Chapter 5: A Friend in the Clouds

Chapter 5:  A Friend in the Clouds

Luna collapsed on a cloud, breathing heavily at the unfamiliar exertion she had taken on.  She began to cry from the painful cramping in her wings, not knowing what to do to ease them.  From her spot on the cloud she could see her sister walk into the rude magician’s workshop, glad to know that at least one of them had found a warm spot.  ‘How I envy you,’ she thought to herself when she saw the door shut.  ‘It is colder up here than it was on the ground.’

Luna tried to bury herself in the clouds for warmth, only to find that they were just as cold and wet as the snow.  She shivered beneath the blowing surface of the clouds, her constricted, quaking muscles making the cramping in her wings hurt worse.  She couldn’t help feeling more alone than she’d ever felt in all her life as she wept for her discomforts, or at least what she could remember of her life.  ‘How I wish we knew where we were,’ she cried to herself, her thoughts a disoriented jumble of loneliness and grief.  ‘This all feels so confusing, like we are missing something.’

Her cries did not go unnoticed, for soon she felt the gentle tapping of a hoof on her shoulder.  She turned moist eyed to see a blue pegasus with curly white hair hovering just above her.  The pegasus put on a kind smile when she saw Luna look up at her.  “Are you alright?” she asked in the most gentle voice Luna had ever heard.

Luna sighed as she lay her head back down, paying more attention to the ground than to the new pony.  “That is a difficult question to answer,” she admitted.  “I am lost and hurt.  I am trying to find somepony named Commander Hurricane in a cloud fortress, but I can not find my way.”

Luna watched the pegasus hover into her line of sight, her big yellow eyes teeming with concern.  “Oh you poor dear,” the pegasus said.  “You must be a new recruit, seeing as how young you are.  I can help you get to the Fortress in the Sky if you want me to help you.”

Luna could not help perking up at the friendly pegasus’s kind offer.  “The help would be greatly appreciated,” she accepted, much to the delight of her new friend.

She watched the pegasus begin picking at the clouds around her, making for a much smaller cloud that could be easily pushed.  “Almost done,” the pegasus said as she put the picked clouds in a basket she was carrying.  “By the way, my name is Pansy.  I’m a Private in the Pegasus Military Defense Squadron.  What’s your name?”

Luna’s smile disappeared as she thought back to her name.  “It’s… um…” she thought as Private Pansy began pushing the cloud toward their destination.  “Forgive me Pansy, for I’ve forgotten my own name.  I’ve had a rough day, and my memory continues to fail me the more I try to think about it.”

Pansy’s eyes flew open in shock as she listened to Luna’s problem.  “Oh my!” she exclaimed, flying up to Luna to sit next to her.  “How terrible!  To not be able to remember your own name?  I can’t imagine how awful that must feel!”

Luna put a smile on for Pansy’s sake.  “Don’t worry,” she said, watching the tension in Pansy’s shoulders loosen.  “I am making some progress now that you are here, but if I could speak with your commander when we get to the fortress I may get the answers I am looking for.”

Private Pansy saluted happily as she leapt off the cloud.  “I can do that Private… um…” she asked nervously.  She watched Luna shrug and look down at the earth again.  Pansy touched her chin in thought as she watched Luna’s behavior, chuckling slightly at the thought that just popped into her head.  “You know,” Pansy said, “if you don’t mind me saying, you sort of look like a vulture staring down at the earth like that.”

Luna tried to settle her laughter at Pansy’s suggestion, doing her best to make sure she didn’t roll off the cloud.  “Vulture?” she chuckled.  “Somehow that sounds familiar.”

Pansy shared the chuckle as she went back to pushing Luna’s cloud to the fortress.  “Vulture it is than, if that’s okay with you,” she said.  “At least until you get your memory back, okay?”

Luna smiled broadly as Pansy pushed her toward the fortress.  “Your concern is so kind,” she said as they sailed through the skies.  “I’m grateful for such a warm welcome to such an unfamiliar place.  I wish the unicorns were as friendly.  I’m worried about my sister since she’s down there with them.”

Once again, Private Pansy gasped as she stopped pushing the cloud.  She flew in front of Luna so that she could make eye contact, all the while breathing heavily due to the onset of a panic attack.  “They’ve captured your sister?!?” she exclaimed as she began to nervously chew on her hooves.  “We’ve got to get to the commander right away!  We’ve got no time to loose!  I’ve got to hurry or else!”

Luna grabbed Pansy out of the sky before she hurt herself.  “Be still before you hurt yourself!” she explained.  “My sister is a unicorn, so she is safe.  We are lost in this strange place.  We have no recollection of how we got here or why we are here, but somehow we’re here.  She is safe with the unicorns, and I am to find your commander to talk to him about ending the snowy weather so that a tribe called the earth ponies can go back to growing food.”

With a small sigh of relief, Pansy settled down on the cloud.  “We can’t control the snow silly!” she giggled as her breathing returned to normal.  “If we could it would stop snowing by now.  Commander Hurricane thinks the unicorns are doing something with their magic to make the weather behave so sporadically.  They’ve done the same thing with the sun and moon.  Why, just look how quickly the sun is going down.  Much too soon if you ask me.”

Luna watched the moon shoot up into the sky far quicker than she’d ever seen it do before, giving the sun little time to retreat.  Something about the moon felt familiar, but what it was she couldn’t recall.  “I had not heard of this development,” she said, watching the moon spin around like a top in the sky.  “My hope is that Commander Hurricane can explain this to me.  I bet we can learn a lot from each other.”

Pansy sighed heavily as she went back to pushing Luna’s cloud.  “Good luck with that one Vulture,” she admitted.  “Commander Hurricane is pretty opinionated.  It’s not always easy to get your point across when dealing with him.  But you should discover that soon enough.  We’re almost there!”