Daring Do and the Cloud-Held Eternity

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Prologue

[A/N This story was written as part of a collaborative effort to write the entire Daring-Do series described on the Just For Fun/Daring-Do page on TV Tropes (that page has spoilers). This series consists of sixteen main Daring-Do books and four Young Daring-Do books. I have the pleasure of presenting the fourth book in the Young Daring-Do series: Daring-Do and the Cloud-Held Eternity. I would like to thank Whiles34, my Story Consultant, and Tutis75, my Editor. Now, I do hope you enjoy my story. ~Trivial

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all associated characters are (c) Lauren Faust and Hasbro, Inc.]

Young Daring Do Series: Book 4
Daring Do and the Cloud-Held Eternity

PROLOGUE

I must’ve been crazy, the pegasus thought as he was buffeted by the strong winds. I should have surrendered! Anything that could happen to me in this storm is worse than the Guard! The Guard, at least, would never kill me! A clap of thunder stunned the nearly panicked pony and he felt himself being carried higher by a strong updraft. He felt the temperature drop suddenly and snapped out of his daze. At least there isn't a lot of lightning. As though the storm had heard him, a bright bolt flashed nearby. He screamed and his heart skipped a beat. He forced himself to breathe slowly. OK, the only way I’ll get out of this is to stay calm! There! That looks like the top! As he pulled his way through the dark clouds, the pegasus fought against a strong wind that threatened to drag him back down towards the ground. After what felt like an eternity, just when he felt exhausted and doubted whether he could continue, his head broke the cloud surface. He climbed out and stood on top of the storm.

Letting out a sigh of relief, the stallion pulled a mass of cloud from the storm and leapt on top. He gave it a few quick stomps to relieve the cloud of any excess moisture and carried it upwards, away from the thunderstorm. When he felt he was far enough, he lay down and watched the storm roll away below. I doubt even the Royal Guard will follow me through that. Escaping the Guard had been the one thing on his mind when he entered the wild storm over the Everfree Forest, outside of Canterlot. His luck had been incredible, and he knew it.

The adrenaline was wearing off and he immediately felt dead tired. His entire body started to ache; particularly his wings, which felt like they were just about to fall off. He stretched out his left wing, then his right, and surveyed the damage. Lost a few feathers, but it won’t keep me from flying. He started to wonder at his apparent luck, when he began to shiver violently. He hadn't payed attention the cold since leaving the storm — pegasi don’t feel cold as much as other ponies — but the fact that he was dripping wet made it worse. Furthermore, dusk was fast approaching and he couldn’t count on the sun warming him for much longer. Great…I’ll probably have a bad cold for the next few days, he thought as he burrowed into the center of the small cloud and quickly fell asleep.

He awoke to the morning light filtering through his cloud. Yawning, he stretched and dug himself out of the makeshift shelter. Hmm, it’s still pretty cold. I wonder how far up I am. He glanced over the edge of his cloud and nearly bolted back inside. He was very high up: much higher than he had ever flown before, much higher than any sane pegasi would ever fly. The winds must have carried his cloud higher as he slept.

Trembling, he held the cloud tight as he searched for anything that might be considered a safe harbor. He spotted a lone mass of clouds even higher than he was. Since it was the only thing he saw, other than the ground far, far below, he decided to steer his cloud towards it. The string of clouds turned out to be both further and larger than he guessed. Finally, he reached the bottom of the nearest edge and flew up, landing on the surface. He took a moment to look out over the new cloudscape. His eyes grew wide.

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

You’re being stupid, Daring-Do, said a tiny voice in the back of Daring’s head. The mustard-yellow pegasus told the voice to shush up as she checked everything in the balloon’s gondola. Good! Everything’s packed and secure, she thought as she tucked the inventory list into her shirt pocket, We can lift off as soon as Shifty gets back. Even though both Shifty Gaze and she were pegasi, they were travelling by balloon for two reasons: first, they were packing a lot of equipment and supplies, and second, their destination was very high up. So high that nopony would willingly fly at that altitude without a balloon or airship.

While she waited for Shifty to return, Daring thought over the past few days. Less than a week ago, she was facing a long and boring summer. She was getting the reputation as something of a bad omen in the Equinology Department — whether she deserved it or not — and, as a result, none of the faculty had invited her on any expeditions over the summer. She couldn’t even count on the re-shelving job at the University Library; after what happened the week before finals, Guiding Light probably wouldn’t want to see her for a few months. With no prospect of adventure, Daring was planning on camping out at the Canterlot Public Library. That is, until she was approached by Shifty Gaze.

Shifty had transferred into the Department during the last semester and was a somewhat mediocre student, although he seemed experienced in archaeological methods and research. Daring guessed that he was the son of a couple of archaeologists and followed his parents into the field as a foal. Shifty took an immediate interest in the other students, asking pointed questions about their experiences and backgrounds. Yet, he avoided giving a straight answer to any questions asked about his own life. Daring found that she didn’t like talking to him much, although she never avoided him either.

True to his name, Shifty was always fidgeting or glancing from side to side, as though he was hiding something. His manner of speaking, while very proper, was in stark contrast to his demeanor. Furthermore, his cutie mark had the unfortunate form of a knife, which Daring found both odd and disturbing. Sure, he said his special talent was salad-making, but really! Something was definitely up with that pony.

Days ago, the brick-red pegasus found Daring as she was leaving her apartment and offered her the opportunity to travel out into the field with him. She was prepared to refuse until he said the word “Cloudyon.”

That name caught her interest: Cloudyon! The Lost City of the Pegasi, the stronghold of “Mad Commander” Hailstorm! It was a legend that fascinated all pegasi, but particularly Daring-Do. She recalled hearing the tales of the Cloud-Held Eternity, the Temple of Thunderheads, and other wonders ever since she was a filly. She had heard that her parents had always wanted to find Cloudyon’s ruins and her father's journal had even hinted that they were even planning an expedition as they were leaving to search for the Platinum Crown. She’d give her wings for a chance to go there! She wondered how Shifty knew the ancient cloud-city’s location when nopony had even come close to finding it in more than a thousand years.

It turned out that Shifty not only claimed he knew where to find it, but he was planning to go there that week. He wanted to know if she would come along, because he didn’t want to go alone, and it always helped to have an experienced adventurer in such places. Now, Daring didn’t trust Shifty half as far as she could throw him, but if he was telling the truth (and, in this case, something told her he was) she wasn't going to let something like a few nagging suspicions ruin what might be the chance of a lifetime. Sure, she’d have to keep an eye (probably both) on Shifty but, after all, she’d faced nasty dinosaurs and even weirder creatures before. She should be able to handle a single pegasus, especially one who was smaller than her.

Daring’s thoughts were interrupted by Shifty suddenly appearing at her side. “Is everything ready to go?” he lied. Daring’s eyes went wide, and then she relaxed again.

“Yeah,” she replied, “Let’s go.”

Come on, Daring, it was a question. How could he be lying a question? The tiny voice replied: You’re being stupid, Daring-Do.

***

It was lunchtime before Daring decided to find out how much Shifty knew about their destination. They had left shortly after dawn and neither had spoken much during the morning. Daring spent her time preparing a new field journal, checking the compasses and equipment, and other tasks.

Normally she wouldn’t be so careful, but cloud-digs were different than normal ones in two ways. First, a team working at a cloud site would have to rely only on the food and equipment that they brought with them, and they were often unable to resupply for days (archaeologists on long-term digs usually had to arrange regular deliveries). Daring had asked Shifty whether he had made such an arrangement. He replied only with a curt “Of course!”

The second way that cloud expeditions were different was that, in most cases, only pegasi went on them. This meant that such a team could not count on an earth pony’s strength or unicorn’s magic to help with the dig. While the cloud-walking spell was common enough, it didn’t last long enough when cast on a living being to be feasible. Nopony wanted to risk the spell running out while stuck somewhere they could not escape (and thousands of feet above the ground). Much of the equipment also had to be enchanted so that it wouldn’t fall through the clouds.

Shifty had spent the morning deep in thought, only interrupting his meditation to ask Daring to change course or give some other small instruction. Daring looked again at the small red pegasus with the olive mane. She was certain he was planning something, but couldn't guess what. She was glad that she had taken the time to write Darrin to let him know what she was doing.

"So, you're certain that you know where Cloudyon is?" Daring asked as she chewed on a lettuce leaf. Whether she believed his explanation about his cutie mark or not, Shifty did make a mean salad.

“Yes,” Shifty replied peevishly, “I believe that I mentioned that I was there before.”

Daring hadn’t thought much of Shifty’s story when he told it to her. According to him, he had been to Cloudyon as part of a survey expedition sponsored by the University of Trottingham. He had apparently done all of the work while the professionals lounged about, doing nothing. The survey ended when funding ran out and the University was still analyzing the results, which was why they weren't published yet.

After thinking about it for a while, Daring decided to reject the entire tale out-of-hoof, except for the idea that Shifty had actually been to Cloudyon. The few descriptions that he bothered to share were too detailed for him to have made up: so, unless this was an incredibly elaborate and stupid prank, she would have to accept that Shifty had found the lost city. Of course, if it was an elaborate and stupid prank, well, it wouldn’t be pleasant for the smaller pegasus.

Daring rolled her eyes, “Yeah… So anyway, what can you tell me about it?”

Shifty stared at her for a moment and then said, “I’m not sure how many of the legends you’re familiar with, so I’ll start at the beginning.”

This earned another eye-roll, “I’m not a little filly, y’know. I know the legends.”

“Do you want to hear what I have to say, or not?” Shifty asked, glaring at the adventurer. Daring grunted, but motioned for the other pegasus to continue. “The legends are important. Many of them are true. I just want to make sure you know everything so we don’t run into any trouble.”

Daring interrupted again with a snort, “If you don’t want to run into trouble, then you’ve picked the wrong pegasus. I always seem to run into trouble.”

“Are you done? May I continue?” Shifty chided.

Shifty received Daring’s answering glare with a smirk and continued speaking, “As I was saying, as you are coming with me I assume that you do not believe any of the more childish legends concerning Cloudyon, such as 'great misfortune befalls all visitors,' or 'Cloudyon can only be found by those who know where it is,' or any other rubbish such as that.

“Of the legends that aren’t patently absurd,” the red peagsus continued, “three are of particular interest: the Cloud-Held Eternity, the Grand Armory of the Pegasi, and Hailstorm’s Rebellion. The Cloud-Held Eternity is a mythical well that, when filled with pure rainwater, will make anypony submerged in the water young again. Now, the tale is so fantastic that most archaeologists do not believe such a thing ever existed. I think, however, that it may indeed have existed and I might even know where it was kept.”

Daring’s ears pricked up. “Wait, are you saying that you’ve found the Eternity?!”

Shifty looked back, “No, I just said that I might have learned where it was, if it existed. Even if it did, I doubt that it would still be there now.”

Daring deflated a little, “Oh.”

“Moving on, the Grand Armory was said to hold the greatest and most terrible weapons created by the Ancient Pegasi. It is said that the Commanders used to threaten the unicorns and earth ponies with the contents of the Armory and that this prevented many wars that would have been fought otherwise. Now, the Armory probably never really existed. If it had, I’m sure that Hailstorm would have used the weapons inside to support his uprising.

“This brings me to Hailstorm’s Rebellion, which is really more historical fact than legend. Captain Hailstorm, upset at Commander Hurricane’s declaration of peace with the unicorn and earth pony tribes, pronounced himself Commander of All Pegasi and declared war on Equestria. This war lasted about seven months before Hurricane smashed through Cloudyon’s defenses and captured Hailstorm. Hailstorm was stripped of his rank and duties, and was forbidden to return to Cloudyon or associate with his former military units, but was officially forgiven and set free. Cloudyon itself was abandoned when the pegasi decided to live closer to the other ponies.”

Daring sighed and flicked her black-and-gray tail, “Now that you’ve gone over what everypony already knows, what can you tell me about Cloudyon? I mean, like, how it is now?” Shifty looked around for a moment, searching the sky.

“You’ll be seeing it for yourself shortly. Look.” He pointed his hoof out and upwards. Unfortunately, it was also towards the sun. Daring squinted and thought she could just make out a dark string of clouds set against Celestia’s charge.

“That’s Cloudyon, huh?” Daring asked a touch skeptically, as she blinked the spots from her eyes. Daring looked back at Shifty and found him smirking again. She swore that he seemed to enjoy making her look into the sun.

“It is indeed,” Shifty returned, “We’ll be there within the hour.”

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

The approach to Cloudyon had been strenuous. The winds around the city were surprisingly calm, given its altitude. The ancient weatherworkers must have put up permanent windbreaks around the city, Daring marveled. She looked around, searching for the telltale cloud-walls of the windbreak, but saw none; only open sky. She shuddered; as far as she knew from her classes, Ancient Pegasi needed to use the same methods as their modern descendants. So what was breaking the wind? Daring wondered, Okay, this is already eerie.

The calm air forced the two adventurers to tow the balloon to the city and set it down on a clear place near the cloud edge. They set the cloud-anchors and tied down the balloon before Daring took a good look at the city in front of her. She was stunned. While Cloudyon was far from perfectly preserved, it had fared a great deal better than any other Ancient Pegasus city she’d ever seen. Many of the walls and roofs were disintegrating and a couple of the more permanent structures were collapsing, but wow!

A tap on her shoulder startled Daring. She turned to find Shifty looking at her once again with that annoying smirk on his face. Daring took a second to compose herself, folding her wings back into place, and glared at the small pegasus. “What?!”

“Nothing,” he replied, passing Daring her saddlebags. He had already put on his own and turned to walk towards the city proper. Daring quickly threw her saddlebags across her back, adjusted her trusty pith helmet, and followed.

As they walked, Daring tried to recall what she knew about Ancient Pegasus cities. It appeared that they were on the Governing Cloud, usually the largest and lowest cloud. She looked up and scanned some of the higher clouds. She quickly identified the arena, the weather-training field, and a few others. She couldn’t quite make out what was on the highest cloud, but remembered that houses were usually built there.

If Cloudyon’s Governing Cloud was like those of other Pegasus cities, then where they had landed should have been just outside the Barracks Square. Beyond the Square would be hospitals, parks and other features. Further on would be the marketplace, granaries, and, at the opposite end, the port. Daring was glad that they did not have to walk (or fly) across the entire cloud to get to the interesting stuff. Her energy could be put to better use exploring.

Archaeologists used the term "Barracks Square" to refer to the administrative sector of an Ancient Pegasus city. It was so called because the largest and most central building in the Square was, of course, the Barracks. More than just a home for soldiers, the Barracks served as an armory, a gymnasium, a records office, and a court of law. It was also where the Captain would conduct much of his business ruling the city.

Daring’s eyes widened as she saw a vast chasm where the Barracks should have been. She looked both ways and saw that the canyon stretched from one side of the cloud to the other. "Was it like this the last time you were here?" she asked Shifty.

"Of course it was," he answered, "Do you think I would have missed this?”

“Well, didn’t you think it was worth was worth mentioning?” Daring shot back.

Ignoring his colleague’s question, Shifty replied: “All I can tell you is that it’s too big to be the result of battle damage. This was done after the Rebellion.”

"Yeah," Daring agreed, "This looks like storm damage. Still could have happened during battle, though." Ancient Pegasus warfare usually involved the creation of a huge storm, which both sides would try to push into their opponent's lines or fortifications. It wasn’t unheard-of for a battle-storm to go out of control and do a lot more damage than intended. But Daring had to admit that Shifty was probably right: this was a lot more damage than a single storm could have done, at least a storm that could have been created in less than a week.

Hurricane sure wanted to get his message across, Daring thought in awe as they approached the gaping fissure. She glanced at the edges of the chasm, keeping an eye on Shifty. She still did not trust him, although she didn't believe he would try to push her over the edge. Anypony who tried that with a pegasus usually ended up with a very angry pegasus, and, besides, Shifty was certainly smarter than that.

As she carefully approached the edge and looked over, she noticed that the chasm did not go all the way through to the bottom of the cloud. In fact, it didn't even go halfway through. Instead, at the bottom she saw a couple of large, exposed rooms. Shifty noticed Daring's interest: "Storage rooms," he said, "Empty and, quite frankly, uninteresting compared to anything else here." Shifty pointed across the chasm to his left, where Daring saw a relatively small mansion resting on top of a cloud-hill with a grandiose stair leading up to it. "That would be the palace. Straight ahead is the main avenue that leads into the rest of the cloud," he pointed right, again across the gap, "And there-"

Daring held a quick breath, and then squealed, "Ohmigoshomigoshohmigosh! The Temple of Thunderheads! It's real!" She took wing immediately and bolted toward the structure, only to be pulled back by her tail. "Hey! What'd you do that for?!" She shouted at the other pegasus.

Shifty spit her tail out of his mouth and said, "Calm down, Ms. Do. That is indeed our destination. We have plenty of time: no need to rush in. It would probably be better if we set up camp directly on the other side of the fissure. Then, when we have our equipment ready, we can go see it."

Daring replied with a snort and crossed her forelegs, still hovering in the air. "You're no fun at all. So, what are we waiting for?" With that, both explorers flew back to the balloon and began unpacking.

***

By the time they had finished setting-up camp and ate a quick dinner, it was already late afternoon. Despite Shifty’s protests, Daring insisted that they explore the Temple immediately. As she stood at the foot of the steps leading up to the Temple, she gazed in wonder at its façade. It was the second largest temple of its kind that Daring had ever seen (only the Temple of Unity in Pegasopolis was larger) and, amazingly enough, the storm clouds that were used to build the structure were still preserved.

Most pegasus weathercrafters knew how to shape clouds into walls or platforms as hard and durable as stone (although non-pegasus ponies would still fall through), but doing so was especially tricky with thunderheads. Not only did protections have to be placed to prevent ponies from being shocked, but a storm cloud ran out of energy over time, eventually becoming a normal white cloud. This was the fate of all known Ancient Pegasus temples that existed today: while originally built out of thunderheads they have since degraded. That this one remained stormy was baffling; Daring guessed that maybe only one or two pegasi living today had the skill to create a storm cloud that lasted for even a few decades. Great, even more weirdness.

Giving a final reverent look at the gray columns and cornice, she started up the steps and entered into the colonnade. She flinched as lightning suddenly flashed inside a column next to her, small sparks arcing up and down the shaft. Gotta give it to them; they certainly knew how to build something intimidating, Daring thought. When she finally reached the temple entrance, she noticed that the Temple doors were gone from their frame, but went inside with little hesitation.

The interior of the Temple was nothing less than a wonder to behold. Late-afternoon sunlight filtered through the pane-less windows in the west wall and reflected off the gray walls and columns, giving the inside an odd greenish glow. The stormy clouds made the inside dim enough that she could not see the far end of the Temple, other than small areas that were briefly illuminated by quick flashes of lightning. She was standing in the central aisle, which was flanked on both sides by a double-row of smaller cloud-columns. The air smelled heavily of ozone and Daring could hear the quiet, but constant rumble of suppressed thunder. So this is how the Storm Elders were meant to be honored, the explorer marveled as her fur, mane, and tail started to frizz out.

The Storm Elders were the legendary Mothers and Fathers of the Pegasi, who taught their children how to shape clouds and control the weather. The Ancient Pegasi built temples, not to worship the Elders, but to honor them by showing off their weatherworking skill. According to legend, after Princesses Celestia and Luna defeated Discord, the pegasi decided to show their respect by re-dedicating their temples to the Royal Sisters. The Princesses found this practice distasteful and put an end to it, explaining that they were not to be treated as conquerors. After that, no further temples were built and the existing ones soon fell into disuse.

I can't wait to rub this all in Derring's muzzle when I get back! thought Daring, relishing the idea of making her older sister jealous. Daring's relationship with her sister had never been close, particularly after her parents disappeared. Derring was left to take care of her and their younger brother, Darrin (whom Daring was much more fond of): an arrangement that never suited the independent older sister. As soon as her siblings were able to look after themselves, she went away to school and only bothered to check up on them every few months. Not only did she share the same passion for equinology as Daring, but she was also very good at it and was beginning to make a name for herself in the field, a fact that annoyed Daring to no end. What made it nearly intolerable, though, was that she never missed an opportunity to let Daring know just how good she was. Daring long ago resolved to outdo her sister, and was only beginning to realize just how hard she would have to work to do it. But that was alright: Daring was always up for a challenge.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” Shifty said from behind her, causing Daring to yelp in surprise. Why do I keep letting him sneak up on me like that? she wondered. It seemed as though Shifty had the uncanny ability to escape her notice whenever it suited him. Thinking about it made Daring shiver; for the first time, she wondered if Cloudyon was worth the constant paranoia she felt when she was around her companion. “Come on,” the smaller pegasus continued, “What we are interested in is at the other end.”

“Why? What are ‘we’ interested in?” Daring asked pointedly.

“Why, the Eternity, of course. I did mention that I thought I knew where it was.”

“O-Oh, yeah. Right!” Daring replied. Shifty was right; that did interest her. She followed him as he walked down the center of the aisle, making sure to stay at least a pony-length behind him.

Her lingering misgivings were soon forgotten as they walked across the Temple. Along the walls, behind the double-rows of columns, she saw alcoves containing cloud-sculptures depicting the Storm Elders. She also saw an elaborate network of pools and channels that once held liquid rainbows, but their contents had long since dissipated. She pulled her field camera out of her saddlebag and started snapping some pictures of the art and architecture.

“We’ll have plenty of time for that later,” snapped Shifty, “it’ll be getting dark soon and I would like to see where I am going.”

“Well, sooorrr-y,” replied Daring, rolling her eyes, “This stuff needs to be documented, y’know. It’s important to know what everything is like before we start disturbing it too much.”

Shifty sniffed, “You surprise me Ms. Do. You’re a lot less reckless than I thought you were.”

“Yeah,” said Daring, “but I prefer you to think that I’m a lot more awesome than you thought I was. Fine, we’ll do this later.” She dropped her camera back into her pack. They had walked into a more open space, the colonnade having ended, and Daring saw larger statues made of ice and adorned with actual pegasus armor on either side of the aisle. Daring guessed that these statues honored past Captains of Cloudyon.

The two pegasi crossed this area in silence. The sun was setting now and the Temple was quickly growing dark. Daring pulled a flashlight out of her bag and clicked it on.

“I still think that we probably should have waited until morning,” Shifty said, turning towards her and pulling out a flashlight of his own.

“Awwww, are you scared of the dark?” Daring shot back. She smiled at the frosty glare she got in return and said, “Trust me. I can find my way anywhere in the dark.”

Shifty leveled another gaze at her, and then continued walking. “We’ll be there soon anyway. If it’s too dark, we’ll just leave and come back in the morning.”

“Fine.”

***

Before long, the explorers reached another colonnade close to the rear of the temple. Behind the stormy columns, Daring made out a small windowless chamber that was only slightly wider than the aisle itself. Thanks to the waning light, she could not make out the height of the room. She recalled that these chambers, called cellae, were used by the Temple Keepers to hold important objects, such as particularly valuable works of art or trophies from battle. Unlike the entrance to the temple, the chamber’s door was both intact and shut.

“Here we are,” said Shifty as they approached the door. Daring gave it a look, up and down. Ever since she had earned her cutie mark, Daring had a sixth sense about what might be on the other side of any given door. She had expected to feel a sense of reverence, wonder, or at least interest. Right now, however, she was getting the distinct impression that whatever was on the other side of that door meant only one thing: trouble.

“Ok, let’s do this,” Daring said, putting her apprehension behind her as she examined the portal. A thin bolt of lightning was snaking across it, bouncing off the edges at different angles: a lightning seal. Daring had never actually seen a lightning seal before, but she knew enough about pegasus security practices to be somewhat familiar with them. Modern pegasi still used them for high security purposes. These locks not only held a portal shut, but delivered a powerful stroke of lightning to anypony who tried to open the door without first knowing a certain trick. After taking a closer look at the seal, Daring guessed that its strength had degraded over time and it would do no more than give a painful shock to a would-be burglar.

Still, we shouldn’t take any chances, she thought, taking a step back. Since this seal was made before all the modern techniques, the key should be pretty simple. She looked around the door and noticed two barely-noticeable tufts of cloud sticking slightly out of the frame, one at each top corner. Aha! This must be it, she thought as she flew up to give the tufts a closer look.

Daring carefully pushed on one of the tufts with her front hoof, looked down at the door, and then nodded smugly. She turned around and gave it a sharp kick, causing the tuft to sink into the surrounding frame. She did the same to the other tuft and the lightning seal disappeared. “Wait!” she shouted as Shifty was about to push on the door. Almost immediately, the bolt flickered back to life and the tufts reappeared. A part of her wondered exactly why she had warned her companion, instead of just letting him learn his lesson, but she quickly dismissed the errant thought. “Ok, I’ll push them in again. When I kick the second one in, you kick the door open immediately. It appears that this door needs to be opened by two ponies.”

Shifty complied, and the two were rewarded with a deafening clap of thunder. “Looks like they had an alarm, too,” Daring said after her ears stopped ringing. The door opened and the explorers entered the chamber, which was completely empty except for a stairway that descended into the cloud. Down below, Daring saw more bright flashes of lightning accompanied by rolling thunder. Yeah. Definitely trouble, she thought. Sometimes, I hate it when I’m right.

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

The stairway had been a long one, going at least several stories deep into the center of the Governing Cloud. Daring stood at the bottom of the stairway and examined the room before her, which appeared to be an elongated chamber, empty except for a few small storm clouds floating about. Small lightning bolts flashed in brilliant cascades, arcing between the walls, ceiling, storm clouds, and floor. A soft clap of thunder followed each bolt, producing a constant (and somewhat unsettling) rumbling. Between the flashes, Daring spied an open doorway in the opposite wall.

"I’m actually beginning to agree with you, Shifty; the Eternity might be down here, after all. Only something that valuable would need this kind of protection," she said as she stepped towards the lightning-illuminated room. When she didn’t hear a reply, Daring looked back over her shoulder, only to find the red pegasus staring straight forward with his mouth open. "What is it now?" Daring asked, annoyed.

"Y-y-you want us to go through that?!" stammered Shifty.

"Well, yeah!" replied Daring, as though the answer was obvious, "I mean, I thought you were studying archaeology. What did you expect? Sitting in a lab, doing research? Just do everything I do and you'll be fine."

"But we really should be getting back to camp! We can come back in the morning," Shifty said, trying to hold his voice steady.

"Look," Daring said flatly, "it doesn’t matter what time it is — this thing is in our way and we'll have to cross it. Since we're here now, let's just get it over with. Besides, we’ll have plenty of time after we find the Eternity."

Shifty composed himself and nodded for Daring to go ahead. She took a few steps forward, looking up and down the room. Despite her bravado when chiding her companion, Daring was also a little nervous. She was still pretty new at navigating these ancient security systems; sure, she'd been through dangers before, but she never encountered one quite like this. However, if she knew her stuff (and she was pretty certain she did), they usually had some sort of trick that allowed safe passage. After all, what if one of the builders or Keepers needed to get through in a hurry? I just have to find out what it is.

As she examined the walls and floating clouds, she noticed subtle, but definite bright spots that faced each other. Frequently, a bolt of lightning would arc from one bright spot to another. After watching them for a few minutes, she noticed something interesting: lightning seemed to only travel between particular pairs of these spots. Hmm. I wonder if… Daring thought as she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out an apple with her teeth. She flicked her neck, throwing the apple across the room. It sailed about halfway before crossing a pair of bright spots. Sure enough, a bolt of lightning darted out and hit it, causing it to explode. Whoa, talk about a baked apple! She took a moment to chuckle at Shifty’s sudden flinch, and then went back to examining the room. She had seen what she needed to.

"The lightning follows pre-determined paths," Daring explained, "The apple wasn't struck until it crossed the path of a bolt. None of the bolts it passed by before went out of their way to strike it. We’ll just have to take this slowly."

With that, Daring took one last look at the area directly before her, but stepped forward and to her left. As she did so, a bolt struck at the exact spot she would have been had she stepped forward. Daring anticipated this; Shifty, however, had not: he yelped and jumped about a foot and remained hovering in the air.

"Jeez, Shifty!" Daring hissed, "Relax! You keep doing that and you won't make it outta here! Now follow me! And land. We need to walk across this room. Flying will probably make you a better target." As Daring looked up, it seemed that her guess was indeed correct: there were more flickers of lightning from above then there were closer to the floor. Makes sense, Daring reasoned. The cloud-floor alone was enough of a barrier to most unicorns and earth ponies, although she was certain that some traps they would probably encounter would be equally effective against all intruders.

Taking another quick look around, Daring stepped into the space directly in front of her. Shifty landed and, gulping, stepped into the space that Daring had just moved out of, causing the same bolt to strike to his right. He managed to avoid jumping that time, but still looked terrified. Daring chuckled again and moved forward. She wasn't mean-spirited, but, after everything Shifty put her through, she was going to enjoy this.

***

It had taken them a painstaking half-hour to make their way across the lightning room, and Daring had developed a headache from the flashing lightning and peals of thunder, but did her best to ignore it as she studied the dim hallway ahead. There was no source of light, other than the flickering illumination from the room behind them. She noticed that she was now in a narrow hallway, and while she could clearly see the opposite side, the darkness did much to hide any features. Daring once again pulled her flashlight out and started running the beam along the walls, floor, and ceiling. She observed slots running across the ceiling, and each one was aligned with a corresponding groove in the cloud-walls.

"Anything that could come out of those can't be good," the explorer said, pointing the slots out to Shifty. She returned the flashlight to her bag and said, "When I say 'go' run down the hall as fast as you can. Be prepared to duck and don't fly." Suddenly, an idea came to her, "Hey!" she said, excited, "Betcha I can beat ya to the other end!"

"What?!" replied Shifty, still nervous after the trek across previous room. "When did this become a ra-"

"GO!" shouted Daring. The yellow pegasus galloped down the hallway. With that, heavy slabs of cloud began to slowly drop out of the slots. Daring reached the end of the hall and turned to check on Shifty. He hadn't been very close behind her. Still, he managed to clear four of the slabs with room to spare, and had to duck under the fifth. It was close, but he was across.

As Shifty ran towards her, Daring began to say "You lo-." She cut herself short when Shifty suddenly ran right past her and into the next room. "Wait! Don't go-" she started before she was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder.

The booming caused Shifty to skid to a halt. Daring flew up to him with a look that just might have caused the red pony to bust into flames. "Are you trying to get us killed?!" she shouted, landing in front of Shifty. He could only stammer an apology. Daring sighed and examined their new location. It appeared that they were in an empty, unlit shaft. The walls stretched into the darkness above. Daring felt a few drops of rain fall from the unseen ceiling.

Daring was about to fly up the shaft when the rain suddenly intensified to a hurricane-like deluge. Lovely! There goes my field journal and stuff! She thought, grumpily looking at her soaked bags. She then noticed that, not only was the rain keeping her from seeing anything more than a few feet in front of her, it was slowly flooding the chamber. She looked back at the doorway they had entered through and found it shut.

"We have to go up!" she shouted above the rain, "C'mon!" She looked to make sure Shifty had heard her and took off. "Still don't know why I'm looking out for him…" she grumbled to herself.

Flying in heavy rain was difficult at best, but this torrential downpour was simply unnatural. After a tremendous amount of effort, Daring looked around and guessed that she had only gotten about thirty feet off the ground and she was beginning to tire quickly. Jeez! I’m a pretty good athlete, but this is making me look ridiculous. There has to be another way. She looked to the only wall she was close enough to see clearly and spotted a ledge about five feet above her. There!

With another burst of energy, the explorer managed to fly to the ledge and landed, panting from the effort. It wasn't long before Shifty joined her, although there really wasn't enough room for both of them on it. Daring stumbled back against the wall and noticed that it was soft. "Aha!" she cried, "Do what I do!" She pulled a piece of cloud from the wall, large enough to cover her and got under it.

The makeshift umbrella worked, making it possible for Daring to continue the journey upwards. She noticed that Shifty had indeed done the same and was following below her. Unfortunately, the umbrella was soaking up the rain and was growing heavier by the minute. Just as she thought she would run out of energy, she saw a silver glow through the rain at her level. She flew towards it and found that the light radiated from a shallow alcove that contained another doorway. She landed on the ledge and sat down, thanking the heavens that she was out of the rain. Shifty arrived a minute later, looking just as spent as Daring felt.

“Should. Have…Waited. For…Morning,” Shifty gasped between wheezes.

“Quiet. You,” panted the young adventurer, catching some rain in her hat, giving it a sniff, and then drinking it.

After taking a few minutes to catch her breath, Daring stood again. "Now, I'm going on ahead. You're going to wait here until I say you can come in. Got it?" Daring said to her colleague, allowing no room for argument. The red pony simply nodded, looking relieved that he had gained a few more minutes of rest. Daring went through the door and found herself in a small vestibule lit with a silver glow. She took a look around, but didn't see any windows or outside exits, and guessed that mirrors were used to direct sunlight (or, at this time, moonlight) down into the room. At the opposite end of the vestibule was a double door wide enough for four ponies to walk through side-by-side. Another lightning seal streaked across these doors in an intricate pattern, and, if its brightness was any indication, this one was much stronger than the one they encountered before. The only other features in the small chamber were two rows of pedestals, one along either of the side walls. Each row consisted of three stands and upon each of them sat a small urn made out of ice.

“All right, come in,” she shouted out the door. Shifty flapped in and landed limply next to her, gazing across the room.

“So, Ms. Do,” he said, somewhat cavalierly, as they exchanged glances, “You’re the expert here. What do we do?”

Daring shrugged, “Find the key, I guess.” She walked over to the right-side wall and began examining one of the urns. While she did so, she took a moment to consider the nature of the traps they had already gone through. The first one was a laborious maze of thunder and lightning; the second, a quick run through slabs that would have trapped them; and the third was a tiring ascent that practically forced them to take a breather. Aside from the first, none of them had been particularly deadly, and even the lightning chamber had a fairly easy tell. A flash of insight hit her: These traps weren’t meant to kill intruders. They were meant to slow them down, presumably so guards had time to arrive and apprehend the trespassers.

This meant that, whatever the key to the door was, it would probably take some time to enact. Daring groaned; the trip so far had already tried her patience and she was near her breaking point. The last thing she needed was to waste more time. On the other hoof, if the Eternity was in here, it would be more than worth the effort she was making now. Just have to keep at it, I guess. Now then: I didn’t have to be a total egghead to pass the previous traps; hopefully this should be simple as well.

A closer look revealed that the bottom of the ice-urn was colored a deep purple, the result of dye being mixed in the water before freezing. She carefully lifted the vase off its pedestal and, after giving it a close inspection (and admiring its craftsponiship), glanced at the top of the cloudy pedestal. Carved into the top was the word κυπαρισσί. ‘Dark green,’ Daring translated, but this is purple. She thought about it for a minute and went to the next pedestal along the wall. This one had a dark green bottom and the word on the pedestal read “blue.”

She looked across the room and saw Shifty examining the pedestals on that side. “Do your vases have colored bottoms?” she called, “And is there a word written into the pedestal?”

“Yes, to both,” the red pegasus replied, “this one has a green bottom and the word says ‘kuavo’ or something like that.”

“’Kyanó’,” Daring corrected, annoyed, “It means 'blue.'” Just what kind of archaeologist is he, anyway? He can’t even identify Ancient Pegasus?! She shook away the thought and continued, “This looks simple enough. Move the urns so that the color matches the word.” She quickly explained which color went with which word and then they moved the urns. Nothing happened.

“Well, that was rather anticlimactic,” Shifty said, mockingly. “Any more brilliant ideas?”

“Shut up!” Daring returned. “Ok,” she thought aloud, “we have purple, green, and blue on both sides of the room. There are two possible reasons for that: either each urn must be moved to its corresponding pedestal on the other side of the room, or each must be moved and placed at the same time. Since two of us were needed to open the last lightning seal, I think the second is more likely. Why don’t we try that? We could always try the first if it doesn’t work.”

Shifty grunted an agreement, and the two explorers returned the urns to their original positions. They then did as Daring suggested. The lightning seal dissipated. “Yes!” Daring cried, and galloped to the doors. She made another quick examination of the portal before pushing the doors open with a great shove, and looked inside.

The doors opened into a much larger chamber, which was also lit by reflected moonlight. Daring noted that the room was also warmer than any other place in Cloudyon she’d been to so far. A quick scan revealed this room to be nearly featureless, except for a large, raised block of cloud that stood in the center, surrounded by steps. At each corner of the block stood a cloud-sculpture of a pegasus, each one pouring liquid out of an amphora. Oh, Celestia! This must be it! she thought excitedly.

Despite her relative inexperience in the field, Daring had learned that simply rushing towards a mysterious artifact, no matter how legendary, valuable, or astonishing, was a good way to get hurt. She controlled herself and took a few steps to the side, allowing her to see past the block. She noted an open doorway standing in the opposite wall — good to know if one had to make a quick escape.

"I think I can safely say that we found something," Daring said, trying to keep herself calm. Slowly, she walked toward the block, but continued looking around the room, expecting a trap at any moment. Looking up, she thought she saw the clouds above the raised platform shimmer in an odd way. The effect was very subtle; she realized that she would have missed it if she didn’t look carefully. It didn't look like any trap she had ever encountered or read about, and her instincts were telling her it was okay, so she turned her attention back towards the room's only feature.

She reached the bottom step and, after cautiously placing a hoof upon it, started climbing. When she reached the top, she let out a gasp. A great bowl-shaped depression, large and deep enough to fit at least two entire ponies sank into the center of the platform. Forgetting her previous carefulness, Daring quickly ran to the edge and looked into it. The empty pool was unlike anything she had ever seen before! It appeared to be made out of ice, but was colored a deep turquoise. Etchings spiraled across its otherwise smooth walls and floor. Huh, that's unusual. Pegasi usually didn't carve designs that intricate into their creations — that was more of a unicorn thing. Trying to further process that thought was proving fruitless, though, and Daring found her attention returning to a singular thought: The Cloud-Held Eternity is real, and I found it!

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Daring was ecstatic! This was sooooo awesome!!! Not even her discovery of the Valley of Grouchy compared to this! The first thought that entered her giddy mind was to find out if the Eternity still worked — to find out if it ever did. The legends said that the Eternity had to be filled with pure rainwater. Easy enough, she thought, flying back to the rain-trap. She noticed that the precipitation had stopped after they had exited.

Daring quickly pulled one of the dark clouds from the ceiling and brought it back to the Eternity. She carefully positioned the cloud above the well and kicked it to start the rain. As she did so, the small voice in the back of her head told her that this wasn’t a good idea. However, her excitement combined with her rash personality and together they immediately silenced the offending voice of reason. Leaning over the edge, Daring noticed that the etchings began to glow a vibrant blue color as soon as they were touched by the rising water. The adventurer’s eyes widened with excitement. “Yes! It works!” she shouted. Oblivious to all else, she leaned further forward and studied the swirls as their glow deepened in color.

The pool was large enough that, even though the entire cloud was emptied, the water was still about two feet below the edge. Daring decided that the water was easy enough to reach and immediately pulled a collection probe out of her saddlebag. The legends also say that a pony needs to be submerged in the water for it to work, she thought as she popped the cap off a sample vial and placed it at the end of the probe, but why take any chances. Holding the end of the probe in her mouth, she leaned forward to submerge the vial…

…and Daring wasn’t sure what happened. Suddenly, it was very cold and she was dizzy. She couldn’t breathe! She was underwater! Her survival instincts kicking in, she swam in the direction she thought was up and her head broke the water’s surface. She coughed out the water that she had inhaled and took a deep breath. A second later, she remembered feeling the push and tumbling into the well. Oh, no!

She attempted to tread water and found her forelegs entangled in cloth. A terrible feeling began to form in her stomach when she realized that it was her shirt, which was suddenly larger than it had been. Diving back under the water, Daring pulled herself out of the garment. Surfacing again, she noticed that right above her head was a layer of clouds, shimmering silver and blue. She shook her head to clear her ears.

Daring heard muffled laughter from the other side of the cloud layer: Shifty! “Hey! Wha’d you d-!” she began to bellow. She cut herself short when she heard that she was shouting in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. Some calmer part of her mind was beginning to put one and one together, and the only possible answer was not at all good.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Shifty’s laughing voice: “I can’t believe how fortunate I was! Here I was looking for a way to get rid of you, and an easy one presents itself.” Daring noticed that all of the class and propriety that was once a part of his voice was now gone.

Daring was baffled. “Why?!” was all she could think of to say.

“Why? Because you stopped being useful after you got me through that door,” Shifty sneered, indicating the portal they had just entered, “After that was done, you needed to be dealt with, so you wouldn’t get in my way. Personally, I find direct murder too messy — and I was hoping that it wouldn’t have to come to that. But then you conveniently gave me another way! And it worked! I just cannot believe my luck! This cloud-net is an added bonus.”

“You’re just a… a coward!” Daring shouted, finally coming to terms with what just happened.

“I may be,” replied Shifty, “but I don’t stay alive doing what I do by being brave. All brave ponies get is a nice memorial. Maybe you’ll get one! Regardless, there’s little you can do to stop me now. It doesn’t really matter whether you get out of that pool or not; you’ll never get off of Cloudyon. Enjoy the rest of your life!” Daring heard more laughter, which faded as Shifty apparently walked away.

“WHY-! YOU-! I’LL- I’LL GET IN YOUR WAY! YOU DUMB-” Daring started, but stopped when she realized it would be pointless. Shifty was right; there really was nothing she could do. She was stuck here.

***

Daring was a lot of things: she was a strong pony, she was a skilled pony, she even considered herself a smart pony. There were some things she wasn’t, though. Daring was not an easily defeated pony. NO! cried out a voice in Daring’s head, I’m not letting him beat me like that!

Neither was Daring a quiet pony. She rarely bothered to prevent a disturbance and liked changes of scenery (it was one of the reasons she chose to become an explorer). It also meant that she found it difficult to remain still even for a short while, and her confinement in this pool was forcing her to do just that. Born of this, a second voice joined the first. There must be a way out of here! I’m not going to just let him walk away! Daring looked up at the shimmering clouds above her and reached out to touch them. Ewwww, sticky! she thought, as the clouds clung to her hoof.

This must be the last trap to catch anypony who used the Eternity without permission, she reasoned while moving her hoof sideways through the cloud layer. This examination revealed that the cloud layer was soft and could be dug through, though it felt like tunneling out of very thick molasses. It’s not meant to kill, but by the time somepony got out of it, the whole army could be waiting on the other side.

Daring kicked herself up and starting digging into the cloud-net. Suddenly, she heard a shouted curse, followed by the sound of hooves echoing as somepony galloped across the room. There was no need to guess who that was. Stupid Shifty! Curse his sudden but inevitable betrayal! Why’s he still here anyway?

Just thinking about her former colleague was enough to make her work faster and, after a long while, she finally pulled herself out of the sticky clouds. She looked back down into the hole she had created and saw her clothes, saddlebags and pith helmet sitting at the bottom of the Eternity. She scowled. She didn’t want to risk diving back into the Eternity to get them; she didn't think she would become any younger, but this day wasn’t exactly looking up for her. Besides, they would no longer fit. As she stared at her beloved helmet, a sudden rage overtook her. HE MADE ME LOSE MY HAT!!!

Energized by her anger, Daring bolted back out the door and through the vestibule, halting as she arrived at the long drop of the rain trap. Before giving it another thought, she jumped onto a cloud-umbrella that had been left behind and, fluttering her tiny wings, drove it downwards. She just barely registered the fact that the rain did not start again, but quickly dismissed it as unimportant.

She tumbled off as the cloud as it impacted the floor and broke apart. Jumping up, she ran through the following hallway, her short stature allowing her to easily pass under the falling slabs, which had somehow reset themselves. Her determination (and her good memory) allowed her to work her way back through the lightning chamber in about a third of the time it had taken her to get through before. She raced up the steps, across the Temple, and out the door.

The freezing air hit Daring like a wall. Still wet from her ordeal, she shivered and suddenly found herself out of energy. She stumbled down the Temple’s steps and fell on the cloud surface. Weakly, she sat up and pulled a bit of the cloud around her as a makeshift blanket. It wasn’t the best insulation, but it was much better than nothing.

The cold wasn’t the only problem, however. The adrenaline began to wear off, and her thoughts finally had a chance to catch up with her. As Daring warmed up, she looked around. There was no sign of Shifty anywhere. She looked up at the western sky and saw the moon, larger and brighter than she had ever seen it before. The dark head of the Mare in the Moon stood in stark relief against the silver light. Daring shivered again, though not from the cold: she recalled tales of Nightmare Moon returning from her prison to gobble up little foals. Is it just my imagination, or is Nightmare Moon… looking at me? As she gazed at the terrible visage, despair began to creep into her mind.

Daring took a closer look at herself, confirming her fears. Her body was now that of a tiny filly, one too young to even begin flight school. She stretched her small wings and gave them an experimental flap. The resulting wind should have been enough to disrupt her cloud-blanket. Instead, the blanket only lifted a little bit. Daring felt she should have been panicked, but all she felt was an empty hopelessness. Shifty’s right, she thought, forlornly, There’s no way I’m ever getting offa this cloud.

Looking around, Daring was suddenly overwhelmed by the sudden hugeness of the Temple’s facade. From her new perspective everything looked more intimidating, and much, much scarier. Every shadow looked like it could eat her whole. Every flash of lightning made her want to jump. Each pillar towered ominously over her and even the steps seemed to stretch out forever.

Feeling strangely agoraphobic, she found the strength to look again over the rest of her body. As she looked at her shrunken limbs and tail, her fear increased.

Even worse, she saw that her cutie mark — the compass rose that proudly displayed her life’s purpose of exploration and adventuring — had disappeared. Now, Daring panicked. Oh no! My special talent is gone! What do I do?! How can I do anything?! Her thoughts continued in a downward spiral: even if she could get off of Cloudyon, how could she go back to the University? She wasn’t an archaeologist anymore! She’d have to go back to kindergarten! She couldn’t even begin to face her family. She’d have to run away and find a new talent. Her life, as it was, was over.

“C’mon, Daring. It’s time to go to kindergarten,” Darrin said, his voice thick with forced encouragement.

“Yeah, squirt. You go off to class, and let me become the famous archaeologist!” Derring added, a fake, sickeningly sweet grin on her face.

Daring blinked, looking down at herself. She was wearing a pink backpack, and a matching bow. “N-no, I’m a big pony! Really!” She cried out desperately, only to be interrupted by Darrin grabbing her.

“Now, Daring... You’re just a filly again. A young helpless filly that isn’t even old enough to earn their cutie mark.”

Before Daring could protest, she felt the scene transform and she suddenly found herself sitting at a giant desk, surrounded by ponies that made her look little more than a toy.

“Hey, look at my cutie mark! It’s a hurricane!”

“Mine’s a cupcake!”

“I got a cloud!”

Daring could barely keep up as dozens of voices bragged about their special talents, “I-I got a-“ she squeaked out, only to be interrupted by one of the massive colts.

“What cutie mark, blank flank? You’re not old enough to earn one!”

“Yeah,” added a nearby filly, “I don’t think you’re even old enough to be in kindergarten!”

Before Daring knew it, her environment once again changed and, when she finally got her bearings, she saw that she was trapped in a giant crib, surrounded by toys for foals.

“No! No, no, no! I’m not a foal! I’m a big pony! I’m a-. Her rant was suddenly interrupted when a bright purple pacifier entered her mouth. Her eyes widened as she fell back into the bed. Babbling helplessly she looked up, only to see one more nightmare.

Nightmare Moon herself hovered above her, with a hungry look in her eyes. She gave a dark grin that offered no mercy, than charged at her.

Daring gasped, waking up from the terrible nightmare. She hadn’t even felt herself fall asleep, but even knowing that it was all a dream didn’t help. She felt her fear redouble, and the deep feeling of hopelessness in her gut only got worse.

Not knowing what else to do, Daring pulled another layer of cloud over herself and, covering her head, she cried.

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Daring awoke to soft sunlight coming through her cloud-cover. She felt relieved; at least she hadn’t had another nightmare. She stuck her head out of the cloud and looked around. The morning sun was just rising above the cloud-edge. She turned around and was filled with horror as she found herself just a few feet in front of

the Temple’s steps. Then, she looked down and saw that she was, indeed, a filly!

She gasped, Oh, no! It wasn’t a nightmare!

She pulled herself out of the cloud and sat down to consider what she was doing to do now. Okay, I’m not going to panic like I did last night, she thought. The memories of the previous night returned to her in a blur. Excitement, anger, and fear all battled inside her mind, each suggesting a different course of action. Daring struggled to tamp down the emotions and think clearly, but she wasn’t getting very far.

Suddenly, a new and overpowering sensation hit her: hunger. She realized that she was starving. I have to get something to eat before I do anything, she thought. She recalled that she packed some sandwiches and apples in her saddlebags, but they (and her trusty hat!) were lost in the Eternity, out of reach. Guess I gotta go back to camp. Slowly, she pulled herself to her hooves and began trudging away from the Temple.

While she walked, Daring tried to keep her mind off her hunger and tried to make some sense of this situation. She was finally beginning to accept that she might have to live her foalhood all over again. I guess there are worse things that could happen, she thought to herself, trying to cheer herself up a little.

But, said the small voice in her head, that doesn’t even matter if you can’t get off this cloud. That deflated her one small bit of hope. Daring quickly ran through all the ways she could think of to get back to the ground, but all of them lead her to one conclusion: she needed help. There was absolutely no way she could leave by herself, not unless Shifty was stupid enough to leave the balloon unattended. She very much doubted that. She began to wonder; could Shifty really abandon somepony — a filly, even — when they were hopelessly trapped? He couldn’t just leave her to die up here. She didn’t think anypony was capable of that.

After a few minutes, Daring spotted the camp in the distance, still at the edge of the chasm they had encountered earlier. She picked up her pace; trying to remember what food she had left at camp. A second later, her eyes widened when she noticed a familiar brick-red form emerging from her tent.

A growl formed on the filly’s lips and she began to gallop. Seeing Shifty again stoked her anger. That, that, her mind stammered, I’m gonna-! She stopped mid-thought when she got close enough to see what Shifty was doing. Oh, he’s not…

It certainly looked like he was. He was taking the food from her cooler and stuffing it into one of his saddlebags. Next to him, she saw the other cooler lying on the cloud, already empty. It was unbelievable! Not only would he abandon a filly somewhere she couldn’t escape, he would leave her without food!

Daring could have kicked herself! She’d been so stupid to go anywhere with that guy! She knew he was a liar, yet she went with him anyway. Why?!

She didn’t have time to answer her own question. Daring had just reached the camp when, caught up in her anger and unfamiliar with her new body, the little pegasus suddenly tripped over her own hooves. She tumbled forward and hit the cloud surface with a high-pitched grunt. Shifty looked up at the noise and turned to face Daring. He burst out laughing.

“Well, well, well. Look at you! Aren’t you the cutest thing?” he sneered.

Daring was beyond words. She jumped back to her hooves, snorted, and charged at the other pegasus. Still laughing, Shifty waited until Daring got close, and then picked her up between his front legs.

Daring gasped, trying to wriggle out of his grasp. But Shifty was now much bigger and stronger, and he effortlessly held her. The older pegasus set her down, but continued to hold her in place. He suddenly delivered two hard smacks to her rump.

“There! Now, learn to behave around grown-ups or I’ll have to do it again.” He mocked.

Daring was shocked to actually feel like crying after that. Her younger body was apparently much more sensitive than before. Nevertheless, she didn’t hesitate to turn around and launch herself back towards the red pony. Shifty laughed again as he stopped her by pressing a hoof against her forehead, keeping her out of reach.

“I used to be weak and helpless like you are now,” he continued, “But I stopped being that way a long time ago. Bye now.”

With that, he gave her a hard push that sent her sprawling on her back. He quickly grabbed whatever was left in the cooler and took off, leaving a stunned Daring behind.

***

Daring lay on her back, sore and demoralized: her sound defeat caused her to lapse back into depression. She didn’t even bother to watch where Shifty flew off to, instead looking once again at her small body. Shifty’s words weak and helpless continued to echo in her head and, worse, her hunger came back with a vengeance. She rolled onto her stomach and stood up, only to sit back down again.

What’s the point? she thought, glancing at the empty coolers. Shifty took everything; I don’t have food. Even if I did, I’d still be stuck here.

The pegasus looked back up at the sky where Shifty had flown away, feeling a rare sense of having no idea what to do next. The situation was spiraling out of her control, and things kept getting worse.

“Shifty is gonna get away with this…” Daring muttered, trying to ignore her growing sense of defeat and hunger, “But I can’t just give up… can I?” Only the wind answered her.

With a long sigh, she began mentally forcing herself to regain the spirit that had saved her so many times before, with limited success.

Daring looked over at her tent, its flap still hanging open. She stood up and walked over to it and looked inside. It wasn’t as bad as she thought. Her sleeping bag and much of her personal items were untouched. Her saddlebags had been emptied and anything that Shifty considered “not useful” was scattered in one corner. As she stepped inside, Daring nearly put her hoof on top of a small, purple object. She glanced down; apparently, Shifty had dropped a plum.

She ate it quickly enough that she couldn’t remember the taste and looked around the tent to see if Shifty had left anything else behind. She sighed when she couldn’t find anything. I can’t just sit here and starve, but where can I find something to eat? She mused. Let’s see, wherever Shifty is. We also brought two coolers that we left in the balloon. Unless Shifty took everything there, too.

Daring thought over her recent encounter with Shifty and decided that she might as well check out the balloon. Of course, Shifty could be there, in which case she'd have to keep away until he left or was asleep. She was just too hungry to not take the chance, though. She left the tent and looked out towards where they had landed. She saw the top of the balloon, but it seemed further away than she remembered. Also, she had to cross the chasm to get to it.

She sighed dejectedly as she looked across the gap. Great. How do I cross this? She sat a moment and then shrugged. It was worth a try. She spread her tiny wings and began flapping as hard as she could. It took all her effort to lift a foot off the ground and she couldn’t maintain her hover for long. She fell back to the cloud, her wings aching. She had forgotten how hard that was.

She sighed again and thought. How did foals get from cloud to cloud in pegasus cities? Daring wasn’t sure; she grew up in Canterlot, where a pony could simply walk around. Her mind returned to the previous night, when her anger had fueled her pursuit of Shifty. The rain-room! Of course! She began pulling pieces of cloud from around her and putting them together.

When her makeshift cloud-raft was finished, she climbed aboard and, clinging tightly to it, began to flap her wings again. They were still pretty sore, but soon she was going fast enough that she was able to stop flapping and just let the cloud coast forward.

Before long, Daring reached the other side and jumped off her raft. Breathing heavily from the exertion, she looked towards the balloon again and noticed that it was no longer sitting on the surface of the Governing Cloud. Instead, it was about twenty feet above the surface, its landing ropes attached to two clouds about ten feet away on either side of the gondola. Shifty had been here, too. No surprise, thought the yellow filly, annoyed. She took a quick look around to make sure that he was gone.

On the plus side, Shifty had taken the effort to put the balloon out of reach. That meant that he was probably still using it to store supplies. Now all I have to do is get up there. Daring thought a while. She considered using her cloud-raft, but she doubted her wings could generate enough lift to pull the weight of herself and the cloud very high. Besides, her wings still felt like they were about to fall off from their previous efforts.

She had another idea. This isn’t going to be easy, but I bet it’ll work, she thought as she started pulling more cloud from beneath her. She formed another raft and, jumping upon it, reached out and pulled her first one over. She placed it a step above where she was standing and stepped up onto it. She reached down and pulled the new raft up, placing it another step above her feet and repeating the process.

Daring used her hoof-made stairway to slowly climb up towards the balloon’s gondola. The work was exhausting and, as she got higher, she began to run out of energy. Fortunately, she was getting close and her pride in her ingenuity was a good motivator. Only a few more feet, she thought, impatiently. She almost slipped on the next step, but managed to catch herself.

A minute later, Daring was level with the gondola. She let loose a heavy breath and carefully flapped her wings, so not to strain them again, moving the cloud to the basket’s edge. She peered in, and found herself hopping up and down in excitement. She had been right. Two small green coolers sat among softer tool bags, apparently untouched.

She jumped down next to one of them, opened it and saw that it did, have food. She grabbed a sandwich and, tearing off the paper, devoured it in a second. She then ate another one, this time taking a second to relish the taste.

Daring decided that one good thing about being a filly is that it takes less food to fill you up. Her hunger finally sated, Daring lay down in the gondola and closed her eyes, and tried to get some rest. She found that, despite her fatigue, she couldn’t fall asleep. Without her hunger to motivate her anymore, the dark thoughts returned, haunting her. After a few minutes, she decided it was no use and sat back up. She looked up and, upon seeing the burner her previous idea struck her once again. I can use the balloon to leave!

Suddenly filled with new energy, Daring stood up and jumped to try to reach the control valve on the burner. She came nowhere close. She looked through the equipment to see if there was anything she could use to reach the valve. There were a couple of shovels, but they proved too heavy for Daring to hold steady. Swinging a shovel at a gas control valve is probably a bad idea, anyway, she thought.

Finding nothing else, Daring tried stacking the coolers and jumping from that. She could barely reach the valve; the burner could be turned on, but the young pegasus doubted she could control it that way. She wasn’t even going to try jumping at it from the basket’s edge: she’d just as likely fall out of the balloon.

After a few more minutes of trying to reach the burner, Daring sat down on the cooler. It’s no use, she sighed, I have to find another way. She reluctantly decided that she would have to give up on the balloon idea. She’d have to go back to the cloud surface. Not all was lost, however. Even if she couldn’t use the balloon to escape, she now had the chance to take food and other supplies. She sighed again as she looked around. Getting everything she was going to need down to the cloud wasn’t going to be easy, and she was already tired.

She forced a look of determination onto her face. I have to get this stuff outta here now, she reasoned, If Shifty comes back, he’ll know I was here and probably take it all away! That thought prompted her to get to work.

***

It was more arduous than she imagined. Daring separated out all the equipment she thought would be useful (and wasn’t too heavy for her to lift) and put it all into one bag. She strained herself pushing the heavy load up over the basket’s edge and onto the cloud-raft. Luckily the bag was enchanted and didn’t fall through, she thought. After that, the explorer had pushed the coolers out onto the cloud; and watched in horror as the raft started to sink slowly under the weight. She tried to scramble onto it before it was out-of-reach, but only ended up falling back to the gondola floor.

Well, at least the stuff got down, Daring chuckled bitterly as she got back to her hooves. Now how do I get down? She remembered rejecting a heavy rope when she was sorting through the equipment. She found it and tied one end to one of the spare cloud anchors and took the other end in her teeth. Pain shot up her neck as she tried to toss the rope over the gondola’s side. After three tries, she got it over the edge.

As with most pegasi, heights didn’t bother Daring. She carefully shimmied down the rope and was soon standing next to the cloud-raft. All she felt like doing was lying down to rest, but she decided she had to get away in case Shifty came back. She had very few choices of where to go, however, and finally chose to head back to the camp, as Shifty seemed to have no interest in staying there.

Pushing the raft to the chasm and making the necessary two trips across the chasm to get everything across was an odyssey. After pulling the last cooler off the raft, Daring collapsed. The energy reserves that served her so well today were almost entirely spent and, furthermore, whatever motivated her was gone. Her depression returned with a vengeance. Despite her tremendous efforts, all the filly could think of was how hopeless everything seemed. She wished something would cheer her up.

As she continued with her thoughts, Daring noticed a shadow slowly surround her. She sighed dejectedly. “Great… just the thing I need,” she muttered wryly as she began to look up to find the shadow's source.

“HIYA, FILLY-DO!”

“GAAH!” Daring, suddenly startled out of her funk, jumped up and spun around to face the source of the impossibly bright voice. She immediately recognized the chocolate-brown earth pony with a fluffy deep brown mane and near-permanent, incredibly huge smile. Chocolat’ Jasmina Pie, “Coco” to her friends, described herself as a “travelling salespony,” but she really was more of a collector and trader of unusual and hard-to-get items. She was also a skilled information broker and seemed to know just about everypony in all of the major cities.

Daring met Coco during her first expedition, and the two got on well despite the earth pony’s odd quirks, extreme hyperactivity, and unflappable verve. It was Coco that gave (or sold, rather) Daring her now-trademark hat, and Daring had come to rely on the chocolate-colored pony when she wanted to buy or sell various objects and equipment. The exuberant mare also had the uncanny ability to appear at the most unusual times and places with exactly what Daring needed to help solve some problem or other. While there was an unspoken understanding that Coco expected the adventurer to “pay” for her help by bringing back interesting items, the pegasus was certain that the trader had her best interests at heart. Daring desperately hoped that her friend’s sudden appearance meant that her fortunes might change. Or, she would have if her tired brain wasn’t desperately trying to catch up with the situation.

“COCO!! How’d you? I mean…how’d…I mean what are you doing here?! How’d you know it was me?!” stammered the startled pegasus, adrenaline overriding her previous fatigue.

“Oooh, it was easy! Like I’d never recognize one of my favorite customers if they were transformed into a filly. I’d be a terrible shopkeeper if I couldn’t recognize my own customers, even if they’re in a sticky situation,” Coco replied, sounding like she had a lot more experience with this particular “sticky situation” than Daring was comfortable thinking about. Before Daring could completely finish that thought, though, the chocolate mare continued: “…and I’m here to visit you! I saw you up here and you looked sooo lonely and sooo sad and you looked like you needed help, and-”

“I meant, how’d you get up here?” Daring interrupted.

“That’s what I was just telling you, silly! Look!” Coco chirped, as she gestured straight up with one hoof. Daring looked up and blinked in disbelief as the source of the shadow she had noticed earlier became apparent. You have got to be kidding me! Just where in Equestria did she get an airship? The pegasus continued to stare at the modest-sized dirigible. It had a cream-colored envelope and brown gondola. Slowly bringing her head back down, she saw a rope extending from the gondola and holding up a small wooden platform, upon which Coco was standing. So I might not be going crazy, thought the bewildered pegasus. She isn’t actually standing on a cloud.

“That’s my flying emporium! Isn’t she super? I call her the Sweet Dream! Flies like one too! I just got her a few weeks ago from the Spiny Mountain Aircraft and Expedition Company out of Trottingham! Had to trade five unique gems and twenty pounds of spices, but it was sooo worth it!” Coco explained in about a second, hopping up and down on the platform, which miraculously showed no sign of turning over or breaking.

“Anyway, I was taking the Dream up from Trottingham for her maiden flight and on the way I saw a group of clouds waaay high up! I told the captain ‘I see something up there!’ and he was all ‘that’s probably nothing.’ and I said to him ‘silly! If it was nothing, then I wouldn’t be able to see it! Let’s go up!’ and he said something about it being too high and a diversion or something like that. But then I begged him to take us up, and he said something about being the only way to remain sane and brought us up! And then I looked down and saw a little filly and said to myself, ‘she looks sooo lonely and sooo sad and she looks like she needs help!’ And here I am! Are you surprised? Are you? Huh, huh, huh?” This explanation took about three more seconds and was accompanied by even quicker bouncing.

Daring could only gape in shock as her brain simply gave up. Coco took advantage of the opportunity to continue: “Oohhh! I have something to give you before I forget. Here!” The mare pulled something out of her mane with her teeth and passed it to Daring with another huge smile. Daring examined it — it was a bar of chocolate with a distinctive yellow and red wrapper.

“Sweet Tooth & Son Chocolatiers, Trottingham.” Daring dully read off the wrapper, focusing on the only thing that seemed to make sense since meeting Coco.

“Yeah! Every filly deserves chocolate! Best chocolate in the whooole region! Hard to get outside of Trottingham itself, though. The best way-”

Daring decided that she needed to try to change the subject before the earth pony talked her ears off. Not sure of what to say, she eventually managed to sputter out: “But…but aren’t you wondering why I’m up here and a why I’m a filly?”

“Ohh! I just figured you were on one of your crazy expeditions (don’t stop, though; you always bring back the most interesting stuff!). I mean these are ruins, right? I was wondering why you were a filly, now that you asked it.” A concerned expression crossed Coco’s face. “Are you feeling okay, Daring? You are feeling like ‘yourself,’ right? I really hope those mean old cultists didn’t carry out that threat. I’d hate to see innocent ponies become-”

“CULTISTS?! THREAT?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, COCO!!” shouted Daring, now more than a little unsettled.

“Erm…Nothing you need to worry about.” replied Coco, looking a little embarrassed. “But you’re a filly now! Soo cute!” she abruptly squealed, grabbing Daring into a tight hug before suddenly dropping the struggling filly back onto the cloud. “Oh, that reminds me! I have something for you!” Coco reached into her pack and extracted a filly-sized pair of saddlebags as well as a small pith helmet that looked exactly like Daring’s own. “You looked too small for your hat, so I decided to bring you one that fits better!” said the hyperactive pony, placing the new hat on the filly’s head. “There! Much better!”

“Thanks, Coco, but how’d you know-” Daring managed to say, a new wave of confusion overtaking her previous fright and discomfort.

“And I have just the thing for exploring cloud ruins! …Here we go,” Coco said, fishing through her pack and extracting four blue-white objects. “They’re cloud anchors! Not just any cloud anchors, though. They’re magic cloud anchors. Made out of ice enchanted by unicorns. They’re much smaller and lighter than normal anchors. Which makes them perfect for you!” the earth pony finished brightly.

“How could you have possibly-” began Daring.

“One more thing! Here! I wanted to make sure I gave you one before I had to leave!” Coco interrupted as she reached into her mane and pulled out another chocolate bar, wrapped in yellow and red.

“But you-”

“Yeah! Every filly deserves chocolate! I just got five crates of these last week. Had to trade eight barrels of pickles and a crate of kumquats, but it was sooo worth it! Deal was brokered by the Mirror Lake Trading Company out of Trottingham and-”

“COCO!”

“Oh, yes?”

“…Sorry. While you’re here, I have a question that maybe you can help me with.” Daring said as she slipped the chocolate bars and cloud anchors into her new saddlebags.

“Sure thing, Filly- I mean, Daring!” chirped Coco.

“I was wondering if you know a pegasus named Shifty Gaze. He’s small, with a red coat, olive mane, and green eyes. Knife for a cutie mark. Looks like everything he says is a lie?”

“Hmm…Noooo. I don’t know him personally,” began Coco, “…but I know somepony who knows him.” She added quickly as a disappointed look began to form on Daring’s face.

“Who? Who?!” asked Daring, hoping to finally receive some useful information.

“He’s another customer of mine. Name’s Flyleaf; from Canterlot. Kind of a silly name, if you ask me, but probably what you’d expect for somepony who reads all the time. I mean, he’s always in that library of his. How can you read all the time? But he knows a lot. I mean, a lot. I’d probably know a lot too, if I spent that much time in the library. You can probably find out anything in a library that old. An-y-thing! History, magic potions, cures for weird diseases, maps to the legendary Fountain of Youth-”

“COCO!”

“What?”

“Shifty Gaze?”

“Oh! Weeelll,” the earth pony started, her demeanor becoming uncharacteristically serious. “Flyleaf mentioned his name when he gave me a handy list of customers not to trust. Said Shifty was bad news — somepony who’s only in it for the money. He’ll sell anything. Poisons, secrets, stolen goods, forbidden magic, an-y-thing! To anypony! Well, any pony who pays him enough. Doesn’t seem to care what they do with it.” The worried expression appeared on Coco’s face again. “Why? Do you know him?”

“…Yeah…we met,” replied Daring grimly.

“Awww! Don’t be sad, Filly!” Coco said, her usual smile returning. She reached back into her mane. “Here, I got just the thing to fix you up!” She reached back into her mane and pulled out a familiar yellow-and-red-wrapped sweet. “I wanted to give you one of these before I forgot. Every filly deserves chocolate!”

“But…” started Daring once more, but she decided that whatever it was she was about to say wouldn’t have done any good. Besides, she just thought of something else to ask the earth pony. “Can you do one more thing for me, Coco? Please don’t tell anyone about this, especially Derring! Please?” she begged.

“Sure thing! My lips are sealed,” replied Coco while making some cryptic set of gestures with her hooves. Coco may have been loopy and random but Daring knew that she could rely on her friend’s promises.

“…And don’t you worry!” continued the earth pony, “I’m sure you’ll find some way to grow up again! The great Daring Do can do just about anything!”

“Thanks, Coco! …For everything.” Daring smiled, despite herself. The chocolate-brown pony always had a way of cheering her up when things looked bleak. In fact, she felt so much better than she did before her friend’s surprise visit. The chocolate mare’s very presence could obliterate any rut one of her friends found themselves in.

“You’re welcome, Filly- I mean, Daring! Did you want a ride outta here? Plenty of room aboard the Dream!”

A ride?! Daring nearly jumped at the chance of escape, but then she thought about what Coco had said about Shifty. Daring was beginning to get an idea of what he was up to. If her suspicions were correct, Shifty needed to be stopped, and soon. And right now, she was the only pony who had even a chance of doing the job. It felt so good to have a purpose again; she couldn’t just abandon it. Besides, Daring said to herself, if there were any way of becoming normal again, it would probably be up here. How can I go back now? No way am I ever letting Derring see me like this.

“Naw, I’m fine. There's still some stuff I gotta do up here,” the reinvigorated adventurer replied.

“Okey-dokey! I hafta get back before those bundles of cheese stink up the hold. Got two-dozen of them three days ago from Dawn Harvest Provisions out of Trottingham. Had to trade three crates of lemons, but it was sooo worth it! Anyway, be careful, and don’t forget to bring back something interesting!” said Coco; giving the rope two sharp tugs.

"Thanks again! Be seein’ ya!” replied Daring as her friend began slowly rising towards the ship above.

“OOH! WAIT! I ALMOST FORGOT!” Daring heard from above a few seconds later. Daring looked up just in time to see Coco drop something over the side of the platform. She instinctively ran up and caught it before it fell through the clouds below. “…Deserves chocolate!” Daring faintly heard as she smiled and dropped the confection with the now-very familiar yellow and red wrapper into her saddlebags.