The Foreign Factor

Twilight Sparkle growled, frustration continuing to mount up as she yet again worked on the infernal scroll that had caused her so much pain. She was starting to consider making a bondfire out of it would be a better way to spend her time. Instead, she simply let her head go limp, and slammed it into the cloud bellow her, with an unsatisfying 'poof'. Scootaloo and herself were lying away from the rest of the group, who were sleeping soundly a few meters away, despite the sun beginning to rise.

The group of friends was quite surprised when the blue light around them receded and they were not standing in front of the main gates to the castle in Canterlot; instead they found themselves floating high in the air, far above the clouds. They didn’t stay floating for long however, of a certain cloudwalking spell, and for Rainbow’s trademark speed in catching, things could have gone very sourly for the non-Pegasi members of the group. This however, was only the first trouble to beset them. Once they had safely landed on the clouds, and some obligatory checks had been made to assure everypony was alright, the issue roused itself: where were they? Rainbow quickly volunteered to check out the situation below the clouds, and with a quick salute, vanished bellow the cloud layer.

No more than twenty seconds passed before Dash darted above the clouds again, trailing powdered snow behind her. She landed, shook the white snow from her before sheepishly explaining that the winds were simply too strong, at least storm level winds, that coupled with the fact that there was exceedingly thick snow falling, simply made it impossible to see anything. That was her excuse, and she was sticking to it. And she did for the course of the day, as she went to try again routinely every few hours, each time only to be stopped by the extreme weather, meaning that she couldn’t even lift them off of the cloud to find some shelter. Thus resulting in the group having to sleep on the cloud: hungry and without any answers; all except Twilight. She couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty. She felt that it was her fault, and the others blamed her for their current position, she thought she could see it in there eyes. So, being the overly dedicated pony that she is, she pulled herself awkwardly from her friends – they were all piled together to keep warm -, took a seat close by and began working, the moonlight proving bright enough. However, it wasn’t just her dedication to her friends that was making her try to get as much work done on figuring out what went wrong: it was also the lack of magic. Usually she could feel the constant hum of magic around her, traveling down from the sun and the moon in comforting, soothing ripples. Here however, she didn’t feel that. There was no magic in the moon, or the sun. And this…disturbed her. She shivered, as though it weren’t the heat of the sun that warmed her, but the magic itself. She turned back to the scroll and began working through the night…

The next day presented the group with the opportunity to see where they were. This confirmed it for Twilight: they weren’t in Equestria anymore. The ground bellow was orange and white, glittering in the already setting sun. They were directly over the top of a small –normally grassy- field, about an acre in size, with the two sides of a town on either side of it. One side of the town looked like something that reminded the group of the large cities, like the Fillydelphia working class areas and industrial areas, but much less… friendly looking. It seemed like age and decay had sucked the life and colour from the place. Immediately next to the field was a fair sized school –the field obviously belonging to it- with homes near and far from it. The homes looked down right scabby, with small, sometimes smashed, windows. All of the homes themselves were completely rectangular in shape and looked weathered down. Some didn’t even have a proper front door to them. The large area behind the housing looked to be the town centre or market. It seemed to be like a concrete and glass beehive: shops were crammed together wherever they could be, as though huddling for warmth and many strange creatures that walked on only two legs, were quite tall –with the occasional small one- and smothered themselves in clothing – the group thanked Rainbow Dash for this information – going into them and spending their money. The roads themselves were habitat to strange, roughly rectangular shaped vehicles, which buzzed along the roads which littered the gaps between homes and businesses alike.

On the other side of the field however, things seemed to be a bit better. The homes were roughly the same size, but unlike the other side, they were detached homes with triangular roofing and were made of red bricks, some decorated with fine stone pebbles instead of seemingly great grey slabs. They had large, inviting windows and pleasantly painted front doors. It truly looked like a separation of the classes. The whole thing however, would turn into a headache for Twilight as the questions began to flood towards her, the restraints she had put up yesterday completely forgotten. After finally shushing her friends, she turned to them and sighed, annoyed at herself.
“I'm sorry girls, but I do not have any answers here...I honestly have some questions myself...” The group looked at each other, as the reality that Twilight didn’t have the answers sank in. She tried to move the conversation onto something else, but was lost for ideas and made the mistake of mentioning her lack of progress with the spell. This caused them to begin debating as to what the best course of action was, but became quickly focused on something that Dash suggested:
“If Twilight can’t figure out the spell, why don’t we simply ask those creatures down there for help? They have these things moving by themselves; surely they must know something about magic?” This created a divide in the group. Twilight Fluttershy and Rarity were with Twilight’s reasoning, that being that the risks were simply too great.
“We don’t know anything about this species, at all. It would be entirely unwise to make first contact between our species in a manner like this. There is also the potential that they couldn’t help us as I feel absolutely no magic at all coming from down there. Also, they could be violent, we never know. I mean, look at those homes down there...I don't know, they might not be, but there is the potential.” Twilight wasn’t happy with her strong wording, but it got the point across.

The others disagreed, simply calling her paranoid, with Rainbow thinking that they were being cowardly. Applejack took the reins of their argument. She acknowledged Twilight's points, saying that they were valid worries and should not be forgotten, but that their situation was dire. They were stranded on low clouds, with no food or water (and already empty stomachs) and no perceivable way to get home anytime soon. They were simply running out of options - though they did come to an agreement. Twilight would continue to work on the spell until tomorrow. If there was no progress made, then they would seek out the aid of the creatures on the surface. Twilight wasn’t happy with the arrangement, but the rest of the group were somewhat content. And so, Twilight went back to work.

Darkness fell and the moon rose, and nothing she tried with the spell would give her a desirable result, and before she knew it, the sun was rising of its own accord. The sun - she couldn’t help but notice – stayed for only a very short time, and was already on the verge of setting before anypony stirred.

Scootaloo awakened groggily, her eyes still drooping, and stretched out her limbs and wings, shivering as a strong, cool breeze ruffled her mane and feathers. She looked over to Twilight who was still hard at work on the scroll, her head being propped up lazily by her hooves. Wanting to see what the key to going home actually was, she trotted over to her and lay down next to her. She found herself transfixed by the scroll, gazing in wonderment at it, the magical symbols and glyphs scrawled on the parchment captivating her. She just really thought they looked cool. When Twilights face became buried in the cloud below her, she began mumbling to herself, illegible through the muffling of the cloud; though from the tone of it, this was probably for the better. Such things shouldn’t be heard by children after all. Scootaloo gently nuzzled her side, saying,
“It’s alright Twilight. We have faith in you. If there was anypony who could ever figure this out, anypony ever! It would be you Twilight.” Twilight slowly lifted her head, blowing her mane out of her face, and turned to face her. Her tired, bloodshot eyes gazed into her large, purple, hopeful eyes, and she saw a confidence in her, for her, that she herself was lacking. Seeing that hope though, brought back some of her drive to find the problem and fix it. She gave her a small, thankful smile, returning the compliment with a hug.
“Thanks Scootaloo… Now, how about you wake the others up then? They've been sleeping most of the day, it's almost sunrise!” Glancing upward to confirm Twilight's claim, she nodded and hopped off toward the nearby group.

Suddenly, she fell through the cloud, the change in air pressure making her lurch forward, nose diving. The snow was coming down hard and fast once again, and it had finally eaten at the cloud they were on, thinning a few areas just enough that they looked perfectly fine, but would give way if stood on. Scootaloo was unlucky enough to do just that. Hearing her scream out, Twilight dashed next to the hole, trying to catch her in a levitation spell before she fell from sight, but she was already swallowed by the perpetual white bellow.
“Dash, Scootaloo fell through!” Hearing Twilight yell for her, Dash (who had been awoken by the scream) shook off the remaining sleep, and bolted like lightning through the hole, darting after the little filly, desperate to catch her before she fell…