1 - Awake

Nights are all the same.

Or at least, that's how any inexperienced, young filly would see it. Even if their hometown was the spectacular, floating city of Cloudsdale. Any night wouldn't appear any different to them, as it did to their peers in places like Ponyville, Manehattan, Vanhoover, or even the great and glorious Canterlot. When one sleeps through the nights of Equestria, what more is there than the ground under one's hooves, and the starlit sky above?

Not much, that's for sure. Maybe the reason for ponies to think so little of nights was their sleep. And maybe in turn, the reason for their sleep was the peaceful silence this time of the day automatically brought along. In a time far back, centuries ago really, the lunar princess herself had created this masterpiece with all its energy and fascination. At this time, she carried in her heart nothing but the desire for the comfort and well-being of her beloved subjects.

The more betrayed did she feel, when nopony seemed to accept that gift the way she had envisioned it. With the kindness in her heart turned away, there was only one path she could see herself walk down. If the ones to receive her generous offer did nothing but back away before it, it had to be forced onto them. The jealousy the princess felt in that time was nothing ever heard from before, nor after.

Finally, she would betray herself and all the ponies around her to achieve that vicious goal, which were to bring an everlasting nighttime upon the world. She rose up against her very own sister, only to be defeated, and forced into exile for dozens and dozens of generations to come.

Soon after her banishment, the nightmare faded from flesh and bone to a memory.

From a memory, it faded to a distant thought.

From there to a narrative.

From a narrative to a tale.

From a tale to a legend.

Almost a thousand years after her disappearance, Princess Luna had become nothing but a myth. And even that didn't account for the majority of ponies, who had simply forgotten about her. And while neither she herself nor her memory remained with them, her legacy would stand the test of time.

Nighttime came and went, every day, for a thousand years. And throughout all these centuries, since the beginning of time, every filly and colt spent most of their foalhood ignoring it. Even as adults, most of them would hardly care to bother about the star's and the moon's beauty. Usually, they didn't stay awake during huge portions of the night, unless some important occasion were to take place.

For a small, young Cloudsdale filly, this was such a day. Or still a night at this time, really. The moon, which was raised and lowered by the lunar princess's sorrowful elder sister each day and night, still floated high up on the firmament. Its pale light shone weakly into the cloud homes of the pegasus city, granting its inhabitants the peace and empathy the way it seemingly had always done. The terror, that the alicorn depiction on its surface had one brought upon them, was long forgotten.

And this particular filly had, embraced by the darkness, still slept peacefully like more or less every other foal in the nation. It was only now, that she had to leave the cozy warmth of her bed, and get up into an early, and cold morning. It was mid-July, so the day was presumably going to heat up the air around her significantly, but at this time, that day hadn't even come.

Despite the early hour of the day, there was no time left to lose. Without any sort of breakfast or consolation to make up for it, the filly left home in her mother's hoofsteps, following the older mare across the streets. Since the roads of Cloudsdale often contained large gaps every now and then, they had to fly and trot their way around several blocks. When they reached the central plaza, a hot-air balloon stood waiting nearby.

Those were designed to get pegasus ponies to the ground more comfortably, and safely. Especially for those, who hadn't been to the ground before, balloon lifts were highly advised. Down there, a so called train would be waiting for them.

Derpy Hooves had no idea what a train was, she had never seen one. In fact, she hadn't been even near the ground before, either. It was a quite common thing for foals in Cloudsdale to not leave the city before their coming of age. The ground, they were told, was a harsh place, populated by nothing but thieves, cutthroats, and predators. In Cloudsdale, the pegasi were save. The sky was the realm they ruled.

Thus, it was only natural, when Derpy felt a certain shiver of anticipation and fear overcome her, as she stepped into the basket of interwoven strings. For the first time in her life, it would take her away from the world she knew. And then again, she was also very curious about anything she would be seeing down there.

In general, curious was probably one of these words that best described her. Derpy's thirst for knowledge of nearly everything she encountered during her time could rarely be stopped. And if anything ever dragged her back, that probably came from her mother's worried concerns. Though Derpy didn't know why mother acted that way, she always tried her best to love and appreciate the only family she had.

The filly had never gotten to know her father, nor did she have any siblings. As opposed to most other foals in the neighborhood, that was. She had often tried asking mother, whatever happened to her father, or why she didn't have one. To the day, Derpy had never received any clear answers. She would come to know, eventually. That's all the mare would ever tell her.

The train station lay directly below Cloudsdale, a lone, pebble building in an open field. A single track ran alongside it, stretching seemingly endlessly, from what appeared to be one end of the horizon to another. Even though the sun still hadn't appeared in the sky just yet, the view of this vast, flattened landscape was impressive towards Derpy already. That – and intimidating. Accompanied by the stern, protective looks from mother, the filly slowly trotted up onto the platform. A few of the older planks creaked as she did. Naturally, Cloudsdale station wasn't a very busy one. Most of the more athletic pegasi would use their wings to get out of town.

Especially at this time of the day, nopony else could be seen anywhere. Nopony except for the station clerk, who was well asleep in his small office. Derpy guessed she couldn't blame him for it. Taking care of an empty building all day (or night) would be extremely tiring to anypony. What was there to do, with no-one around to talk to, or socialize in any way. And the two of them didn't make any attempt of starting a conversation either, of course.

Then again, there really wasn't anything to talk about. Derpy felt too tired for any kind of conversation at the time, and mother had nothing left to explain, either. This balloon trip had started the biggest journey for the filly to undertake in her entire life so far. Thus, the older mare had taken her time to explain it a few days ago, already. They were to see a doctor, she had told her. Not just the regular kind, a special expert. Somepony, who could finally do something about those horrible eyes of hers.

Not that Derpy thought there was anything off about her eyes. Different, yes. But did that really make her worse than others? At least, mother seemed to think so.

The two ponies waited for quite some time inside the chilly morning breeze, blowing around their legs, and ruffling through the feathers of their wings. It really would have been freezing, hadn't it been for their natural abilities.

It was known throughout Equestria, that evolution had granted the pegasi community a lot of favorable traits, which the other races could hardly make up for. They would earn them a certain amount of either respect or jealousy, wherever they went. Among those traits was their extreme cold-resistance. Which was all too helpful, considering all the cold storms Cloudsdale had to put up with in winter.

Still, Derpy felt more than relieved, when, after what felt like an eternity, the colorful steam-driven train finally approached, and pulled into the station. When the brakes got loosened again, she had already squeezed herself into a more comfortable, yet narrow, lime green seat next to mother. It wouldn't be before long that she closed her eyes, eventually dozing off.

She had no idea how long she had slept. But it had to be more than just an hour or two, judging from the outside light. Derpy had been woken up by several bright sunrays falling onto her face, their source already high up in the sky. A long and relieving yawn escaped her muzzle, as she darted from the world of her dreams back into reality. After stretching all of her six limbs for a moment or two, she opened her eyes, curiously peeking outside the wagon.

There, several whole new sensations hit her. Though she might have been woken up by the sun almost every summer's dawn in Cloudsdale, the first glimpse of the outside world was something entirely uncalled for. The colors, shapes, and lights in her view impressed the young filly more than anything up in the clouds could ever have done. Even though she was barely able to fully grasp all of them.

Her eyesight had never been of the most convincing in Equestria, her crossed eyes drastically blurring out her vision. And gazing off only made it worse. Beyond a certain distance, all shapes eventually just faded into one big pulp for her.

Everything she could recognize still turned out delightful enough to instantly plaster a smile on her face, however.

The wilder parts of the rural country, all made up from forests, woods, and meadows rushing past, were impressive enough as it was. They didn't even get her started on the bright, diverse flowers and plants growing on the orchards of countless earth pony farms. Soon, it would be August, thus setting off the beginning of this year's harvesting season. Though the little pegasus could hardly know anything about agriculture and cultivation, the bright green trees, boasting with all sorts of ripping fruits and vegetables, left a lasting impression on her.

Most ponies, especially those living down here, wouldn't make much off it. To them, it would solely have been a morning like any other. It would take a foreigner to fully recognize the landscape's delicacies. Somepony like Derpy, that was.

Aside from the joy, there was something else, also contributing to her awakening. A particularly stern voice, one she knew all too well, addressed Derpy from behind her.

“About time you got up.” It was mother, of course. “You've taken your time, already. We even passed Ponyville a while back. You don't want to arrive at the doctor's all sleepy and messed up, do you? Better get that mane of yours in order, while we still have the time. Sweet Celestia, that's a mess...”

The pegasus mare groaned, as she gently caressed her own mane with a forehoof, checking if it were still in place. Whereas the shade of her mane matched that of Derpy's, the combing was obviously very different. Instead of dangling loosely around her forehead, mother's mane was always well trimmed back, and tied together around the height of her neck. That way, nothing could possibly obscure the pair of bespectacled, brown eyes, constantly watching the filly. They dominated the predominantly strict face, coated in wine-red fur, like the rest of her body.

Derpy had been accompanied and taken care of by that mare as long as she could think back. And especially now, that they were further away from home than ever before. It was no wonder the fully-grown pegasus wouldn't take her cautious eyes off her daughter, considering how protective she usually was, already. Derpy got to get outside the house rather often, since mother would always drag her along, wherever she went. Be it shopping for groceries, visiting this friend or that, or just taking a brief walk in the park, Derpy was there. Had to be there. She wouldn't ever be left home alone.

Visiting friends meant mother's friends, of course. Derpy herself never had any friends, and didn't actually have any, now. Somehow, she never would get to meet many ponies her age. And whenever she did, none would ever take her seriously. Maybe that was why mother always tried to take such protective care of her.

The few times Derpy had actually managed to get together with some other foals in Cloudsdale had mostly ended in tears. After constantly being called names and laughed at for her eyes being crooked like this, her reaction wasn't much of a surprise. But it still brought her mood down a great deal. Especially since she had no idea, what the problem was. So she might be different, and have a hard time seeing stuff, but she was still a pony like everyone else, wasn't she?

They didn't seem to think so. And neither did mother, otherwise the two of them wouldn't be on this train ride, now.

She wouldn't let that get her down, though. Not today. Her enthusiasm and anticipation for this day had been much too great to get herself depressed with those sad thoughts from home. This would be all different.

In order to distract herself, the filly simply did as she was told. Naturally, there were no mirrors on a train, and thus no way she could possibly see herself anywhere. Considering her eyes, it probably wouldn't have made any difference in the first place, though. Instead of even looking for one, she therefore started going over her mane, using both front hooves to detect any loose strings of hair. Having manually tidied up herself like that a million times at least already, it didn't provide much of a challenge. She was in fact quite experienced with it.

Only every now and then, she would discover a single hair or two being out of the pattern, and rearranged them parallel to the others. Which was just the way she needed them to be. And she wouldn't stop, until it felt like everything was in order, again. Sometimes, she considered it to look pretty ridiculous, especially in public. But mostly, she didn't care.

Still, it was quite a relief for the filly, when mother looked up at her again, and nodded in approval. “There, there”, she remarked. “Won't that look much better. Now, try to be nice and calm until we arrive. Don't make a mess of things, as usual.”

Giving advice like that, mother's voice always carried a slightly humorous tone. But, knowing her, Derpy always remembered how serious and picky she could get with things like this. It was better to obey – for now. Which really wasn't so hard in this case. After all, the outside world she could see from the train was astonishing enough for her not to bother.

Or at least that had been her idea in the beginning. But ahead of them there still was a long way, and the train ride seemed to be going on forever. Over time, the landscape passing by the windows would just become as monotonous to her as the wheels' constant rattling when passing from one piece of rail to another. Derpy's enthusiasm would eventually dissolve completely, leaving her overall situation rather dull. She lifted up her forelegs, head resting onto the two hooves. Finally, she proceeded to keep staring at the floor for a while, eyes halfway closed in boredom.

“Ugh, what now?” mother exclaimed, strictly raising one of her eyebrows, which usually represented some sort of annoyance. “Derpy, are you that desperate already? Listen, we won't be on this train for much longer.”

Even obtaining the good news, the daughter pegasus wouldn't feel any better. She kept silent, since it wouldn't be of any use anyway, but deep down, she felt all but comfortable. With every further second spent on this train, locked inside this small cabin, she grew more and more restless. There was a certain ache in her armpits, only underlining her desperation. Derpy didn't want to wait until 'not much longer', whenever that would be. She needed to run, fly around, stretch her muscles for a bit. It was only natural, since every pegasus would feel that way in a situation like hers.

Every one but mother, apparently. The mare had a number of displeased emotions reflecting from her face, and empathy sure wasn't among them. Though Derpy hoped for her to change her mind, or anything else to happen, nothing did. She eventually ended up uncomfortably shifting back and forth in her seat for another presumable eternity.

Or at least that's what it had felt like, when finally a number of brakes shot a shrill tune through the vehicle, subsequently bringing it to a halt. The speakers, one of them attached to the wall above each exit, made a crackling sound, before a raw, male voice emerged from them: “Arriving at Dodge Junction. Please exit to the left.”

With a nervous shiver, Derpy turned her head to the side. Mother had a look of utmost determination on her face, as she slid down from her own seat. “That's where we get out”, she addressed her daughter. “Come along, now.”

Needless to say, it was all the invitation the filly needed.