eleven at the east marker, nine on the new seam," Keel said. "I'll launch her. I want a number I trust before I call the landing."
Reserve flier Cinder Mallow sat the third storm leg. Mallow flies the reserve book. The Wonderbolt card carries other names. The week's staging mark for the reserve pair was still West Pad, with a press line that read cleared and ceremonial. Mallow's book showed two water scratches this month, both logged before the seal had cured.
"They told me it was finished, so I packed the long route and left the spare in the shed," Mallow said. "The spare is in the shed. So am I."
The Wonderbolt press office moved six lines at 09:05. The lines called the morning a localized interruption, kept the exhibition pair on the inland oval at 15:00, and left West Pad off the page. Press pony Tassel Reed, asked whether the oval was the air the reserves had been posted to use, said the oval was the public card and the pad was a town convenience. The exhibition poster went up in Frost Month. It shows a dry strip and the exhibition pair.
Quill's move is a line on a sheet. She told the sheet a site above the reed shelf remains open and that the Council would be invited to revisit the sequence. The day stayed blank. So did any figure for what a nine-day surface is worth if the ponies leave it. Windfall Margin, who released the last draw against the 27 million, kept to the office. Margin's office returned a figure for retained value in the existing works and left the word retained alone. The figure was 19.4 million. It counted the lamps.
Keel closed the shift at 06:10. Scratched: three relays, one storm leg, and two training touches the press office had already marked ceremonial. Water at the close was 7 inches and falling. The falling number is the one Holloway's slate will carry into the afternoon. The 11 is already in the shed log.
The Institute folder still sits under the bid stamp. A box for the basin's spring count, six of the last eight years over the median, was left blank on the contract copy. A clerk in Quill's office called the blank a formatting courtesy. The courtesy has a cost code. The code stayed unread at the rail.
Holloway repeated that the project was complete. The completion paper pays a bonus on the 16:40 signature. Keel kept her eyes on the staff. The chalk mark was still the one from 02:14.
The bonus was 180,000 bits.
