Chapters Two pegasi were flying in the endless sky. They were far away from home.
"You know, Sky? I like to spend time with you, but maybe we should do something other than flying," said the pink pegasus with a white mane.
"What do you mean, Cloud? Flying is fun," replied the white pegasus with blue mane.
"Yeah, but how about doing something inside the city? There is nothing here."
Calm Sky looked around. She could understand why her friend said this. She saw a blue sky around them, the sun above them, the moon below them and a layer of angular clouds just below them. The world could seem monotonous for an untrained eye, but she knew better. She knew the cloud pattern, and knew how it repeated. Even though they lost sight of their hometown long ago, she knew exactly where they were. She didn't get a compass as a cutie mark for nothing.
Calm Sky landed on a cloud. "Well, there aren't many interesting things here, but I am sure we will find something."
Sweet Cloud landed next to her. "No pegasi had even found anything outside. Just endless clouds."
"Do you think our city just appeared out of nowhere one day? Pegasi had to come from somewhere. What if there are more cloud cities in the world?"
"I don't know."
"There is something out there, trust me," Calm Sky said. She flew upwards and looked around. "See that H-shaped cloud over there?"
Sweet Cloud flew up. "I see."
"Race to it?"
"Sure," Cloud smiled.
The two pegasi raced to a few other clouds. Eventually, the sun started to set.
"It's late. Maybe we should go back?" Cloud said.
"Nah, we still haven't found anything. Besides, you agreed to have a sleepover outside, remember?"
"I did. If I get grounded because of you again, don't expect my help in homework."
"Don't worry, your parents think we are at my home," Sky said. "Will you help me set up a camp?"
"I don't want to fall down so I have to."
"Come on, I'm not that bad at cloud building," Sky complained. Cloud laughed.
The two friends took some cloud material from the clouds below and constructed a provisory house. It ended up looking nice anyway. In Calm Sky's opinion, a pyramid made out of pink cloud blocks didn't represent Sweet Cloud's talent in building very well.
Sun was setting. The sky started changing color to orange, the sun started to dim, and the moon started to shine more brightly. Eventually, the sun became just a white square below the horizon, the sky became dark and stars became visible. Calm Sky liked to watch stars. She always wondered if the stars were just some lights on a sphere surrounding the world, or if they were actually places you could go to.
While she was watching the stars, something unexpected happened. Purple star appeared in the sky and rapidly fell downwards. Calm Sky never saw anything like this before.
"Cloud, have you seen that?"
"I didn't know stars could fall."
"See, I knew we would find something."
The two friends watched the stars for some more time. Eventually, they went back to their provisional house, and lay back on cloud beds.
"Goodnight, Cloud."
"Goodnight, Sky."
Tonight, Calm Sky was dreaming about flying to the stars.
Next day, the two pegasi woke up by dawn. They ate breakfast – a few apples they packed into saddlebags.
"You still want to fly?" asked Sweet Cloud
"Of course. I think we should fly in the direction of the purple star. Maybe we will find something?" answered Calm Sky.
"I doubt it."
"Okay, how about this? We will fly until midday, if we don't find something we are going back to the town."
"Fine."
The two pegasi left their shelter and flew away. They flew for a few hours. They were talking about their friends, about school, about how much trouble they will be in if their families find out they left the town.
Midday approached. Calm Sky was about to admit defeat and turn towards the town.
Then, she saw something at the edge of her view. She stopped.
"Cloud, did you see that?"
"See what?"
"There is something down there."
Two friends flew in that direction. Calm Sky hoped she wasn't mistaken, and they indeed found something. That would be probably the biggest discovery in the history of Cloud Town.
Then they saw it. Below the clouds, there was a structure. It was made from an unknown, gray material.
"We found something!" Calm Sky shouted. She always wanted to discover a proof that they are not alone in this world, and she found it.
There were few platforms made out of gray material. They were connected by bridges. Calm Sky noticed that trees were growing on one of the platforms. There was also one building visibly larger than others.
"This was not built by a pegasus," said Sweet Cloud.
"It means we found aliens!"
"I don't see anything moving down there."
"Let's land and see what it is."
Pegasi flew down. They looked at the strange material the platform was made out of. It looked safe to land. Calm Sky touched it. It was hard and cold, definitely not a type of cloud. She landed. It felt weird on her hooves. She looked up at her friend and gestured to her that it was safe to land. Sweet Cloud landed next to her.
"Any idea what this is?" Sweet Cloud stomped her hooves on the ground.
"No idea. We need to take some of this material to Cloud Town. Maybe my dad will know something about it."
The pegasi looked around. There was no one here. Calm Sky walked towards the platform with trees. They were similar to cloud trees that were grown back in the town.
"I wonder if there are apples on these trees?" Calm Sky flew upwards and started punching down leaves. After destroying five blocks, she got an apple.
Sweet Cloud took this apple, and compared it to one from her saddlebag. "It looks normal."
Calm Sky looked at the ground. She noticed an entrance to the inside of the platform.
"Let's have a look inside." she said, and she opened the entrance.
Inside of the platform, there were rows of chests. There was also one strange, black block floating in the middle of the room. The pegasi felt magical energy emitting from it.
Calm Sky opened one of the chests. There was a mess of different items inside, tools she never saw before and miniature versions of blocks that made up the structure. She saw some material that made up the floor. She took one piece and carefully placed it on the floor. It quickly expanded and created a cubic block. Calm Sky took some samples into her saddlebag.
While she was packing, she heard Sweet Cloud shout, "Over here, something is moving." Calm Sky looked out of the storage. Her friend was flying next to the tall building. She flew towards her. Pegasi heard a loud growling.
"Hello?" said Calm Sky. Through an opening, she saw the legs of a few different creatures. Were they trapped inside? She landed on a platform at the base, to take a better look.
While she was investigating this, she heard steps behind. She turned around.
The pegasi saw a tall creature. It was made out of angular elements. It was standing on two legs. It seemed to wear green and black clothes, had gray hair and red eyes. It was standing still, looking at the pegasi. The two mares backed out and were ready to take off.
The creature turned around and ran back into the storage area.
"Let's get out of here!" said Sweet Cloud. She was afraid.
"Let's stay and see what happens," replied Calm Sky. The creature didn't seem dangerous. She hoped it couldn't fly.
The creature went back to the pegasi. It was holding apples in its hand, as if trying to get pegasi to move closer. Calm Sky slowly moved towards the creature. She noticed her friend gesturing to her to stay, but Sky went forward anyway. The creature looked at the pegasus. It seemed that it wanted to befriend them. Calm Sky took the apple from the hands of the creature. The creature started crouching repeatedly. It seemed happy, or at least that's what Calm Sky guessed.
"Hello, I'm Calm Sky. Who are you?" she asked. The creature didn't seem to notice her voice. "Do you understand me?" she asked again. The creature turned around and walked away.
"He seems friendly. Doesn't understand what I'm saying," she said to her friend.
"That was weird."
"Maybe we can communicate with him? We found a different intelligent species. Can you believe it?"
"We will be famous!"
Calm Sky smiled. "See, I knew we will find something."
Calm Sky and Sweet Cloud walked towards the creature.
"So, um… how about I call you Builder?" Calm Sky spoke to the creature. He did not seem to notice. Instead, he took out some strange tool, walked towards strange construction on one of the platforms and started breaking blocks. Blocks keep reappearing.
"So, that's how you got the material to build this? Do you live here alone?" Sweet Cloud asked. No reaction.
Then, they heard a loud clicking sound. They looked, and saw another creature. Calm Sky was sure it wasn't here just a minute ago. This creature had red and purple armor, red helmet, and dark, featureless face with two red eyes.
Newly arrived builder looked at the pegasi, then at the other builder. He stopped mining and turned to face his companion. They looked at each other for a while. Then, the armored builder punched the other one. Grey-haired builder didn't seem to mind this. Armored one looked at the pegasi again, shook his head, and went away to do other things.
"I think he doesn't like us," said Sweet Cloud.
Pegasi observed the newly arrived builder, when suddenly another one appeared out of thin air right next to them with a clicking sound. Pegasi got a bit scared. This builder looked at them. Then started crouching. Calm Sky guessed it was a greeting in their language.
This builder had white dress, long blonde hair and flowers inside hair. Calm Sky guessed that this builder was female, and the two others were male.
Female builder walked to the storage area, and brought some apples to the pegasi. They accepted them.
"How did she appear out of nowhere?" asked Sweet Cloud.
"I have no idea. Probably they can use different magic than ours. We need to observe them more. They don't seem to mind us.”
The female builder started running towards other builders. However, she slipped out of a narrow bridge and started falling down. Calm Sky took off, and tried to catch her. The builder started glowing red, and then disappeared into dust.
Calm Sky stopped and watched the dust fall downward. Did she just witness a creature jumping to its death?
"Sky, the builder teleported back!" Sweet Cloud shouted. Calm Sky flew up, and indeed, the female builder was standing on the platform. The gray builder shook his head, he seemed disappointed in her.
"I was afraid that… nevermind," Calm Sky said. It seemed that the builders were capable of very powerful magic.
Soon after, all three builders gathered in the storage area. There, they just stood in one place for a while.
"I think they talk through telepathy," said Sweet Cloud.
"Possibly. Imagine the reactions of pegasi back home when we tell them we found someone else in the sky," said Calm Sky.
"Yeah. I can't believe it. Real aliens."
Calm Sky also couldn't believe her luck. Her discovery would change everything.
Calm Sky and Sweet Cloud ate apples and talked about their discovery.
"Think about this. If there are three builders here, there must be an entire city of builders somewhere close. We are about a day on the wings from our hometown. That's relatively close. If our mayor decides to send patrols and explore the surrounding area, we might encounter lots of creatures. Maybe even other pegasi!" - said Calm Sky. She was very excited about the possibilities.
"What if some of them are hostile?" asked Sweet Cloud
"We will take care of them," answered Calm Sky. She was confident in her abilities.
The builders, who were standing still for the past few minutes, suddenly rushed to work. They opened chests, grabbed materials, and moved to the edge of their construct. Grey builder started building a bridge into the nothingness. The pegasi flew towards the builders to watch them.
"I wonder what their plan is," said Calm Sky.
Female builder approached the pegasi. She was holding two necklaces, each with a piece of material with some words written on them. She gave one to each pegasi.
Calm Sky looked at the gift. "Dashie," she read the word written on it.
"Flutters," Sweet Cloud read her own. "It's probably how they refer to us.”
Calm Sky looked at the builder. "My name is Calm Sky, not Dashie," she said. The builder ignored her and went back to her companions.
Grey builder build a frame. Armored builder brought some colorful blocks, and gave them to the female builder. She looked at the blocks, then at Calm Sky. She ran to the storage. To the surprise of the pegasi, she came back with a saddle.
Then, she jumped at Calm Sky. The pegasus quickly threw the builder off. "What are you doing?" she shouted at the builder with anger. Sweet Cloud flew up to defend her friend.
The builder just looked, her face not showing any emotion or any change. Then she looked up at the clouds.
"You want to stand on a cloud?" asked Sweet Cloud. The builder put the saddle forward, as if she wanted to put it on the pegasi. Sweet Cloud flew up to avoid it. She reached for the cloud, took a piece of it, and gave it to the female builder. The builder looked at the cloud piece, and placed it on the ground, creating a cloud block. Then, she tried to jump on it. She went through it. It seemed that the builder's magic did not include walking on clouds. She tried jumping on a cloud a few more times, with no result. Then, she looked at the pegasi and crouched three times.
“She looks happy," Sweet Cloud said to her friend.
"She needs to ask before she tries to dress me up," Calm Sky said, annoyed.
The three builders looked at the cloud block. Then they looked at the pegasi.
"They want more cloud blocks. Let's get them some," said Sweet Cloud.
"All right…" said Calm Sky, with little enthusiasm.
Pegasi took material from the clouds. Grey builder and female builder placed cloud blocks on the frame. They used dyes to paint the clouds in different colors. Armored builder did not take part in the building. He went away to do his own thing.
Calm Sky wondered what the third builder was up to. "I'm going to take a break for a moment," she said to her friend. Sweet Cloud was focused on helping with building, and she only nodded. Calm Sky flew away.
She found the armored builder at the tall building. He was attacking the trapped creatures with a sword. Calm Sky landed next to him. It seems that he heard this, as he turned around to look at the pegasus. While he did this, he switched his sword with a block-breaking tool, and broke the wall of the building by accident.
Trapped creatures started leaving. Some of them started burning. One of the burning creatures hit the builder, who also started burning. Calm Sky flew up. It seemed that the creatures were ignoring her, but the builder was in danger. She noticed a green, four legged creature approaching him. The pegasus flew towards it and kicked it off the bridge. She kicked off two other creatures. The builder defeated the rest with his sword. The creatures turned into dust, leaving a bunch of items in their place. Calm Sky guessed these creatures were some kind of magical constructs, as they did not appear alive.
"Are you okay?" Calm Sky asked the builder. He took out a golden apple and ate it. He started glowing a faint, pink light. Calm Sky guessed it was a form of healing magic. The builder took out some material and fixed the hole in the wall. Then, he looked at Calm Sky. The two stared at each other for a short while, until the builder disappeared with a click sound. Calm Sky guessed he teleported away somewhere. The pegasus decided to go back and help her friend with building..
Two remaining builders and the two pegasi continued building. After a while, they finished their project.
It was a pixel art, an art piece common in Cloud Town. It showed a smiling pegasus with a blue coat and a rainbow mane. Calm Sky looked at it, and wondered: Who is this mare? Did the builders meet a pegasus before? Maybe they know more about them?
"Good looking mare, do you agree?" said Sweet Cloud, after noticing that her friend stood in one place for a while.
Calm Sky blushed, and decided to ignore the question. "They made a pixel art. of a pegasus. Do you know what this means?"
"They like art?"
"They must have met a pegasus before!" Calm Sky said and pointed at her nametag. "I think this pegasus is Dashie!"
Sweet Cloud was skeptical. "I doubt it. They probably just made her up."
"No, I think she is real," Calm Sky looked back at the pixel art., "and I will find her."
The two pegasi looked at the pixel art.
"This is a proof. There are more pegasi out there!" said Calm Sky.
"I don't think this is a proof. Maybe you are overthinking this?"
Calm Sky looked at her nametag. "They can read. Maybe if we wrote them, they would answer our questions."
Sweet Cloud looked at the setting sun. "I hope you are right. We are going to get into big trouble once we come back home."
"Don't worry about that. When the builders tell us where the pegasi are, we will go back into town, show them what we found, and become famous."
"It would need to wait until tomorrow. They went away somewhere."
The sun set. Pegasi ate some apples and built two cloud beds next to the generator. They fell asleep quickly.
Calm Sky woke up to the sound of steps. It was still night. She got out of her bed, and checked the source of the sound. She saw the armored builder. I should have prepared something to write on, she thought. She followed the builder.
He went to the pixel art and looked at it for a while. Then, he started to break it. Calm Sky was not going to let him destroy others' work.
"Hey, stop it!" she shouted. No response. She flew towards the builder and poked him with her hoof. She noticed that he felt like he was made out of metal.
The builder turned around and looked at the pegasus. Then he punched her and went back to destroying the pixel art.
Calm Sky fell back. She quickly went back on her hooves, and attempted to attack the builder. She was stopped by a hoof blocking her way.
"Stop it, Sky!" said Sweet Cloud.
"He punched me!"
"Let's get away from here before he gets angry."
“And we should just let him break your art piece?”
"It's not worth fighting. Let's wait for the others to talk to him."
"But…"
Before she could continue, the pegasi heard two loud clicks. Grey builder and the female builder appeared. They looked at the damaged pixel art.
They seemed angered by it . They ran towards the armored builder. The trio stood in place for a short while. Then, the armored builder took a sword and charged towards the gray one. Two hits from the sword, and the gray builder turned into ash, dropping the items he was carrying. Then he reappeared in the tree farm. Armored builder got hit by the female one, and disappeared with a click.
"Coward," said Calm Sky
"Let's get out of here!" shouted Sweet Cloud
"That jerk in armor ran away. They are going to fix this," Calm Sky said, and flew up to gather more cloud material.
Grey builder and female builder looked at the damages, and started rebuilding the pixel art.
Calm Sky brought a part of the cloud down. She took a small fragment, and formed the letter C. Let's try this.
She flew towards the gray builder and poked him in his shoulder. He was not wearing armor, but Calm Sky felt she was touching cold metal. "Excuse me?" she said. The builder turned around and looked at her. She started forming letters out of the cloud. "Can y" was all she managed to make.
Calm Sky heard a click and turned around. She saw the armored builder. She noticed that he was wearing some device on his arm that he didn't have before. It seemed strangely familiar for her, as if it once belonged to her. It had a glowing screen with strange symbols.
Before she could take a better look at it, the gray builder rushed past her to attack the destroyer. Armored builder managed to dodge the attack by flying into the air. This device must be magical , Calm Sky thought. The armored builder once again defeated the gray one, and then started destroying the base. Calm Sky flew away from the fight. What was this device, and how did it allow him to fly?
"We need to run!" shouted Sweet Cloud. This time Calm Sky didn't argue. They both started flying away from the fight.
Calm Sky looked back. The armored destroyer was chasing them. He was fast, and was swinging his sword in the air. She had to do something. "Fly down!" she shouted to Sweet Cloud. The pegasi lowered their attitude. The destroyer was still chasing them, and almost reached Sweet Cloud.
Calm Sky turned around and hit the destroyer at full speed. He fell downwards, started glowing red, and turned into dust. She hoped it hurt him more than the impact hurt her. She managed to stabilize her flight.
"Are you all right?" asked Sweet Cloud.
"Yeah. Lucky they can't go lower than a certain attitude. Let's go back to the town," answered Sky. She looked at the base, in the process of being destroyed. The pegasi started flying towards their town.
Calm Sky heard a thunder striking behind her.
Calm Sky and Sweet Cloud reached Cloud Town by early morning. They never were so glad to see their hometown like today.
They noticed a pair of guards on the lookout. One of the guards flew towards the mares. “You are Calm Sky and Sweet Cloud?”
“Yes. We need to see the mayor,” said Calm Sky
“You should. Entire town is looking for you,” replied the guard.
The pegasi flew towards the center of the town. There were many pegasi down there, talking about something. Calm Sky guessed they were talking about the two mares that disappeared. She felt a bit nervous.
She noticed her father talking to the mayor of the town. Sweet Cloud noticed her parents, and flew towards them. Sky landed on town square. Her leg hurted a bit.
“Calm, where have you been? Are you alright? We were so worried about you,” said her father, a white pegasus with a purple mane.
“I had to put the guard on the alert. You better have an explanation,” said the mayor, a dark blue stallion with a black mane.
“We have. We found aliens!” said Calm Sky
The mayor was confused. “What, aliens? What nonsense is that!”
“Yes, real aliens. They are angular, capable of magic, and…”
“You should have thought about a better explanation. That is ridiculous,” said the mayor. He looked at Calm Sky’s father. “You should pay more attention to what your daughter is doing. It’s not the first time she disrupts the peace of this town.”
Calm Sky was angered. “I have proof. See,” she pointed at the nametag. “They gave it to me!”
“Yeah, sure. Mr. Sky, you should take better care of your daughter,” the mayor said. Then he flew towards the guards. “The vagabonds were found. You are dismissed.”
Calm Sky looked at her father. “It is true. We meet aliens. They built a structure close to here. They know about pegasi!”
The stallion hugged his daughter. “I believe you.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I always thought there was something outside,” he said. “Still, you shouldn’t have flown away from the town for three days. I was worried.”
“Sorry. I just…”
“It’s alright. Just don’t leave the town without my approval again.”
Calm Sky looked at her saddlebag. “They could teleport. Maybe if I did some experiments, I could find a way to reach them.”
“You can try, but in our house. You will stay there.”
Calm Sky was a bit annoyed at getting grounded again, but she guessed it was understandable.
On her way home, she was thinking. Pegasi might not believe her, but she will prove them wrong. She will find other towns, she will find Dashie. She will learn about where the builders went, and will learn how they teleport. She promised it to herself.
She will find a way.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading my story.
