Prologue - Disappeared
1005 New Celestial Calendar, A Morning in March
The early morning was still dark with Princess Luna’s night, stars still twinkled despite the sun beginning to light up the sky above a barren, rock-littered field. A wasteland for some, a treasure trove for others, especially those who lived beneath the surface. Under the rocks and dirt were riches ripe for the taking, and a thriving home for the Diamond Dogs.
The canine inhabitants of this place were obsessed with the gems within the walls of their subterranean home. While many kept their work legal, there were those who would turn to crime in order to obtain them. Such crimes were handled within the community, with certain exceptions causing the Equestrians to become involved. The relations between the two civilizations were respectful, despite one only hold territory underground while the other held dominion on the surface. The leaders held no ill will towards each other, thus the Dogs and the Ponies could carry on in peace.
A paw burst up through the dirt, clawing a new exit to the surface for the beagle climbing onto the surface, into the cool early morning breeze. She sniffed the air for a moment before sitting beneath one of the trees that were scattered here and there about the field. Just a moment before the day began to be out on the surface by herself, that was all it was.
After a few moments however, she froze. The sun had just come up over the horizon, yet something was off. Sniffing the air again, she confirmed what she had sensed earlier: the scent of a coming storm. And yet there were no thunderclouds around – no clouds at all except for the one the winged ponies used as a platform for that magical machine they keep up there to make pretty rainbows. Why would anyone seek to make those? There was nothing to gain from making them, right? As far as the beagle knew, at least.
Staring at the floating structure for several moments, she finally stood and stretched, judging that it was about time to head back into the tunnels. She gave the structure one last look and headed back to the hole she had dug.
A bright glint caught her eye, and the beagle looked up just in time for her to see…
1006 New Celestial Calender, A Midday in July
At a café in Ponyville, a pegasus mare sipped a glass of juice while reading the day’s paper. Large bold letters presented the headline over an image of a city made of clouds.
Cloudsdale Vanishes Once More,
Fourth Royal Guard Recon Team Lost
The formerly glorious pegasus capital has, once again, vanished into the aether after reappearing briefly in the Yanhoover area. The city, and many pegasi across the land, vanished just three days after the strike of March 15 1005, a day that has come to be known as the Rain Fall Massacre.
On that day, a remote weather station made a sudden unexpected change in course over a Diamond Dog settlement, a move that did not violate any terms but made way for the horrifying incident that followed…
1005 NCC, March 15, The Rain Fall Massacre
The captain of the nearby town of Songbird Creek saw a bright flash out of the corner of his eye. The moment he looked out the window, he spotted smoke rising into the sky, only to end suspiciously quick. Within minutes, he was leading a party of four to the camp. Two other guards, a doctor, and a work horse hauling an emergency cart.
One of his colts piped up as they neared the destination. “Sir, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this Dog territory?”
The captain nodded. It was their duty to respond even if it wasn’t in their jurisdiction. The town may be threatened by whatever happened, and it was their duty to assess the situation, and even assist the Dogs if it came to that. They had had pleasant meetings with members of the local tribe, and it would be against everything they had done up to this point to leave them hanging.
The group began to hear something through the trees, a familiar percussive sound that could only come from a downpour.
“Sounds like the weather station’s handling the fires, Captain.” The doctor smiled as she said this. “May have less injuries to… wait…” Her look darkened. “Why does it sound like a waterfall…”
They group finally broke through the trees to behold the sight.
1006 NCC, A July Afternoon
“Excuse me, miss,” A stallion’s voice piped up at the mare’s side, interrupting her reading. She looked up and saw a blue-grey unicorn with a mane of onyx sitting at a neighboring table – littered with papers, some of which were stacked under a half-filled cup of a steamy drink – leaning towards her slightly as he spoke. “I forgot my watch at home, and I need to know the date for this paperwork, could you…?”
The pegasus nodded and checked the front page of the paper. “July fourteenth."
“Oh, thank you,” the stallion said, relieved. “You don’t know how much you’ve helped me!” He promptly began working with the papers again.
“You’re welcome.” The stallion grunted in response, clearly having become too absorbed in the papers to understand what she had said, but it was no consequence. The mare opened the paper again and continued reading.
First responders were met with the sole survivor of the tragedy, an anonymous Diamond Dog who was scarred by the incident, but managed to survive due to them leaving the tunnels at remaining some distance from the epicenter of the strike.
Early reports from the group stated that one of the weather pegasi came down as the weather station was…
1005 NCC, March 15
The beagle staggered towards the group of ponies who emerged from the forest, clutching her burnt and bloody arm. Her leg was no better off as she constantly stumbled, gritting her sharp teeth whenever the searing pain pulsed. The muscled earth pony that had tugged the cart detached himself from it and sped over to support her along with the one wearing the white coat.
One of the armored ones stepped past them, staring at the spectacle before them. All eyes were locked on the weather station and the stream of water coming from it, quickly filling the recently blasted hole. Beneath the water were tunnels that were quickly filling up, giving none of the Dogs within a chance to escape the flooding, if the initial blast hadn’t ended them.
It was no exaggeration when the witnesses later stated that the captain was well beyond livid at the sight. Brow furrowed, teeth bared, the unicorn captain shouted obscenities at the top of his lungs, ending with a warning. “YOU SCUM BETTER CRAWL OUT OF THERE IN TEN SECONDS, OR WE’LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT TO TARTARUS THE EASY WAY!” He turned to his guards. “High power blasts on my mark, we’re lighting them up!”
Turning back to the filling pond, he shouted again, counting down slowly. “TEN. NINE. EIGHT.” There was no response yet, so he decided to skip ahead several numbers. “FOUR. THREE. TWO…”
A form climbed out of the structure and took to the skies, diving to the guards. She appeared to be a typical weather team pegasus – a familiar one as well. One that would visit the local tavern and chat up either the doctor or the work horse, whichever she felt like at the time. She hovered over the water facing the captain, staring silently.
“YOU! GET OVER HERE BEFORE WE PULLED YOU DOWN AND CLIP YOU!” The captain threatened. Yet the mare stayed floating above the water. The station behind her ceased its torrent and began floating away, rising higher into the sky, unnoticed by the captain. Below, in the newly-made lake, forms began floating up out of the tunnels, hanging lifelessly just below the surface, slack-jawed and staring with the silent fear of their final moments.
The captain’s horn lit up, and aura surrounding it that he projected onto the pegasus, starting to violently pull her towards him…
1006 NCC, July 14
“Ah… sorry to bother you again, miss.” The stallion at the paper-littered table had piped up again. “I’m just curious about the headline.”
The mare sipped her juice and nodded. “It’s no problem. So far, it’s just a restating of the Rain Fall Massacre report. Not much else here aside from the fact that Cloudsdale disappeared again, along with the fourth team to go in.”
“It reappeared?”
“Haven’t you read the news for the past week? It was around the Yanhoover area since last Saturday.”
The unicorn stared for several moments before nodding. “I see… excuse my intrusion, you can keep reading.” He turned back to his papers and downed his drink.
The mare looked back at the paper and sighed. She already knew how the rest of the story went, where was the story about the reconnaissance? Skimming ahead, she finally found the beginning of the new story.
Upon the cities reappearance, a section of the Royal Guard that was created for such an event was notified and dispatched a party of five to infiltrate and gather information on the current status of Cloudsdale’s civilians and find an answer to why the city rebelled. Captain Shining Armor spoke of the mission with reporters.
“We sent the team in the very day the city reappeared, and they reported a successful infiltration due in part to new equipment and training since the previous attempts to infiltrate.”
The previous three teams’ fates are uncertain aside from the confirmed death of the leader of the second team, Wind Tunnel, by unknown circumstance.
“Unlike the previous times when communication was lost with the teams almost immediately, this team continued sending reports for up until two days before the recent disappearance.”
When asked on the subject of the team’s findings, the Captain declined to comment as a matter of security. He did, however, disclose the names of the five members of this team. Tornado Watch, Thunderlane, Spring Breeze, Flitter, and team leader Cloud Kicker.
Thunderlane, Flitter, and Cloud Kicker? She knew those names, and recognized the faces in the the accompanying picture. Those three lived right there in Ponyville. And now, they were gone, along with the floating city. Flitter…. she had a twin sister, the mare remembered. While the missing one was a little more subdued with e neatly groomed mane adorned with a bow, her sister Cloudchaser had what some would call a little more spunk, with a wild messy mane and a personality that would match at times. The two were practically inseparable to the point some unsavory rumors would circulate about them.
Come to think of it, didn’t all three of them have family here? Thunderlane had a little brother, Cloud Kicker was distantly related to some earth pony in town, she couldn’t remember the name. She did, however, recognize the large gray one passing by, dragging a cart behind him. He may be no Big Macintosh, but he was buff enough to be in that same school of strength; a strong stallion for hard work.
Coming to the end of her juice, she set the paper and a few bits down and left the café. As soon as she had gone, a shadow fell over the table. Not the waiter’s, but the unicorn’s as he took the paper to read over at his table.
1005 NCC, March 15
The pegasus was in the captain’s grip, there was no way for her to escape the magical tendrils that held her tight. Yet, despite her position – trapped in mid air over a watery grave – she was still smiling in greeting. The group did not take kindly to this, and the captain voiced that rage.
“What did you do here ponies do here?!” he shouted, shaking the mare about. “Why do this? WHY?!”
“They’re angry,” the mare said, still giving her smile. “What shall we do?”
“Just SHUT YOUR MOUTH! Doc, you got scissors for this bitch’s wings?!” The doctor’s eyes widened as she realized he was being serious with the earlier threat. This was a cruel punishment and she hesitated… but slowly began to fall into his train of thought as she watched the bodies of the dead Dogs bob up to the surface. She reached into her jacket.
“Of course… stand aside for me.” The mare said. Before anyone could tell her to shut her mouth again, something that would be regarded as a great mystery for the next year and a half occurred. A strange orange-yellow aura encased the mare’s body, swirling around her before suddenly erupting in an odd ripple, accompanied by strange objects around her, like crumpled and burnt paper. The “paper” converged on her and there was a quick flash.
The captain was reeling before the others knew what happened. The mare had suddenly vanished, almost as if she had teleported.
“How the hell did she get away?!” The captain screamed. “I had her! Did you all see where she we-” A thunderous horn sounded to the south, catching the attention of the group. Seconds later, they were deafened by a corresponding horn from the weather station, and the structure began to float in the direction of the other sound.
The group split up, the doctor taking the Dog and one of the guards on the cart back to town, leaving the captain with the remaining guard to chase the station through the woods.
“Captain, what are we going to accomplish when we find it? Neither of us can get up there!” The guard pointed out, him being an earth pony.
“We’re finding out who called it! That station is going to some homebase, so we’ll deal with them there!” The captain quickly unsheathed his sword, hacking and slashing at troublesome foliage in their path.
“Weather Stations like that are parts of a larger system that is suspended, sir, we still won’t be able to reach them!”
“I’ve had to go into one before, they have access for wingless ponies. We’ll get them, Private. We’ll get them and… and…” The captain slowed as the two entered a more open field, jaws agape.
The weather station was closing in on its destination in the distance; it was closing on the city of Cloudsdale.
1005 NCC, March 18
For three days there was a media circus as the floating city made an unexpected move: admitted that they purposefully, and with full knowledge of the effect of their actions, slaughtered almost every single member of the Diamond Dog settlement in the area of Songbird Creek, naming their method “rainfall”. They did not divulge in its secrets, but explained their reasoning. They saw need for a new source of cloud water and saw the Diamond Dogs as a threat to Equestria. This mindset, obviously, elicited outrage from the public, and of course the princesses became involved. Reports would claim that the conversation between the Council of Cloudsdale and Royals went as such.
“Surrender those involved with the incident,” Princess Celestia demanded. “Or I will be forced to take them by force.”
The councilors smiled through the magical projection. “With all due respect… what little we have, that is… that will not be the arrangement.”
The Solar Princess became uncharacteristically furious in that instance, and chamber shook with her rage. “My sister and I are the rulers of this land and its properties and that includes the entire city of Cloudsdale, and we will ground it in the EVERFREE FOREST if we must! Surrender yourselves!”
The head of the council shuffled through her belongings and brought up a cigarette to her lips. She held out a hoof and in an instant it began to glow red with heat. The princesses stared in a mix of disgust and confusion as to how a pegasus could perform such a spell without a horn, like the report had stated.
She pressed the hoof to her cigarette and put out the heat, inhaling deeply before responding, smoke billowing from her. “We, the citizens of Cloudsdale, declare our independence from Equestria…”
Princess Luna charged to the projection. “That is not your decision, Pathfinder! That is a decision of the Equestrian council once you–”
“And why should we concede our decision to become independent to those who would keep us caged?” The mare inhaled again before returning her yes to the princesses. “Besides, we’ve already made our declaration to the Pegasi of Cloudsdale. We are for ourselves and those who will join us. This ‘chat’ is over, princesses.” The magical projector suddenly went blank as the Council shut their end of the connection off, leaving the two appalled leaders to themselves.
Only hours later, the entire city of Clousdale disappeared high into the sky, disguising itself amongst overcast. No one knew where it was at any time. Since then, it had inexplicably reappeared four times, each time being answered by a team of Royal Guards or specially trained ponies to gather information. Now, all four teams were gone, and they weren’t the only ones to disappear.
Ponies suddenly vanishing without a trace became a more common occurrence. Sometimes entire families would disappear. No one was certain if this was a result of Cloudsdale’s succession, but everyone could agree the absence of many pegasi immediately after the massacre was related.
1006 NCC, July 14, Dusk
“Breezie…” The unicorn unlocked the front door and stepped into his home. “Why didn’t you tell?” He walked over to a picture set on the mantle over the fireplace. A picture of himself and several friends, but he focused of the pegasus mare with a light green coat and soft yellow mane with a flower tucked just by her ear. The stallion continued to speak to the picture.
“You went without telling me you had gone through the training… not a single letter told me. Why didn’t you at least hint at it?” The stallion choked a bit. “I-I’m your friend…”
He stared at the picture as if expecting a response before dropping his papers on the coffee table and falling back on the couch, his cat joining him. There was the research the Guard had commissioned him to complete that is barely possible considering that he’s trying to duplicate something he hasn’t seen directly. and now it was likely that Breezie was…
“No!” He sat up with a jolt. “She can take care of herself! But…”
Standing up to pace the room for a few seconds. The stallion began longing to find Cloudsdale and Breeze. His mood darkened when he reminded himself that, even if he did find Cloudsdale by some ridiculous chance, he would never be able to walk on the clouds, but would fall through and meet a terrible fate on the ground. He knew there was a spell that would allow Unicorns and Earth ponies to walk on clouds, but he had heard enough about it to realize it was a temporary spell; the effects only last for a certain amount of time depending on the strength of the spell. He hated to admit it, but he wasn’t particularly skilled with his horn beyond shedding some light and grabbing things.
“So… that’s that then.” The unicorn sighed and headed for the couch again… but stopped when he heard the sound of something falling in his bedroom. His cat must have accidentally knocked over a book or something. Shrugging it off as that, he went back to the couch… where his cat was.
“Oh no…” Rushing to his room, he braced himself for an encounter of some sort within. Was it a wandering animal? A burglar? He prayed it was the former. When he reached the closed door to his bedroom, he pressed an ear to it. There wasn’t a single sound from the room – not a peep. Taking no chances, he braced himself and flung the door open, rushing in.
Almost everything was intact; his bed wasn’t made as per usual, his dresser had a slightly open drawer with a formal vest and tie sloppily sticking out of it, and his box of memories was sitting in the corner with that yearbook from grade school sticking out. The only things that stuck out like a sore hoof were his window and lamp. The lamp had fallen off of his nightstand and lay, still lit, on the floor. Why had it fallen over? Was it a breeze from the window, which he noticed was open? No, that couldn’t be it, there was barely a draft coming from it… but hang on…
The stallion stepped to the window and peered out when he spied a strange structure of sorts. It sat a good distance away from his house and was making a low, chugging noise. It looked like a strange amalgamation of a building, a train, and… clouds?
A muffled sound behind him gave him only seconds to realize a major error. “Horsefeathers!” He thought. “I didn’t check the closet!” There was a surge of some sort, rattling his brain a bit before he fell to the ground and into darkness.
What felt like the next moments to him were a blur of sights and sounds he thought he understood, but also felt he couldn’t. There was a dimly lit room… or chamber… or something. A couple of winged silhouettes standing at a door talking intensely. He caught snippets…
“...other have their targets…” One shadow said.
“Right… typical shipment?” The other asked.
“No… dog… special guest…”
“Earth… guest? And this… what about him?”
“Also urgent… Royal Guards…”
“...what’s that over the-”
The stallion thought he felt the world around him shake and that he was tossed from whatever he was laying on. There were loud crashes all around, and yelling – panicked shouts and anguished cries as what seemed to be a new shadow came into view and began tossing the others around. Something fell close to him, but he couldn’t see what it was or remember it was there. He was just so drowsy…
The last he sensed before going under again was a figure standing in the light, and the structure had stopped moving with a strange clang.
