Chapters Far above, the sun shines so calmly down, casting its warming Spring light upon a small town, perhaps closer to a village. Ponies of all three races move about in their various manners. Some buy, some sell, some create, and some farm.
About two minutes trot from town sit the farmlands, acres of land belonging to a variety of different ponies sat right next to each other. The barest hints of growing vegetables, fruits, and grains can be seen coming through the ground, the soil’s reward for the work upon it.
Within one of these many fields is a rather unassuming mare. A unicorn, with a blue coat made a darker shade by dirt and sweat, and a light purple mane gone through much the same as her coat. She moves about, low down to the ground, magic picking any weeds she sees so that her crops may grow strong.
She stands up straight from her soil, rolling her neck about in order to get out any crinks. As she does, she hears a voice from behind her, “Howdy, Miss Cloudy.”
She turns around, seeing a stallion stood behind her. Her western neighbor, and a unicorn much like herself, with a light purple coat and slight red mane. She shakes her head, “You’re standing on my potatoes, Night.”
He looks at his hooves, and quickly steps to the side, “So it’d seem I am. Sorry.”
She rolls her eyes, “Now you’re standing on my wheat.”
He looks down again, and once more steps away, “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Miss Cloudy, if there’s any damage at all I can-“
She grins and interrupts him, chuckling slightly, “What do you want, Night?”
He pauses, taking a second before smiling, “Well, I thought you might want some help. It’s a big farm, after all.”
She smiles back, “I’ll be fine, Night.”
He nods, “Well, you might be fine, but I’d be bored. Winter killed all my wheat, and now I just gotta wait for them to sprout now I’ve planted more. So might as well be a kind neighbor and help you.”
She raises an eyebrow, “So it’s just out of boredom?”
He shakes his head, “Oh no, Miss Cloudy, that’s just part. Work is always fun with another, ain’t it? So I see no reason not to help you. It’s a big farm, and you’re just one mare.”
Cloudy grins, “Oh, and what’s a mare gotta do with it, Night?”
He pauses, “What’s a... oh! Oh no, that’s not what-“
She chuckles, and floats a rake over to him, interrupting him, “You’re so wound up you’re like a foals toy. Take the rake and go on over ‘round that tree, but don’t kill any of my flowers.”
He takes the rake in his own magic, and smiles, “Will do, Miss Cloudy.”
She turns back around, setting back to the weeding while Night moves to rake around the trees. The two of them work, sharing little conversations and stories as the sun slowly begins to set.
As the sky begins to turn orange, Cloudy stands from her plants, stretching her legs. Night walks over, and she nods to him, “Well, thanks to you, I should be able to sell all my excess winter food in town tomorrow.”
He smiles, “Well, ain’t that lucky? You know, this is a lucky year, 500’s my lucky number, after all.”
She shakes her head, and smiles, “So how much you want, Night?”
He shakes his head, “Oh, I ain’t taking any bits or anything like that. I helped because I could help, not out of any need for reward.”
She nods, “Well, maybe you didn’t need any reward, but you’re getting one. How much you want?”
He smiles, “No, no, I think you misunderstood, Miss Cloudy. I don’t need any reward like that, since my reward was just spending an afternoon with you.”
She smiles, “Oh, ha-ha. Fine, you don’t want anything, you don’t have to take anything.”
He nods, “Now, pardon my asking, but are you doing anything tonight, Miss Cloudy?”
She nods, “Yeah, I’m gonna go get some herbs from the forest and make a stew. Then I’m going to get some rest so I can head into town tomorrow.”
He smiles, “Ah, do perhaps want some help at your stall tomorrow?”
She grins, “What, and let you scare all the customers away?”
He grins back, “Only the thugs, Miss Cloudy, only the thugs.”
She smiles, and shakes her head, “Thanks for the offer, but I’m setting off early in the morning and wouldn’t want you waking up early on my part.”
He nods again, “Suppose that’s fair enough reasoning. Have yourself a good night, Miss Cloudy, and a good stew.”
She nods back, “And you have a good night, too. Hope it isn’t too cold.”
He smiles, “Cold? I’ve a heart of fire, Miss Cloudy, you ain’t gotta worry about me getting cold.”
She nods and grins, “Suppose that’s what you said when you were shivering up a storm on the Solstice?”
He pauses, and grins, “Fair enough, Miss Cloudy, fair enough. See you later.” He turns, and trots back west, to his own farm.
Cloudy smiles, and begins to trot to her own house, lightly shaking her head as she does so. As she trots, the sun sets further, the sky darkening into purple hues.
She eventually comes upon her house, a rather simple building. Medium sized, perfect for between one and four ponies, with two stories. Made of wood with a thatched roof, and not painted, the house almost blends into the farmland with its simplistic, naturalistic nature.
She trots up to and through the door, shutting it behind her, and heading through a lightly furnished living room to her kitchen. A fire already is ready nearby a window, pointed north to face the forest, with a large pot on top of it. Already, a brown stew is simmering on top of the fire, filling the air with its savory scent.
She moves over to the stew, stirring it about a bit with a spoon, and tasting it. She smiles, looking at the darkening sky, “Getting late... probably don’t even need any herbs for this.”
As she looks upwards, though, something catches her eye. A star, though it seems to be moving, and getting slowly brighter. Not to mention the fact that it is, in fact, green. She tilts her head, watching the odd little thing as it grows brighter and closer, until it begins to cast a green light through her window.
She averts her eyes for a second, but looks back in curiosity. She watches more in fascination, as the rather small star streaks down, crashing into the northern forest. Her house shakes, as does her stew and herself, but the shaking all stops within a minute.
She blinks, looking at the forest for a second, before nodding, “Suppose that’s a sign.” She sets the stew back on the center of the fire, and moves back to the front of her house, where rests a saddlebag, a water skin, and an axe. She levitates all three over, affixing them to her back before opening the door, and heading to the forest.
A cool wind blows through the forest as the moon slowly rises in the distance, the wind sending birds high within the trees to shiver and plants to shake. Through this wind comes Cloudy, heading where she saw the object fall.
Birds tweet and lizards run as her hooves disturb the sleeping animals of the undergrowth, her horn lit up casting a little light in front of her.
She smiles as she trots ahead, pausing as she hears distant movement. Her magic grabs an axe from her side, keeping it floating up beside her head as she moves forward more cautiously.
The foliage in front of her begins to shake rapidly as a wolf runs through it. The animal passes right by Cloudy, and an entire pack follows behind it, all of them passing by her without so much as a drop of attention payed.
She watches the running wolves with caution, raising an eyebrow as the last, a pup, passes between her legs. A green glow comes from the forest ahead, and even more animals run by. Squirrels, birds, foxes and even a bear running from the light.
She looks at al the animals, and looks back at the green light, scuffling her hoof on the ground and reconsidering her choice. The light seems to both draw in her attention and call her closer, yet at much the same time also tells her to run away.
She jumps in surprise as a hydra roars from elsewhere in the forest, and she can hear its stomping feet shaking the ground and trees more. With the strength of the shaking increasing, it is obvious the creature is coming closer.
She absorbs her magical light’s energy back into herself, and slinks low to the ground up to the green light, watching her hooves to make sure they don’t step on any stray branch or crackling leaf.
She moves into the bushes surrounding the light, slowly poking her head out. There lays the source of the green light, a crater with something moving inside it. The trees all around it have been knocked over, and the grass burned.
She slowly trots closer to the crater, eyes straining to catch sight of the thing moving within, and axe floating alongside her head. However, she comes to a sudden stop as she sees the burnt bushes suddenly grow back alive, and then overgrow to form a barrier between her and outside the clearing. Then, new trees sprout from the stumps left behind, gigantic and thick, yet more blocking her escape.
She slowly trots closer, legs shaking and axe held more unsteady in her magic, still ready to swing with a simple command. The creature within the crater begins to move more, the green glow slowly dying down as it does.
Then, out of the crater pokes the head of a unicorn colt, with bright green coat and golden mane, and beautiful red eyes. Cloudy stops in her advance, floating down her axe, “Oh, a colt.”
The colt looks at her, and tilts his head, blinking once as he does so.
She smiles, and begins to chuckle, “Here I was thinking I’m about to face down some sort of star creature, but nope! Just a colt. Probably just misfired a spell.”
The colt then walks the rest of the way out of the crater, revealing wings on his back.
Cloudy instantly pauses, and gasps, “Oh... oh you’re one of them.” She floats her axe back up, and takes a step back, “I’ve heard of your kind before! You winged unicorn star foals always being misfortune and destruction to us!”
The colt tilts his head again, taking a step towards her.
She frowns as he gets closer, “Hey, don’t take another step.”
She pauses as the ground shakes beneath her, the sound of a hydra’s roar sounding closer than before. The colt looks around with fright, his wings pinning to his side as he rushes beneath Cloudy, ducking away from the noise.
Cloudy looks at him, her axe half heartedly held in her magic, “You’re... just a colt. A scared colt who happens to have wings and a horn.”
She looks at the bushes blocking her way back to town, raising her axe up high and swinging it down to cut through the foliage. The colt looks up as she does such, watching the plants be cut away.
Cloudy smiles, floating her axe down as she cuts through the last of the bushes, the hydra’s roar sounding closer than before and shaking the colt again.
She levitates the colt up with magic and puts him on her back, “Alright, I don’t know if you understand me, but hold on tight.”
The colt wraps his legs around her, holding on tightly as Cloudy begins a rapid gallop through the forest. The Hydra roars and stomps the ground, it’s many heads now visible above the tree line.
Cloudy doesn’t spare the beast a glance, running even faster. The Hydra roars louder as it reaches the clearing behind her, not finding anything to eat there.
Cloudy runs faster, and dives to hide behind a tree after the Hydra’s roar. It’s heads look around and scan the forest floor, giving one final roar and stomping away as it sees nothing.
Cloudy sighs and breathes deeply, standing and trotting back home, “Come on, colt, I’ll figure out what to do with you tomorrow.”
The morning sun shines down upon Cloudy Sky’s house, the warm spring rays casting light in through her windows. Laid within her bed, Cloudy slowly wakes up, yawning and rubbing at her eyes before rolling out of bed. She stretches her legs, taking a glance at her fields outside, before exiting the room and heading towards her kitchen.
Arriving in said kitchen, she floats over a bowl and a spoon from a pantry, filling her bowl with the stew from last night. She yawns lightly again as she trots into the dining room. She places her bowl and spoon down, taking a seat at her table, and taking a bite of the stew. As she does, though, she sees the bright green alicorn colt sat across from her at the table.
She coughs a bit, choking on her stew, clearing her throat after a second. She takes a breath, and looks back at the colt, “So... you are actually real, huh? Not just a dream?”
The colt nods, looking at her with a neutral expression.
She nods back, “Alright, guess I’m stuck with this then. I take it you can understand me, but can you speak? Like, normal pony speak, not some freaky winged unicorn speak?”
The colt nods again.
She looks pointedly at him, “And you aren’t speaking... why?”
The colt pauses, clearing his throat, and then speaking in a soft, gentle, and sophisticated voice, “You seemed afraid of me last night. I am trying to not cause more fear from you, so it would be better for me to stay silent then for me to talk.”
She slightly nods, “Well that’s dumb. You’re dumb. Stop being dumb. Where are your parents?”
He shakes his head, “I have no parents.”
She sighs, “Okay, allow me to phrase this in winged unicorn terms then. Where are the other winged unicorns?”
He shrugs, “I am unaware.”
She raises an eyebrow, “You don’t know?”
He nods, “I do not know if there even are others like me.”
Cloudy nods, “Well, there are. And they bring ruin, and destruction, and death with them. I heard from a traveler from Order Mountain, said one of your kind landed in the middle of their town. Next week, Minotaur come and slaughter the whole place, including that winged unicorn. One of them landed up near Mareland too, Griffons came and destroyed the town and hung the winged unicorn.”
He tilts his head, “Why would they kill them?”
She pauses, “That... I don’t know, but I don’t need to know. All I know is that your kind always have destruction come in their trail by way of those damned Minotaurs or Griffons.”
He nods, “Well that’s dumb. You’re dumb. Stop being dumb.”
She holds up a hoof, “Hold on now, you don’t get to say that back to me, that’s my phrase. And I ain’t about to let some winged unicorn smart mouth me in my own home.”
“Well that’s dumb.”
She frowns and points at him, “No.”
“You’re dumb.”
She shakes her head, “Stop it.”
“Stop being dumb.”
She sighs, “By all that’s good, you’re acting like a foal!”
The colt looks at himself, and looks back at her, raising an eyebrow.
She pauses, and settles down, “And... you are a foal. A helpless, probably scared foal.”
He nods.
She sighs, “I know you all bring destruction, I know I should be chasing you out of this house and cursing your name. I know... I know that’s the smart thing to do. But smart ain’t always right. And I’m not about to chase a colt out of my house for no real reason. No matter what race he is, a lost colt is a lost colt, and I’m a good pony.” She slides her stew over to him, “Go on and eat, guess I gotta get used to you.”
He smiles, using his own magic to begin to eat from the bowl.
She points a hoof at him, “But I’m making some rules, alright? Firstly, you are always to wear a cloak or a robe or something that covers your wings. If anypony else out there saw you were a winged unicorn, they’d probably kill you outta suspicion. Secondly, you’re gonna help me while you are here. Thirdly, the story is that I found you wandering the fields and decided to help you. Your parents are dead, you have no living family, you have no place to go, got it?”
He nods, “Yes, I do get it.”
She smiles, “Good. Now, I can’t promise this is going to be a permanent staying place, but I’m at least open to you staying here until other winged unicorns come to claim you. Now, we’re going into town today, and you are going to be well behaved. You will help me stock and put up my stand, and then you shall not scare off my customers, got it?”
He nods again, “Yes, I do get it.”
“Good. Now, I’m going to go get myself a bowl, and then we’re headed out.”