It was a beautiful, serene, and quiet afternoon in the luscious Equestrian countryside. Birds chirped happily, the warm summer sun shone down on the colorful flowers, and the sound of a river made the scenery bloom with joy. A worm crawled beneath the blades of grass, only to be swooped up by a mother bird caring for her chicks in a nearby tree.
Ah, how wonderful. Nature working its course truly is a gift, oh! Look at those hungry little buggers. They're really tearing that worm apart. Oh, my...
Anyway, If you sharpened your hearing just hard enough, you might be able to hear another sound cutting through the peaceful tranquility.
"Helloooo?! Anypony?!"
Far, far, FAR above this beautiful landscape, on a single, small, innocent-looking cloud, was a pony. A pony who, quite honestly, didn't belong where she was. A pony frantically searching for a means of escape.
"Oh... poo! What am I going to do now?!"
The little blue pony with a mane with streaks of white and blue through it, stood on the cloud, as far in the middle of it as she could. She looked around her to see if she could see an escape route of some sort, but in front of her was a fall to her death. On her left was a fall to her death. On her right was a fall to her death. Behind her was a passing bird and also another fall to her death.
"Oh, Celestia..." the pony said with a trace amount of trepidation. She started sweating as she saw the sun shining brightly above her. "Well, at least I'm not cold," she thought to herself. Randomly, as if summoned, a gust of wind hit her from behind, making her mane fall in front of her eyes. She huffed aggressively and corrected her bangs in an irritated way. "Rude!"
She gulped audibly as a feeling of doom settled in her mind, realizing she might have gotten in too deep this time. After more panic settled inside of her, she started calling out for help again.
So, how did this pretty little pony end up in this very not so pretty little precarious situation? The tale is a simple one, and it takes place only twenty minutes earlier!
"Okay, everypony. We're about to enter the main facility!" Said the guide, taking the group of ponies around the weather factory. They had just come through some historical hallway filled with pictures with boring lore underneath. Stories about how the weather factory came to be, the history of the pegasi behind the technology, and a brief lecture about how clouds are produced.
Petunia Blue had no interest in any of this; she only came to walk on clouds! Why would she bother her silly little mind on history? School ended years ago! Nay, she says! She was a tiny earth pony. Her short blue body could easily resemble that of a filly if you didn't know any better, but she was nearing her thirties.
Don't tell her that to her face, though. She will buck you. She will make it hurt. She might even go after your loved ones.
Her ears perked up when she heard they were entering the 'main facility.' Now that sounds more like it! She mentally prepped herself and pushed her way to the front of her group to get a better look. Some ponies she pushed past looked at her with disdain; they'd been getting steadily more annoyed with her during the exhibition. No wonder, since she had been sighing with boredom during the entire trip thus far.
The guide opened the double doors they had been walking up to, which had a sign that said 'main facility' over them. Petunia was first in line to look inside this next room. When the doors were opened, she saw catwalks, machines, puddles of rainbow water, ponies walking around in lab coats, and, most importantly, clouds!
She got an ear-to-ear grin on her face and sprinted past the guide to explore. She faintly heard him mutter something under his breath as she took off. Whatever, this looked like it could be exciting! Don't you worry, girl, the guide totally didn't just call you something mean!
She stopped about halfway into the main area, which was fairly large, but mostly empty. There were some clouds lazily hanging from the ceiling, but that was the extent of what she could see of them, at least in this room. Most of what was in the room was workers going back and forth between sections of the factory, talking about things that were out of earshot.
"Ahem, as I was saying," came the voice of the guide behind Petunia as he walked up. "over here, as promised, we have a cloud pool for you curious ponies wanting to try out cloud-walking for yourselves!"
The guide pointed toward an area to the right of where they came in the door, and Petunia could see a pool-sized hole in the ground with a flat sheet of... clouds? She equipped a frown as she walked up to it with the group, and her frown grew larger when she realized this was a poor excuse for a cloud-walking experience.
This doesn't look at all like what I imagined!
It was just so flat! Where was the fluffiness? The textures? The promise of fun?!
She heard excited muttering around her, and some of the ponies decided to take a closer look. The guide put his hoof out to stop them when they approached the pool. "Now, hold on! Don't forget to apply some potion to your hooves before you take the plunge."
He pointed toward a small puddle of purple liquid next to the pool with a cute sign pointing an arrow into it saying 'cloud-walking mixture for non-pegasi. DO NOT INGEST!'. Petunia looked at it curiously while ponies lined up to get a turn to dip their hooves into the puddle. When they stepped out of it after dipping their hooves in it for a few seconds, the potion washed off their hooves as if it had never been there. Afterward, they gingerly approached the pool, and some of them decided to test the waters after the guide himself had to prove that it really worked.
One might have assumed the factory and the reason it was suspended in the air was because it was all made of clouds. It was not so! The entire facility was constructed as a normal building would, except it was kept afloat by clouds underneath everything. This way, they could have visitors and workers here as long as they could reach the factory, be it hot air balloon or something else.
Petunia wondered how it this building was kept in the air, and she came to the conclusion that it was below her paygrade to ask these sorts of questions.
When the guide had shown the group how the cloud-walking worked, this got the intended reaction, and the various ponies started taking turns on the cloud. It would bounce gently when they jumped on it. It acted sort of like a soft trampoline or a stretched-out sheet. A little filly bravely jumped into the cloud pool when it was her turn and started doing backflips on it. "Mom, look! I'm like a pegasus now! I'm walking on clouds!"
"Careful, sweetie! That might be dangerous!" came the words of a worried parent.
The guide chuckled and shook his head, adjusting his glasses. "Don't worry, ma'am. Your filly is safe! You see, beneath this pool is water, so even if the potion were to malfunction, nothing could go wrong! Plus, if you're lucky to have a pegasus fly you up to a cloud when you get home later, just remember that this potion lasts for twenty-four hours!"
The mother of the filly blinked. "My daughter can't swim."
"Uh.. hmm. I, uh... Ah, look at how much fun she's having!"
Petunia watched in disgust at this sorry display of 'cloud-walking'. When she read about it in the pamphlet, this wasn't what she had in mind. She reluctantly went over to step into the pond and tried it out for herself when most of the other ponies had finished their turns. She stepped onto the cloud after watching the potion run off her hooves, and at first, she felt excited about the fact that she was finally walking on a cloud, but it vanished after not even a second had passed.
Pathetic. She grumpily bounced on the flat cloud, barely making any movements to keep it bouncy. The whole trip was ruined now. Why was life so unfair! She took her weekend off for this?!
The rest of the group was moving on now. She had been left to hang out on the flat, depressing, sorry excuse for a cloud. She looked around, pondering just leaving the factory when she saw a sign over a door that made her ears perk.
CLOUD FACILITY
Authorized Personnel ONLY
She looked around without looking totally suspicious at all before slowly sneaking off from her group. Making sure to look around her so nopony could see her or what she was up to, she hid behind corners every now and then to avoid having to explain why she wasn't with the guide.
Thankfully for Petunia, there weren't many workers around right then. Lucky break! The group hadn't even noticed she was missing as she casually trotted through the door, which clearly indicated that she wasn't supposed to enter.
When she opened the door, which was open and accessible to her, she entered a slightly smaller room than the main facility area. Closing the door carefully, she got a good look around the room. There were conveyor belts carrying what looked like small cylinders of water, somehow being held up by air? She briefly wondered what it could be before she ducked down behind a railing to avoid being seen by a couple of bypassing factory workers talking about taxes or something like that.
She regretted not paying attention in the lessons because she could probably figure out how to find the clouds that way! For now, though, she needed to focus on not being seen and find somewhere where there would be clouds. She couldn't leave this place feeling unsatisfied!
She looked around, wondering where she could possibly go to see some actual authentic clouds. She saw another door at the end of the railed catwalk she was standing on, and she went over to it, lacking any better options. There were workers standing everywhere else, and somepony might come through the door behind her any second.
She went up to the door at the end, and didn't take a second to notice the excessive amount of hazard symbols around it. Additionally, there was a warning on the door.
WARNING: HAZARD!
SERIOUSLY!
Shrugging, Petunia looked over her shoulders before slowly creaking it open. What she saw made her breath catch in her throat.
The room looked like a large cylinder laying down sideways, and along the whole line were clouds! Cute, small, and fluffy clouds as far as the eye could see! They were all just floating around, and more were coming out of an assembly machine at the inner wall of the chamber. And the best part was there was nopony here! Better to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission!
She gently closed the door behind her before letting out a large 'squee' and then jumped into the sea of clouds below. It was glorious. She bounced high when she hit the first one, high enough that she was able to get to a pair of clouds that were higher up. Realizing the potion on her legs really did work on real clouds; she took full advantage of it as she had the time of her life, laughing all the way.
After a few minutes of playing around like a child on a sugar rush, she heard a funny sound as she landed on a cute little cloud. Turns out the sound was not so funny when she realized it was followed by a warning on a speaker system.
EJECTION IMMINENT
Before she could start wondering what that meant, a large, bright light turned on at the opposite end of the chamber, and she got thrust forward toward it. She clung on the the cloud she was on for dear life as she realized the bright light was actually daylight. Petunia Blue had found herself in the unfortunate situation of being flung out to the open air and the only thing between her and safe, sacred ground was a small cloud about two times her size.
So, anyway! That's how we ended up here. Quite an adventure, correct? Hey, on the bright side, at least she didn't get turned into a cloud, right? No, that would have been a completely different story.
The clouds that she had been ejected with had all floated their separate ways and were quite far in between. She was never close enough to another pair of clouds to even dare try jumping between them. If she messed it up somehow, that would be it. She would meet her end in less than ten seconds flat, not to mention she would be flat.
Petunia was in a precarious situation! According to the guide, she would have approximately twenty-four hours before she fell through this cloud, and she had absolutely no idea what she would do about it. Initially, she had tried calling for help from the weather factory as it slowly floated away from her position, but there were nopony anywhere to be seen, as the giant hole she had just come out of was the only thing in sight. She considered jumping off before she was ejected, but she was too panicked to even realize what was happening before it was too late.
Now, she had spent the last three hours calling for help. It was a fruitless effort, as she was too far up in the skies to even reach anypony's ears. Not to mention, there was nothing in sight but Equestrian nature below her. Beautiful, but not what she wanted to see. If she could just drift over a village...
You know, this is kinda nice, too. She thought while taking a break from screaming and hollering. The fear of heights she had been experiencing had worn off after being there for a while. She didn't have much room to move around, and she was too afraid to try and lay down, as the potion was only on her legs. What would happen if she lay down?
She did cling on to the cloud when she had been ejected, but did that count as laying down?
She came to the conclusion that she stood absolutely no chance if she ended up being upside-down underneath the cloud, with only her legs being over the cloud. She didn't imagine how that would work in her mind, but it was a scary thought.
She huffed, pondering how she would get out of this. She was running out of time. She only had around twenty hours left to live! If she truly was going to go out this way, she needed to get something off her chest.
"I hate my stupid neighbor! She always smells bad, and she looks at me funny every time she sees me! YES, I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU, MRS. BUTTERSCOTCH!" She yelled hoarsely into the world, catching the ear of nothing but a few passing seagulls.
The weather factory was long gone. There was no way she would get help from there, as it was always on the move. She had tried to shimmy sometimes or rub the cloud in an attemept to move it, but no amount of fine hoof work did the trick.
The only bright side was that she was finally getting her wish, albeit not in the way she had imagined. She was never going to get married. She was never going to have foals. What a tragic realization! She was pouting up a storm as she realized that the rest of her life would be spent on the cloud she was on.
"H-hello?" She tried again as panic struck. "Is anypony there?! Anypony, please! Help me!"
As she spent her lungs bellowing into the open air, she felt something wet hit her forehead, and her eyes closed on instinct. A foul smell hit her nose, and she opened her eyes slowly and crossed them. What she saw was a white stain on her face, and what she saw next was a flock of seagulls above her.
"Hey! Gross! This isn't a public toilet!" She said, waving her hoof at them, only to get some more bird poop dropped on her. "Ugh!"
The birds started circling around her as if aiming to make her day worse. "Oh, come on! Don't you have something better to do?! Go find some trash to eat!"
They kept coming closer, and she had had enough. She flung her forelegs and made a scary noise to drive them off, but she only succeeded in losing her balance. She put her hooves back on the cloud and took a deep breath. She almost vomited when the only thing she inhaled was the smell of fresh poop.
"Gyaaaah! Stay back, you flying rats!" She screamed. When she looked back to where the birds were, they were gone. "Oh, nice!"
Then she looked down and saw a lone seagull standing on the cloud with her. Its black, beady eyes stared right into hers, and it was like this creature could see into her soul. She snorted. "Oh, are you here to apologize?"
It squawked and laughed at her. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"SQUAWK!"
She wondered why this bird was here alone and why it was trying to communicate. Did its pack leave it because it was too annoying to deal with or something? "So, uh... You come here often?"
"SQUAWWWK!"
She was taken aback by the sheer force of this seagull's voice. "Wow, okay. So you're single and looking?"
"SQUAWWK!"
"Huh. Interesting. Hey, can you tell me how to get to the ground without wings?"
The seagull blinked. "SQUAAAAWK"
She nodded. "Gotcha. Well, it was nice talking to ya. See you."
She was just about to turn around and walk away from the arguably one-sided conversation when she realized that would be a pretty dumb thing to do.
"Hey, wait a minute!" She turned back to the seagull and pointed a hoof at it. "Can you help me? I'll do anything!"
The seagull took a step backward and tilted its head. "ha-ha-ha-ha."
"Argh!" She facehoofed. "Okay then. At least you can keep me company. I think I'll call you... Gullivan. Yeah? How do you like that? Gullivan. That's a name to remember!"
"Squawk."
"Yeah, Gullivan. Sounds like the name of a bird. Well, since we'll be here together for a while, let's get to know each other."
She slowly sat down on her rump and realized she wasn't falling through. That was a relief; maybe she would be able to lay down after all. She would probably fall asleep at some point anyway.
WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT GETTING SLEEP AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!
She started wiping her face to get rid of some of the fresh waste. "Gah, I'm gonna need a shower when this is all over..."
Ahh... The peace and quiet. Life, what is it? Life is a mystery. The answer? We will never find it. So, we must bask in the blissful ignorance of it all and enjoy what we have. We need to-
"SQUAWK!"
Deep breaths. We need to look past the bad things and enjoy the good things. Yes, find inner peace. Reach into your soul and-
"SQUAWK!"
"GULLIVAN, I WILL THROW YOU OVER THE EDGE, I SWEAR." Petunia practically screamed at the bird sitting on her back as she tried her best to do a yoga pose on the small cloud.
"There!" She proudly took her hooves off her creation. Petunia had decided to take some parts off the clouds to shape it into a sign. She held it up proudly as she showed it off to the seagull.
She had shoddily put together a small S.O.S. sign held together by, guess what, clouds! Her new ability caused her to be able to manipulate the cloud, but she couldn't use a lot of it. So, with some reluctance, she blew the sign into the air, hoping it would reach somepony.
It's almost romantic, in a way. Like sending a message in a bottle! She thought as she saw her seagull friend leap off the cloud to chase her creation and completely demolish it by flying through it, trying to eat it.
During her time with Gullivan, she had gotten nothing useful out of him. He was a good listener, but he didn't really know how to calm a girl down. She was practically the definition of a damsel in distress right now, and here was the only gentlecolt to keep her company! A seagull! As the day passed and her voice recovered, Petunia spent the majority of her time trying to teach Gullivan how to properly speak to girls.
He'd obviously never been on a date before.
Since she had time to keep herself busy, she didn't spend that much time realizing that she had been getting hungry. After all, this was the first day in years that she hadn't had dinner at her usual time. Her stomach growled constantly, and it pissed her off. Hay fries... A daisy sandwich... Donuts from the local bakery...
Drool had collected on the side of the cloud, which then started becoming a small spot of gray on the white fluffiness of it. She poked a hoof at it, and it made a funny sound. Kind of like squeezing a sponge.
When she started getting bored of talking to Gullivan, she decided to see how far she could spit off the cloud. It was probably record-breaking for her in terms of height. When her first ball of spit left her mouth, Gullivan freaked out and lept off the cloud, chasing it all the way down. Petunia shook her head at the bird, wondering if it was only Gullivan who was like this or if all birds in Equestria were as challenged as he was.
This happened a few more times until she got bored of it. Gullivan stayed with her for whatever reason, which was beyond her. She was grateful for the company, but she only wished the conversation wasn't as one-sided.
At some point, Gullvan stopped perching at the edge of the cloud and just decided to sit on her back. When the sun went down, he had closed his eyes and buried his beak under his wing to sleep. She briefly thought about how cute he looked before remembering her precarious situation.
"You know, if I ever get out of here, I'd consider taking you in as a pet. You'd be lucky to live with me, you know." She talked to nopony in particular, seeing as the bird perched on her back had already gone to sleep. I guess his flock really did leave him here.
Petunia lay on her belly, head on her hooves. The sky was beautiful at night, and she wondered how many stars she could count. The only light besides the stars was the moon. A thought ran through her head as she had her first peace of mind in many hours.
What if this potion doesn't actually last twenty-four hours? What if I fall asleep and then wake up as I fall to my death?
She tried not to think too hard about that, but it invaded her mind whenever her eyelids felt heavy. She wondered how the guide back at the factory had been handling her absence, and how scared everypony must have been when she ended up missing.
"Alright, is that everypony? Please board the airship one at a time." The guide was running through his list of attendees, stopping at a name on the list and frowning. He looked around for a moment.
"All accounted for, Barnacle?" asked the airship captain.
Closing the folder, the yellow pony looked up with a bright smile. "Yup! All good!"
Petunia thought about how there must be a search-and-rescue expedition going on to find her at the moment, and she smiled at the thought of being so desirable. How long had she been up here for now? She knew for sure that around noon the next day, the potion would wear off, and she would fall. So, tomorrow morning, she would raise her voice, calling for help.
Her eyes felt so heavy, and her body ached from laying still. She wanted nothing more than to get a good night's sleep, but her fear kept her awake. Her stomach had stopped growling a while ago, and now all that was left was a feeling of emptiness.
Gullivan was still asleep, and she had no idea how the little guy was doing that. A gust had rolled in, and it kept taking her in a random direction. She faintly noticed some lights in the distance, indicating a town or something was nearby. However, the gust was taking her in the wrong direction. She desparately called for help a few times when she got as close as she could get to it, but it was useless.
Not a soul called back, and not a soul came swooping in to rescue her. She faintly imagined a cloudy version of a knight in shining armor coming to rescue her, but that vision faded with her rapidly falling eyelids.
As her eyes closed, the lights of the village in the distance disappeared. She was now drifting through the sky in her sleep, with no idea where she was going.
"Gah!" Petunia woke with a start, and she clung to the cloud with dear life as she realized she was about to roll off in her sleep. Morning had already passed, and the sun was a little over the horizon.
"Seriously?! Now, of all times, I get a good night's sleep?! Why didn't you wake me, Gu-" She accused as she turned to argue with her only companion, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, great. So I truly will die alone!"
She was carrying a faint hope that Gullivan would be her savior in the case that she did fall, but that was foolish. If any bird could actually carry a pony, that would be the day she ate bird poop.
She stood up and realized that, for some reason, the ground was much closer than it was yesterday. Her eyebrows shot up to her forehead, and she remembered faintly noticing that other clouds had, for some reason, been gathering above her. She was sinking! I'm sinking!
With a newfound motivation, she started calling for help again. "Hello?! Anypony?! Please help me! Hellooooo?! I'm up here!"
Two painfully dull hours passed, and she had reached her limit. Her voice was broken, and so were her spirits. Frustration and a feeling of finality gathered in her mind, and she bit her teeth down in anger. Her head felt warm with rage, and she just wanted to punch something. However, there was only one thing to punch, so...
"Arrrghhh!" She growled as she stomped her front hooves down on the cloud very hard. She wasn't expecting anything to happen but for the cloud to jiggle a bit, but an explosion resulted from her actions, which made her fear for her life. She clung to the cloud as her ears rang, and she thought an unknown foe was attacking her, but then she realized something. "Oh my Celestia, I created lightning! Of course!"
After getting her bell rung, motivation once again coursed through her mind. She tested the waters again and repeatedly stomped down on the cloud with her front legs. It gave the result she wanted, and another explosion of thunder roared through the valley she was now floating through.
She spent the next few hours stomping and smashing away at the cloud, making an unusual pattern of thunder that would surely attract the attention of somepony within earshot. If her voice could not, indeed, thunder could!
...
So anyway, after spending a ridiculous amount of time beating the life out of her only lifeline, she had spent the small amount of energy she had left. Feeling hopeless and abandoned, she shook a hoof to the air and cursed the skies for her misfortunes.
"Stupid cloud, stupid potion, stupid guide!" She was now so angry at everything that the tears that were now spilling out of her eyes didn't bother her. Snot was running out of her nose as well. "Stupid neighbor, stupid seagull! I don't deserve this! Stupid, stupid, stupid..."
She kept her head low as she kept her rant going. She was getting louder and louder, and soon, she would be yelling her lungs out at nothing. Time was running out, surely by now, she was approaching the twenty-four-hour mark. She spent her already broken voice as she screamed what she thought would be her last words. At this rate, she wouldn't even be able to scream while falling to her death. What a shame!
"STUPID EVERYTHING! I'M GOING TO DIE AND NOTHING WILL CHANGE THAT, NO MATTER HOW LOUD I YELL!"
"Hey, you!"
Petunia's head snapped around with a wicked 'CRACK' as if she were an owl. Behind her was a pegasus pony. How did she sneak up on her?! The pegasus was gray with yellow hair, and her eyes were crossed in different directions.
"Hey, did you make that thunder just now?" The pegasus asked, and her eyes narrowed. Petunia briefly wondered which eye to look at before she realized she was rescued!
She regained her composure as she turned around to her and adjusted her crazed mane. "Oh, yes! Yes, I did! Oh, by the way! HELP!" She screamed.
The pegasus looked at her like she was crazy. "Uh... what?"
"HELP ME. I've been stuck up here for almost a whole day!" She spoke with a very broken voice.
"W-what?! What are you doing on a cloud anyway? Aren't you an earth pony?" The pegasus asked her, clearly confused.
"Yes... wait, how did you even find me here?" She asked, looking around. She had no idea where they were. Any sign of towns were far and beyond.
Before the pegasus could answer, a seagull flew up and perched on Petunia's back. The pegasus pony looked at it in awe. "That bird flew into Ponyville acting all crazy, and I figured it looked like it wanted somepony to follow it. I was flying around for a long time before I heard the thunder. Looks like it was watching out for you!"
"What?" The pegasus looked at the seagull, who was now trying to nestle in the space between Petunia's neck and mane. She looked deeply into its eyes, and a tear formed in her eye. "Gullivan... you saved me?"
The bird tilted its head to look into hers as if feeling the same emotion she was. She felt a moment of solitude with this creature. The world fell silent as she stared into its beady eye.
Gullivan started laughing and pecked her back a few times before ruffling its wings. Okay then?
The pegasus pony frowned at this curious pony, and scratched her head, unsure of what to say. After Petunia was done having her moment with the strange seagull, she turned around to the newly arrived pony and stretched her hooves out like a baby. "Alright, then. Whenever you're ready!"
As she looked into the eyes of the pegasus in front of her, suddenly, her whole world moved upwards, like she was going down in an elevator. Petunia Blue was quite an unlucky pony, for she had just run out of the only thing keeping her suspended. A chime rang in her head, signaling the end of times as she fell through the cloud she was on.
When she fell through the cloud, a pony-shaped hole formed, and the bird that had been perched on her back simply flailed its legs in confusion when its seat was violently removed.
"AAAAAAaaaaaaaa........!"
The gray pegasus panicked and dove down to catch up with the falling pony. She was barely able to keep up with her, and she didn't have much time to do it. She felt like a superhero as she swooped down and wrapped her hooves around the pony's barrel.
It didn't help when the pony started screaming in a hoarse voice and flailing her legs. "AH! LET ME DOWN!"
Really, Petunia? Read the room?
The gray pony struggled as she slowly lowered the two of them onto the grassy fields below, and she dropped the blue pony unceremoniously on the ground.
Petunia was safe! She had met the ground, but not in the violent manner she was expecting! She kissed the grass beneath her hooves multiple times and rolled around a few times in it, laughing maniacally.
The gray pegasus looked at her, wondering if she was mentally stable. She had met many ponies, but this one stood out on the weird-scale for sure.
"Well, I'm glad I could help! But uh... how did you even get up there?" She asked, somewhat annoyed at how uncooperative the pony had been while she was trying to save her life.
After recovering from the joy of being alive past her assumed death, Petunia stood up and adjusted her mane while smooting out some of her matted fur. "Ah well... thank you. Thank you very much for helping me. And to be honest, I don't really wanna talk about it. It's too traumatic. I may need therapy." she said as she waved a hoof at her face like a fan.
The pegasus raised an eyebrow, worried about the pony in front of her. Sensing a tension in the air, she shook it off before turning her head around and laughing nervously. "Ah-hah, I see. Well, I gotta get back to work! I'm probably gonna get yelled at for taking off during a shift. You don't mind if I take that cloud with me, do you?" She asked, pointing up to the last thing Petunia wanted to see: the underside of her would-be final moments.
She faked a dry heave as she shook a hoof. "Be my guest. And please, burn it, or make sure it's shredded. Something worse, preferably. Shove it into a grinder."
"Eh.. heh.. yeah. I'll do that! I'm Derpy, by the way." the pegasus introduced in an attempt to easy the strange tension as she was about to leave and go back to her hometown.
Petunia waved at her with a friendly smile that totally masked her behaviour. "Thanks for the help, Derpy! I'm Petunia."
Derpy had a hard time getting a read on this pony. One moment, she seemed a complete sociopath. The other, she looked like a very sweet pony. Instead of worrying too much about it, she simply bid her farewell. "Nice meeting you! Take care, now!" She said as she flew off to get the cloud, which she then zoomed off with into the distance.
Ahhh...
Serenity. Silence. Peace. Safety. These were the thoughts that flooded into Petunia Blue's mind as she stood there in the middle of a field, breathing in the fresh summer air. She lifted her head and looked into the blue skies above her. Clouds were scattered around far above her, which almost made her feel very sick again.
She closed her eyes to shift her focus to something else. She deeply inhaled, and her lungs filled with the smell of flowers. Nothing could possibly be better than that!
Going through a traumatic, life-changing experience was horrible. However, she did nothing wrong! How could poor Petunia Blue ever have done anything to deserve what happened to her? And to think that the only one that came to rescue her was a strange pony that was crazy enough to follow a deranged seagull!
When thinking of said seagull, she felt Gullivan perch on her back. One good thing that came out of this was that she made a new friend. A friend that would surely stick with her, it seemed. She sighed and shook her head as she turned to start making her way home, when once again, calamity struck!
"HEY! WHERE THE F**K AM I ANYWAY?!"
