Prologue: New Cloudsdayle
Class.
“And that, little foals, is the reason why our former rulers allowed our once beautiful land to be destroyed.” *RIINNG* The bell rang, waking me up after dozing off in class. I cocked my head up, and stepped on the clouds which were covering the floor of the classroom, and, well, the entire city in fact. I pulled my bag with my teeth and stood behind one of my classmates. Apparently, some idiot was blocking the door and nobody could get out of the classroom. It was my last class of the day and I thought to myself: “You know, fuck this shit.” And I flew out the window, something that drew our teacher crazy.
The only words that came out of that blasted muzzle of his i actually registered were “Little foals”. It was driving me crazy. I am turning 19 next month, and I don’t really think the word “foal” suits me anymore. I sighed, exhausted both mentally and physically, from the boring classes I was forced to take every day. Well, at least I was a senior, three more months and I’m out of here, finally having the chance to actually live my life.
I was flying through the streets of the city I was born and grew up in, New Cloudsdayle. The puffy white clouds which were used to build structures in the city never ceased to amaze me. In fact, the entire city did. The guards, patrolling the streets and standing at the entrances of important buildings. They were wearing Enclave armor, which made them look slick, but still scary at the same time. I was told it was designed by the founder of New Cloudsdayle, Sonic Wing, to protect the city from foreign adversaries. Every now and then, they would head into battles in places we never even heard of. And every time they returned, they brought treasures, jewelry, money, weapons, ammo, even new songs for our local radio station, claiming that it was took from bad ponies who wanted to compromise our great city, but just the look of their armor, the Arthropod-like design of it made me doubt that theory.
Since I was little I enjoyed drawing. When I was drawing characters, every time I would draw a bad guy, something in my mind always made me draw him wearing something similar to Enclave armor. I was always told it was just a coincidence.
I was just about to enter my street, when suddenly, I saw her.
Blazefire was my neighbor, and we used to always play together in front of our houses when we were little fillies. And after all this time, I still want to play with her, although the definition of the word “play” has changed. A lot.
She was three years older than me and already out of High School, already having the chance to live her life, while I had to wait a little while longer. Her mane always reminded me of some ancient animals I saw in textbooks, with brown and yellow stripes, I can’t remember their names, was it Gees, Mees? Bah. It doesn’t matter. The color of her coat was grey, which helped her a lot when playing hide and seek as fillies. She used to hide in a raincloud and nobody could ever find her. I noticed she was wearing her barf-colored green saddlebag, her prized possession. The color always sickened me, and I never figured out why she used it for so long. The thing even started ripping on the stitches. It was decorated with maybe a dozen stickers and badges that she came across over the years. But, there was a new badge on her bag. It was a circle made of stars with wings on the sides with a big “E”. The Enclave logo.
As long as I knew her, she despised the Enclave, for reasons I was too young to understand, but now I’m slowly beginning to share the same opinion with her on the subject.
As we moved closer to each other, i waved a hoof at her and pulled my best friendly smile, and she smiled back. “Hello there, Splitty, how are you doing?” Splitty was her pet name for me, which always drived me crazy. My name was already stupid enough as it is, why would you make it worse? “-I’m fine, thanks.” The words shot out of my muzzle in lighting speed, and I doubt she got all of that. Every time I saw her, I became paralyzed in my mind and body, my wings feeling weak and wobbly, like they were just about to let out and send me dropping through the clouds and into the abyss below. (Even though pegasi can walk on clouds) The annoying, and yet in the same time enjoyable feeling would stop only when she would get out of my sights. We flew past each other, and my gaze followed her beautifully shaped flanks, resulting in me completely losing concentration on flying. My wings were flying on their own. Oh, the wonderful things we could do together, if only I had… *THUD* I bumped into something hard. “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING, RUNT!” An Enclave officer was shouting at me, every syllable he spoke felt like a buck right in the face.
I was lying on the ground, that big brute growling at me, everypony was staring, and worst of all, Blaze was staring at me, and she was blowing air upwards in to her mane. I knew that gesture, she always did that when she was trying to conceive an innapropriate smile.
I bet she already knows what’s up, but doesn’t tell me. Maybe it’s because I freak her out? Or maybe she hates me? Or she is too embarrassed to tell me???
Those thoughts occupied my mind for many nights, leaving me sleepless for days.
“S-sorry” I said, picked my sorry ass off the ground and dashed to my house, which was just one street away.
The houses in New Cloudsdayle were all the same, inside and out, as the orders of the Enclave
The depressing, monotonous, cuboid-shaped design of the houses always put my mood down.
Each and every house looked like the upmentioned cuboid, with four windows on every side of the 2-story building.
I thought it was very easy for a drunken pony to barge into the neighbours’ family’s house at 3am, flying up the stairs and crashing into a few walls, then entering their children’s room and starting to beat the crap out of them, yelling out: “THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING RAINBOW DASH’S CHILD, TRAITOR!” and the thought always amused me.
Yes. Guess i was a bit fucked up like that.
On the lamp post just outside my house was a poster. It pictured a squad of Enclave soldiers, all standing proudly, with their heads facing the sky above, and another squad dashing through the air over them. And behind them was a depiction of a cyan-blue Pegasus pony, dressed in a dark purple military uniform. That gaze of hers looked like it could kill. Her mane was rainbow-colored, and slowly starting to grey out. It was covering her right eye, and with good reason, since there was a giant scar sitting right across it.
It was Rainbow Dash, the demonized mare who betrayed the Pegasi, or, pony kind in general, when she aided in their complete slaughter by feeding the zebras with weapons and information. It was a shame, and I wondered, how could somepony so pretty be so evil like that? I don’t get it.
There was a message on the poster, in big, red letters for everypony to see. “Are you a proud Pegasus or a filthy Dashite? Join the Enclave today!”
Catchy.
***
I pushed the old, worn out door of my house and it opened with a slight creek. “Damn, we have to get that thing oiled up” I thought to myself . I plopped my saddlebag next to the wall of our short hallway, right under the picture of Kaiserhoof, the city “ruler”. It was required for every single house, administrative building, school, even bathroom to have one mounted somewhere.
“Mom, I’m home!” I cried. No answer. I was home alone.
I decided to check one last time, and when I was sure I was the only one in the house, I immediately rushed to the fridge to help myself to some cider and the last piece of cake that was meant for my little brother.
I was so excited about that cake that i almost didn’t notice the sticky note on the fridge door.
“Split, do NOT touch that cake. You can help yourself to some cider if you like, but don’t drink too much. I’m off to Darla’s house if you need me. I need a favor from you. On the dining table are some papers. I need them delivered to City Hall by 4pm. Love, mom”
I groaned, I was just about to devour that delicious cake, and now, I had to make a delivery. Well, at least she let me have some cider.
I flew to the dining table (mom wouldn’t let us fly in the house, ever since my brother crashed through a window like 10 years ago, don’t get me started on that one) the papers on it seemed pretty official, with the big “E” with wings sitting on the top of the page. It was an Enclave application. My brother was 16, just enough to join the forces, he simply adored them, his wish was to be an Enclave squad captain ever since he was a colt. Guess he finally had the chance to start realizing his dreams.
At first, mom wasn’t for the idea of Bolt joining the Enclave, ever since our dad got vaporized somehow a long time ago. They said he was killed in action, being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But she let go eventually, when she was ensured that the mistakes from the past are corrected, and now the Enclave has better weapons, stronger armor, and a better training program. Who knows? Maybe I will be remembered as the pony who took the first step in the forging of the future Enclave Medal Of Honor receiver.
I rolled my eyes, picked up the papers, and carefully put them into my saddlebag. Those things are official, might as well not damage them.
The City hall was in the very heart of the city, respectfully, which was about 500 meters higher than my house. I dashed through the air, just trying to get the errand done as soon as possible. I was just about to get to Sonic Wing Street, where the city hall was located, when, with my amazing luck, I ran into an Enclave patrol. Only this time, they were nicer to me “Oh, sorry!” Said the stallion I bumped in to. “-No problem, it’s my fault.” We parted ways, and behind me I overheard the stallion next to the polite one say: “Lunadammit, Carl! You should really start to get harder on them! It’s because of ponies like you we start losing our integrity!” Wait, these guys are TRYING to be assholes? My poor, poor brother. He’s better off with hanging out behind the school with some junkie-ponies. Then again, that would probably get him caught and, probably executed.
The building was large, half covered in glass, and had gold-plated double doors and a big dome on the roof. Huge pillars made of marble were all lined up on the front side of the structure, standing gracefully. The building seemed marvelous, but the ugly armor of the guards standing on the front door and on the roof stood out too much, radiating a feeling of discomfort when looking at the building.
The guards eyeballed me before letting me in, and seeing that I wasn’t dangerous or anything, let me through.
The first thing you see when you enter city hall, is the Atrium,always jam-packed with citizens from top to bottom for Celestia-knows-what reasons. The high, glass ceiling gave the impression that the room was a lot bigger than It actually was. It was the only building in the city which had a marble floor instead of a cloud one. I have no idea where they got that marble from. It parted into two hallways and a stairwell. The left hallway was where Kaiserhoof held his speeches and press conferences and what-not. The stairwell was reserved for the offices and all the administrative stuff that kept the city running on its…well, clouds. Since pegasi technically don’t need stairs because of their wings, I had a feeling those stairs were for mere decoration. And finally, the hallway on the right, which was my destination. That was reserved for booths where ponies could wait in line for minutes, hours, sometimes days to ask for some priviledges, complain about their rights taken away, pay bills (although there were other places around town for that) or, in my case, hand in applications for the Enclave.
That service had a special booth for applications, and it was the only one that had a carpet in front of it and a velvet rope on each side of the carpet. Guess it was to give you a sense of pride when applying for The Force. A bit of overkill if you ask me. I was lucky, only one pony was in front of me. I dropped on the floor and politely stood behind him in line. His coat was a shade of light-brown, and his mane was gray, same color as his tail. “That is ridicoulous, why are you sending my boy to battle in Skywood? He’s too young! Don’t they have laser turrets there? He could get evaporated in two seconds, for what? Your sick greedy desires???” He was yelling at the mare behind the booth, in a deep, raspy voice. “A-ahem!” The mare coughed quite loudly as soon as he started saying the words “sick” and “greedy”, as she was trying to silence him. “I’m sorry sir, I’m not the one that makes the orders, and as much as I wanted to help you, I simply can’t, your son is now an official member of The Force, and he doesn’t retire until the age of 45, nor can’t come home until he has 5 years of service behind him.” The mare said, glancing over her glasses, in a voice that sounded much like a filly talking while her nose is plugged. “FUCK YOU!” The grey-maned stallion exclaimed, and turned around to take off. He pointed at the papers I was holding and said: “If you know what’s good for you, DO NOT hand in that paper.” And flew away in to the crowd filling most of the hallway.
I was creeped out by what he said to me, and I too was about to get out of that empty line, but before I could do anything, that old mare spoke to me in her irritating voice: “Well, are you applying or what?? Come here, sweetie!” –“No, no thank you, I changed my mind” –“Oh that’s ridicoulous, dear, you’re gonna love it here.” Before I could say anything, she snatched the papers from my muzzle. There was no escape. My brother was an Enclave recruit. “Your name’s Bolt, huh? Not a convenient name for a mare, now isn’t it?” She was already getting on my nerves. –“It’s for my brother, I’m not recruiting, but since he is not here now, then we can’t finish the application. Right? Right???” –“Oh, no, no, no, no worries, the signature is here, all information is in order, let’s see now, stamp… physical fitness…” I wanted to take that paper away from her so bad, but even If I did, it wouldn’t do much, she was already entering all the information in the terminal on her desk. “…Parent’s signature, applicant’s signature, mental test… Everything is in order!” She announced with a sense of joy in her voice. “Tell your brother everything is in order, and further information will be sent to his address afterwards. He should be very proud of himself, serving the city.” –“Yes…very” –“And how about you? Are you thinking about applying??” I rolled my eyes, the voice already making me mad inside. “No, wasn’t thinking about that.” –“Oh, okay, no problem. If you change your mind, we are always here!” She said with a smile. –“Is that all?” –“Yes, yes, that is all… Oh wait! Take this.” She handed me a small pamphlet. “Goodbye!” –“Bye.” I said coldly.
I was just outside the building, at City square, worried about what have I just done. Deep down, I knew this was a huge mistake. Am I going to see him ever again? Will he get vaporized in his first mission?? The thoughts raced through my mind. I felt a sense of worry mixed with a touch of guilt, and stupidness (Is that a word?) How could I let that hag manipulate me like that?? Am I really that soft? Truth be told, I never was a “leader”, or had a strong personality. I would usually back down when faced with authority, or actually, anypony with a different opinion on something, with the excuse of them having a greater knowledge on the subject than me, even when I was one hundred percent sure I was right.
Hmm… my house was still empty, and I drank all of our cider (oops). So I thought I might as well go and get myself a drink. Mom probably won’t worry.
I flew to the nearest shop and bought myself a Sparkle-Cola for 15 bottlecaps. That stuff was my favorite. The carroty taste made you feel refreshed in an instant. An empty bench came to my focus upon exiting. My wings felt a little bit tired, so I trotted up to it. It was empty. Perfect. Sitting there, I popped my soda open, and took a small sip. Mmm, that first one is always the sweetest. I began staring at the ground, with my head resting on one forehoof, again worrying about my brother. He is very stubborn, and if I warn him about it, he would just start acting cocky and say something like: “I don’t care! I will be careful!” And the moment he steps on the battlefield, the fear will paralyze him, rendering his ability to focus to nothing, and probably end up getting him killed. I knew him very well. Maybe it’s just better he stays ignorant. That way he could focus.
But that stallion in line? And his son? Is he really not allowed to come home? And why the fuck would they send him on a dangerous mission like that if he is unexperienced?
And, all of a sudden, just like he was telepathically summoned by yours truly, that same brown-coated stallion with the grey mane appeared in front of me, his shadow appearing on the cloud ground I was staring at.
“Mind if I sit next to you?” His deep voice asked me. –“No, not at all.” I raised my head from my hooves. He sat next to me, popping open a bottle of cider. After a few minutes of awkward silence, he spoke up. “Did you do it?” –“Do what?” –“The papers, did you deliver them?” -“Oh… yes… I did.” I said with a sigh. “She snatched them from my mouth. –“ you do realize you just fucked up your entire life right now, don’t you?” He sighed as he took a sip of his cider. “You might as well say goodbye to your friends and family, and your life basically.” His behavior was a little strange to me, but didn’t bother that much. –“It’s not for me, it’s for my younger brother.” –“Oh? Well, you know what, you better buy him something nice and kiss him goodbye, colt’s now practically dead.” Excuse me??? –“What do you mean??” I said with a touch of worry in my voice, which was nothing strange. It would be strange to not worry at all. –“When he returns home, IF he returns, in maybe 30 years or so, you won’t be able to recognize him. They will completely reprogram his brain, brainwash him. The only thing he will care about is The Force.” -“Brainwash?” –“Yes, most of my friends who joined the Enclave, and retired, completely distanced away from their former friends.” He took another sip, but this time it was more of a chug. “Whenever you would talk to them, they would just answer straight-forward and cold, you couldn’t have a conversation with them anymore. The only time they would show emotion was on pep rallies.” Oh yeah… I forgot about the pep rallies. We did have, pep rallies on Sunday, when we were required to cheer for Kaiserhoof, while he would list all the things the Enclave accomplished. –“Really?” –“Yes, each and every one. Well, except Steve. Steve retired about a month ago, and he was more or less the same, but sadly, accidentally fell through the clouds down in to the abyss below, maybe two weeks ago. He was a good buck.” Falling through the clouds? That was the most common accident in our city. Each week a pony or two would fall down and die, by accident. I always took that explanation for granted, never giving it much thought. Until now. –“Fell down? Are you sure?” –“That was the official explanation. He had wings, goddamnit!” Still his old self after retirement, died accidentally… I put the two and two together. “Sir…” –“Oh please, call me Levi.” –“Levi, have it crossed your mind that he was… murdered?” –“Murdered?!” He shot me a surprised stare, jaw dropped, like he saw Celestia herself. –“Oh sweet Celestia, I never thought about it… But it makes sense… It all made sense…” Levi’s pupils started to dilate. “Two days before the accident he said something about the Enclave, that they were evil… My god, they did murder him, sons of bitches!” He dropped his bottle, which broke into a million pieces on the ground. “Oh, no, no, how??? HOW??? Your brother is a goner, missy, I’m sorry, if he manages to hold on to his mind, they will break his body!” –“Is there anyway to sign him out?” –“NO!” Levi’s eyes started to tear up. “I’m sorry, we can’t talk about this anymore, someone might hear us!” He was right. Sprite-bots, another invention of Sonic Wing. They were like little flying robots, shaped like a ball and equipped with a two-way microphone. They were used to patrol the city, for “security” purposes. They were silent. And agile. One could follow you around all day, without you noticing it. If if you turn your head as fast as you could, the thing would get out of your field of vision just as fast. Levi said goodbye to me, and flew off, panicking.
Someone was, in fact, eavesdropping. Not a Sprite-Bot, no. An Enclave soldier that was sitting on the bench about 8 meters away from us got up and hurried somewhere as soon as Levi left. Fuck.
***
Over the next couple of days, I tried to keep a low profile as possible, trying my best to not look suspicious. But I just couldn’t help the feeling of guilt every time I would pass an Enclave patrol. Even though I didn’t do anything wrong. It felt like all eyes of the city were turned at me, and like every single move of my body was carefully monitored.
This went for about a week, not a single incident, well, except bumping into a patrol. Again. I was sitting in my kitchen and reading the newspaper. “Another pony meets his doom in the abyss. Kaiserhoof advises citizens to be more careful, especially, when venturing the periphery of the city.” The newspaper was called Cloudsdayle Today, and in each and every issue of it there was a picture of Kaiserhoof on the left side of each page, and a picture of Sonic Wing on the right side. Bolt was already in the academy. I felt empty, like I lost him in a tragic accident, which I did, in a way. Now there was nopony for me to fight over the last piece of cake anymore, and nopony to fight with anymore. The house was too quiet now.
“Honey, would you mind checking the mail, please?” My mother asked in her sweetest possible voice. –“Okay, mom.” I flew outside of the house and to our mailbox which was hanged on the front porch. Pamphlets, bills, nothing special. Wait a minute… A letter? There was an enveloped letter inside, addressed at me. It smelled like perfume, the one Blazefire used. SQUEE!
I hurried inside and rushed to my room to open it and began to read with great excitement:
“Dear Splitty,
Would you mind coming today at the South Field today at 3pm?
I have something to tell you.
Signed, Blazefire.
OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!
She actually liked me! This was a dream come true! All my problems in the world just disappeared. I was on cloud nine. (Tehnically, I was on Cloud 31, Clouds were like city sectors, but who cares). It was already 2:45, I had to go. “Goodbye, mom!”
Fields were the peripheral parts of the city, most of them being future Clouds, just waiting to be builded when the population number demanded the need.
I sat in the middle of the field, waiting for her. 5 minutes… 10…15…20…
Why is she late? Why would she lie to me? I tried to convince myself that she just forgot, or something urgent happened. I was getting bored, and decided to lay down on the comfortable clouds. They were really puffy, I could fall asleep right there. But no, I had to wait for her. Every now and then I would peek out, just to check if she was on her way, but no. Not a single pony here. The “Oh, I really don’t want to do this, I want to stay home and read book” feeling was bugging me, but I knew it will be great once she got here. The waiting was killing me.
Suddenly, a blurry image of a gray Pegasus could be seen through the clouds. I smiled, she was finally here. Finally! This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship! I can’t wait!
My gaze was focused on the gray Pegasus, when all of the sudden, I felt a dull object hit the back of my head. I fell to the ground, the pain being great, but bearable. Another blow striked my flanks, and my hooves, and one was targeted towards my wings. By now, the pain was unbearable. I found strength to turn my head. Two Enclave officers. One of them wasn’t wearing a helmet, his coat was green, with a black mane. And a very serious face that looked as he was about to kill me. The other was beating the crap out of me with a metal club.
This guy had armor on his whole body.
The clouds no longer felt comfortable, now they just felt like a deathbed. They didn’t feel cozy and warm, I was helpless here. The bastard could beat me all he wanted, which he did, for like five minutes or so. I was too weak to move, or even scream. Once he convinced himself of that, he stepped aside. The unmasked Pegasus opened his saddlebags. He pulled out something that looked like big scissors and started cutting on my wingfeathers. It was painful, and one by one, I could see my feathers in front of me. I tried to get up, but the other one was pinning me down. And everytime I moved, the fucker stabbed me.
I was too weak to fight back, when he was finished, the officer without the helmet picked me up and started carrying me. I opened my eyes to see where was he going, only to notice that the other one opened a hole on the cloud floor. I was handed to the one with the helmet, who flew up, and held me by my shoulders with a tight grip. I wiggled my hooves, but no use. I tried to flap my wings, but, they were practically gone. Below me was a deep, dark-purple fog.
And suddenly I fell his grip let go.
I heard one word before the them, the city in the distance, and the floor disappeared, in a deep voice that sounded like it was coming through a respirator.
“DIE!”
