It is a bright and warm afternoon. The sun is high with clouds sparsely spread throughout the otherwise clear blue sky as Cloud Nova and Electric Sky are currently sitting on a bench in the school courtyard, partaking in some small talk while enjoying the school's nutritious, another word for bland and tasteless, lunch.
"This isn't... the worst food I've ever had." said Sky as she forced herself to swallow her sandwich.
"But its not the best, either" Cloud says with a raised brow.
Getting past that initial disgust, Sky moved on to her salad and took a bite that she immediately regret."Nope, but this is the worst, no doubt!" On instinct, she spit the glob into the grass hoping to never see it again.
Cloud was about to protest to this blatant wasting of food, but Sky quickly changed the subject. "Oh, so wanna help me study? I have a huge book report due soon, and I haven't even started reading the book yet." She confesses, lowing her ears.
"Alright, that's fine with me. Honestly, I still need a book too."
"Okay", Sky confirms as they both rise up from the old blue bench. Cloud stretches his back a bit as they were sitting there for some time now, and then begins to follow after Sky, who took off ahead of him as she often did. The School Library was only a small distance away from where they were eating, so it didn't take more than a minute for them to arrive.
The School Library was a rather dull place, but served it's purpose. White walls, with a few motivational posters strewn about to help make the mood a little less bland, brown, splotchy carpets, and your average wooden tables and chairs for students to study or read. Then of course there are shelves upon shelves of nothing but what you'd expect at a library; books. The number, too many for any sane pony aside from the librarian herself to count. The library is a rather quiet place, with a whisper here and a murmur there, until of course Cloud and Sky burst though the doors chattering loudly. Immediately, everyone's focus was on them and with a sharp shush from the librarian, they clammed right up.
"Sorry" whispered Cloud to the clearly irritated librarian. He then turned to Sky and continued, "Alright, we need to find a book called Green Witch of Hawthorn"
"Gotcha." Sky states as she enters the rows of books and begins her search. She comes to the G-Section and slows her pace so she can look more thoroughly in hopes of not missing the one she needs. "What's it about?" She asks, absentmindedly while searching. Not truly out of interest.
"Some chick who they think is a witch but isn't." He responds while still looking over the dozens of titles. As the two look through the bookcases, a rather impressive looking, gold-bound book catches Cloud's eye. Despite how high up the book it, he tries to get it on his own, but to no avail. "Hey, Sky. A little help, please?"
"Oh sure. Coming." Sky flies up to where Cloud gestured and retrieves a thick gold encrusted book. "Is this it?" she asks, but doesn't wait for an answer before dropping it. Cloud reacts quickly and catches the book, getting knocked over in the process due to it's unexpected weight. After struggling to get back on his feet, he takes a deep breath and blows the thick layer of dust from the cover of the old Tome, revealing it's title.
"Whoa, what is this? It just says Grazgrow..." Cloud says in wonder as he gazes at the large book for a few seconds, just admiring the artistic talents of whomever put together this beautiful binding. Curious as to what could be so captivating. Sky descends and hovers just over Cloud and the book, breaking his entrancement before taking hold of the thick cover and swinging it to the side. As the old tome opens, dust that had sunken into the pages over what seems like centuries was blown about the room, causing them both to cough a bit before fanning the dust away.
"Geez, its really old." she says as she's waving the still lingering dust away. Cloud starts to look through the pages in awe, examining every detail of every picture.
"Wow, what are all these creatures...? What's this- 'Ohsean' - What's an Ohsean?"
"A what?" Sky pushes Cloud out of the way so she can get a better look at the page. "It has water, and some yellow colored ground? It seems to be like some sort of giant lake... hmm."
Cloud takes the book back and begins to flip through some more pages. "Look, at this one. It's a forest?"
Sky takes the seat next to him next to him and reads silently from the passage until she looks like nothing could be more confusing. "So its a bunch of trees. But, why would anypony want a bunch of stinking trees!?" She shouts in confusion, but is quickly hushed by a nearby pony, who she quietly apologizes to.
"According to this all of the land is actually made of... a bunch of little cubes...? This stuff just can't be real."
"What? Cubes? Come on, I knew something was up when it tried to make me think there would be something like a place filled with nothing but trees! This thing is just a load of crap." Sky takes the left side of the book in her hoof and slams it shut, eliciting further shushes from surrounding ponies.
"I don't know, Sky. This looks pretty real to me." He skips to the last page on the book where it shows a what looks like a detailed map of the entire city. "Sky, check this out. It's a map!"
"A map a foal probably drew." She laughs as she takes a closer look, but stops when she realizes just what it is."Wait... that looks real. Where is that?"
"It says its Grazgrow City... this is all really strange.
"Yeah, it really is."Sky stands up from the wooden table and begins trotting around while thinking of what to do next. "Really strange... let's take it."
"Sounds good to me." Cloud responds as he closes the book. Sky picks it up from the table and takes it two the librarian who kindly checks it out for them, while at the same time giving them a look like they should be more quiet in the future. They both understand clearly and exit the library with a thank you to the librarian.
As they start walking, Sky looks at the book and thinks aloud, "It really makes me want to see this 'forest' thing."
"Yeah, it really does. Well, we should probably get to our next class. I think I heard the bell ring a few minutes ago."
"Shoot." Sky quickly responds as she starts to dash off to her next class, PE. Mid-flight, she turns and shouts something inaudible, but Cloud assumes it was something along the lines of "Later Cloud!" as she would often say. He then heads off to his class, as Sky had done before him.
After a few hours, school had ended and both Cloud Nova and Electric Sky headed off to meet up at the same place they always do, Cloud's backyard, in order to further examine the book they had discovered in the school library earlier that day.
"What?! How?" Sky exclaims as she trots back and forth in a futile attempt too wrap her head around something of this scale.
"That's just impossible... " Cloud mutters as he sits and scratches his head. "I've never seen this stuff anywhere before, yet here it is. Written as if fact."
"More importantly, what the hay is a spider? Gross! Or a... tiger!" She quickly gulps in fear. "T-tigers sound scary!" She whimpers as she zooms into an overhanging tree branch.
"Sky, come on..." Cloud says to a seemingly frightened mare in a tree.
"Whats up?" Sky blurts out nonchalantly as she swings downward, hanging from the branch by her two back legs.
"I think we should probably tell Flare about this. But before that...do you think there is actually a way over the wall?"
"Well duh." She says as she flaps her wings in an over emphasized manner."Although, do you really think Flare should know? He'll just think we're crazy."
"I don't know, we will see... lets go find the nearest wall section or whatever." Cloud stands up and starts on towards the City wall, making sure to have brought the book with him.
"Sure thing." Sky says as she jumps out of the tree and begins following Cloud."I'll try flying over without being spotted by a guard."
"No Sky, we have to go together."
"Well, I probably can't lift you, but I'll sure as hay try." Sky responds, not understanding his
meaning.
"Sky, the wall's like 60 meters high..."
"... I know."
Looking at the wall, the first word that comes to mind for most would be Imposing. The grandious wall stands 60 meters tall, and seems to be made of an impenitrable glossy white substance. Similar in style to Cloud's house, but most assuredly not in composition. The wall has supposedly never been passed though, but even so, there are always City Guards stationed around, making sure nopony gets near enough to test that.
"Listen, I think is better if we can find a way through-" Before Cloud can finish his sentence, he is halted by a guard who had spotted them sneaking around the city limits
.
"Stop right there. What are you kids up to in this area?" The guard states with heavy authority.
Sky glances at the book in Cloud's bag and then back up to the guard. "Uh, we were just going to return this book back to the library." She nervously explains to the irritated guard.
"Hm, well alright then. Be on your way. I don't want to see you causing any trouble around here, understand?"
"We understand, yes Sir." Cloud blandly states as he ans Sky trot back in the opposite difection of the wall. "We had better do this during the night." He whispers to Sky when he's sure they're out of earshot of the Guard.
"Yeah, there are just too many guards during the day. We'd better make a plan." Sky says as she picks Cloud up in order to head back to his house more quickly. As they arrive, they start looking at a modern map of the City in comparison to the old map in the book in hopes of discovering something they can use to get through "Why do you think they put the wall up anyway? Sky says as she stares at the pages.
"Well, according to the book, the wall has been her since the City was first built, however long ago that may have been."
"But come on, just look at this map. According to it, there's nothing out there beyond the wall anyway."
Author's Note
This chapter is unfinished, further RP is needed.
