DUSTWICK — Brant Hollow's advance pony closed the booking at 11:40. The Horn is Thursday. From the close to the vote, the push for the six South Benches gets twelve Range League chargers, a loaned exhibition wing, and the west platform at the Dustwick weather post. The platform was already on the hail card.
Hollow's name is absent from Thursday's ballot. His last session on the Canterlot Council ended with the long sitting. He can still fill a pitch. The pitch on the order is the one the Range League uses when Dustwick is home. The twelve came down on the Arcane Express, second sitting, in fourteen cars and a cloud car the public timetable does not show. The civic pitch seats 1,140. The Wonderbolt press office is handling the pictures for a wing on loan. The office told the pool to expect 20,000.
Pinion Gloss read the office line from the paint, still wet at the midfield stripe. "These are athletes sharing a moment with the public," Gloss said. "If it looks like a placing, that is the crowd's enthusiasm."
The program is counted in minutes. Wynn Harth, the pony asking for Bench Seven, has nine. The chargers have forty. Hollow has the block the program calls the balance. Mack Harlan, captain, is painted on the tunnel poster and again on the cloud assigned to hold a 7 over midfield. His printed remarks thank the fans of the bench. Asked which pony was standing for Bench Seven, Harlan said the fans would know.
Lark Vesper flew the third pass. Vesper is the reserve. The poster uses Harlan. The availability sheet uses Vesper. "His cloud was still in the paint barn when they called the lap," Vesper said. "I flew it. None of the wing had the seat. I read it off the cue card on the second lap."
Gale Report posted the wind at 14:05 and left the line standing: 22 knots out of the west, gusts to 29. The 7 went up at 18:12. It cleared the Dustwick limits at 18:41. The post that watches Bench Twelve logged a stray numeral at 18:56 and held the mark until the cloud came apart. Bench Twelve sits off Hollow's slate. The slate is six seats. At the stops before Dustwick, the advance pony had been calling Twelve a seat already settled.
Ned Colter kept the late shift. The tunnel list ended at the paint crew. "They took two fliers and the west platform at 16:10," Colter said. "The hail watch was 19:00. I ran it with Vesper after they cut her cue, and with a mare who had already worked the morning shift. First hail was 21:14. The east orchards took 1.4 inches. That figure was on our card at noon."
Vesper's injury line went to the shift book. It reads minor strain, left wing, third pass. Under cause she wrote: heavy cloud, paint load, not mine. She finished the lap. Harlan's cloud had been weighted to hold a numeral in a 22-knot wind. The reserve flew the cloud that would still take a turn.
Director Cal Moss at Range Works released the twelve in a note that called the absence a clinic. At 15:30 he told the pool the league schedule was intact. Dustwick against the North Spur, listed Wednesday, is now Friday. Moss said the turf needed rest. The turf log shows a paint crew on the field from Sunday through Wednesday night, on the same lines as Hollow's booking. Wednesday had been the home match. Friday is the home match with the numeral gone.
Union Resistance, which covers the chargers on league time, was left off the release copy. The rate card in the union hall prices a clinic and an appearance on separate lines. Windfall Margin published the appearance line at 16:05, ahead of Gloss. Gloss called the sum travel. The Margin line lists 36,000 bits a flyer for each of the twelve, and 18,000 bits for the wing, paid to the loaning office.
The packet Gloss handed the pool runs nine pages. Inside it: the crowd estimate, the poster, the sentence about enthusiasm, and a map of the South Benches with Bench Seven filled in the league's home red. The wind posting, the hail time, the Friday move, and the registrar's book stayed in the post.
The night book, checked after Gloss sat down, listed a vote on the six South Benches for none of the twelve.
