To the naked eye the night sky is not much more than a collection of dots on a black canvas, constellations, shooting stars, the moon, everything that makes up that world up there is so very simple and yet when looked at as a whole, it's one of the most wondrous sights imaginable.
The lands far below are an ever changing painting, hues of every color can be found during the summer, during the fall colors of gold and brown rule, and during the winter the lands becomes incredibly white and when winter ends and spring arrives the land grows into a fresh green that swirls and sways with the winds.
If I look up there is a sea of stars, and if I look down there is an ever changing painting of colors and here in the middle of it all is my pool of blue, my ever expanding home that is the sky.
I live a simple life up here in the clouds, unlike the other pegasi that inhabit this world I chose to live away from the hustle and bustle of Cloudsdale. My time is spent floating through the sky watching the world below during the day and navigating the sea of stars in the night, whenever I grow tired or hungry I visit the cloud villages nearby. The other pegasi are always nervous when talking to me but I don't mind, it's better that way, I don't belong with them and I don't need the ties of friendships to distract me from the world. Bits, they always ask for them and for some reason I always have some, why? My father perhaps? I don't remember much about him but I do know he was a stallion like myself, that is, he loved the colors of the world and did his best to capture them in paintings, portraits, and pictures. None were ever perfect but for some reason the ponies around us loved them and bought them with these bits.
'The Cartographer' that's the only name I can think of when I think of my father. It was a title given to him for his ability to capture the 'Beauty of the World', he hated that title and everything that it brought him. Why was that?
I sighed as I floated over the land, far below me was a lake clear as could be and a deeper shade of blue than any other lake I had seen before and that's when I saw her. A mare with every color of the rainbow flying below me, it was stunning watching her fly, a rainbow seemed to trail behind here where ever she flew. With a smile and a good memory I headed back to my cloud to get ready to observe the night. It was a small cloud but it did well to shelter me throughout the years. Inside the cloud was a room large enough for three ponies to lay in and within it were three things. My bed made from the cloud itself, a safe made of enchanted metals that held my father's fortune and an unfinished painting left to me by him as well.
I landed in the cloud and trotted over to the bed, the soft texture of the cloud made it feel as though I was walking on down feathers. I lay in the bed and drifted to sleep with the sun high in the sky above me.
* * *
The moon rose along side me as I stretched my wings and prepared to take off. The sun had just set and the evening air was still fresh to the nose. Summer always had the most pleasant evening smells and even better were the smells of summer nights. I drifted into the sky leaving my little cloud behind as I set out.
I looked down at the night sky, above me was the world of green now dark in the night. The sea of stars were as beautiful as always but there had been a change in them, they seemed to shine brighter tonight for some reason. With a smile I just decided to enjoy the night as I drifted in the sky with my back to the ground below me. Often times I would find myself closing my eyes and imagining myself as a fish swimming in one of the many lakes and rivers below. I was lucky that my fate hadn't stuck me in water though, swimming through the sky was so much better.
As I drifted through the night sky imagining myself as a fish I couldn't help but hear a loud crack followed by screaming from below. With a sigh I looked down to see what ever it was that was ruining the serenity of the night. To my surprise I found myself flying above a village and to my further surprise the ponies that lived below were all awake and all dressed in very strange clothing. I located the sources of the screams, a group of fillies and foals running from what looked to be a small dark cloud. It was a thunder cloud, and atop it was a mare, but it wasn't any mare, it was her, the one with the rainbow in her mane. She was on the cloud laughing and I could only guess that she had been the source of the crack from earlier.
After observing ponies long enough I knew that this sort of behavior was not malicious but done more out of silliness and the need of a good laugh. Already the young ponies that had previously been screaming in surprise were laughing along with the rainbow mare. With my curiosity sated I flipped back over to see the night sky once more, the constellations above me shimmering as my mind filled the gaps between the stars with lines. Instruments, foods, creatures, and even ponies were mapped out in the night sky. In the middle of it all shone the moon and where once the mark of the Mare in the Moon once lay there was nothing but white. I liked this moon better, with the return of Princess Luna, the mark that always filled me with dread had finally disappeared leaving a pure and pristine canvas of white that made the sky glow.
I noticed that all had grown silent below, there were no longer occasional sounds of screaming followed by laughing, and the noise of ponies had quieted down. Out of curiosity I looked back just in time to see the hooves of a mare stamp into a thundercloud that had been placed right below me. Thunder never really bothered me which is why I felt so confused when my wings stopped their periodic flapping which left me to free fall with my vision quickly fading.
* * *
A sea of stars and I was in the middle of it, there was no ground below me and no sea of blue to my sides only the stars. I looked around and noticed that I could see constellations of every sort, even those that were only ever visible in certain seasons could be seen all around. In the distance a speck of darkness appeared and slowly grew bigger as time went on. It felt like time had slowed to an unbelievably slow pace as the object in the distance made it's way over to me. Soon I could make it out to be a pony and not long after I could see it had wings and that they were spread in an utmost regal fashion. What confused me was that as the pony grew closer I recognized a horn atop her head, identifying it as an alicorn. I was also starting to make out certain details of the pony, she, as I could now make out her features, had a long flowing mane which took my breath away as in her mane was a sea of stars almost as beautiful as the ones around us.
Blue regalia adorned the alicorn and on her chest was a crest of the moon in wane. As the alicorn stood before me I recognized her at once, Princess Luna, ruler of the night and previously known as Nightmare Moon. Princess Luna looked at me, concern clear on her face.
"Young stallion, you shouldn't be here, go back the way you came" Her voice was gentle, strong, and compelling making me wary of her 'advice' but there was one problem. I wasn't sure how I got here in the first place. I simply looked at her with a small frown before looking down at my hooves, or rather where my hooves should be, for when I had looked there was nothing, I panicked and looked for the rest of my body and found none, instead I could only see a trailing light behind me. I looked back at the Princess of the night but she wore the same face as before. Finally I built up the nerve to speak,
"What happened to me?" The Princess's eyes widened at my words, her face turning from that of concern to one of shock.
"You know not from where you came?" She drew closer to me "Your name! do you know your name?"
My name? I hadn't thought about my name in years, come to think of it what was my name? Ever since I started to live alone I had lost the need of suck a thing, my father had left me along with all of the money he had earned and never came back and I didn't have any other friends or family so I moved up to the sky leaving everything else behind. My prolonged silence must have unnerved Princess Luna because she spoke up once more."Perhaps you know the name of someone in your family or maybe one of your friends?" her voice sounded stressed for some reason, I shook my head
"I don't have any friends and I don't know my father's name" The Princess of the moon looked taken aback by my words, was there something wrong with what I said, perhaps I wasn't being respectful enough?
"Surely you jest, even I have found friends in the Elements of Harmony and the residents of Ponyville!" She looked at me with pity in her eyes "To be all alone, you must be joking, you really know nothing of your life?". I blinked, or at least I think I did it's hard to tell with the lack of body around me, maybe I was just a floating head now? Ah I remembered, I do know my father's title at least.
"The Cartographer" I said aloud, "that was the title given to my father for his works of art"
Luna blinked and look at me confused by what I said, "But the Cartographer has been dead for over a thousand years, he passed shortly before my turning into Nightmare Mo..." She trailed off leaving me confused, I looked around and realized the reason she had stopped talking. The stars were starting to fade and the distance between the Princess and I began to grow, she shouted something at me but I was now to far away to hear her. soon my vision faded to white and was replaced with the night sky, but this time it was real. The smells of the summer night reached my nose and I breathed in enjoying the scent before feeling a sharp pain in my back.
I tired to roll over to sit up but found my body no longer responding to my commands, I heard the panicked yelling of a mare growing further and further away. I looked at the sky and tried to endure the pain I felt as best as I could. Soon my vision faded out. When I woke up again I hear the sound of multiple ponies approaching and soon three ponies surrounded me, one was white with a pink mane, a red cross adorned her flank. The other two were stallions, one was dressed in a white jacket had a yellow coat and a brown mane, his cutie mark looked like something from a hospital but I couldn't remember what, and before I could look at the third one my vision faded out again and their voices became fuzzy.
* * *
I opened my eyes only to see a ceiling, a constant beeping and the soft snores of a pony were the only sounds in the room. I looked around to take in the details of the room I was in, to my right was a desk with a vase on it. The vase held a single yellow flower that shone in the light of the morning sun coming through the window behind it. I looked to my right and froze in place. At least now I knew where the snoring was coming from. On a chair next to me was a sleep mare, the rainbow that was her mane sprawled over the sheets and her face showed signs that she might have been crying at some point.
With a smile I turned back over and looked straight up at the ceiling, I guess today I wouldn't get to look at the colors from the sky. Talking from outside the room caught my ear and I turned my head to better listen.
"...suffered from extensive damage to his spinal column, the fact that he's even alive is a miracle and there's no doubt that he'll never be flying again" another voice started after the first.
"I'm just glad that miss Rainbow Dash was able to get to us as fast as she did, who know what condition he'd be in if she didn't"
I sat there now tuning out the rest of their conversation, I guess the bad news hadn't taken effect on me yet, I felt a stinging in my eyes before tears started to flow from them, maybe it's taken a little effect.