Follow the Sun

A/N: This story is dedicated to Margaret Wise Brown and all the mother bunnies who never let their little ones run away.

~~~

Arcus whirled through the air, executing a lazy loop before sliding into a landing on the ancient clouds belly first.

“I made it!”

The smoky grey pegasus colt rolled over to lay on his back and let his exhausted wings splay out on the puffy cloud streets. His deep breaths came and went rapidly, pausing only as the young pony blew his maroon forelock out of his eyes. As his magenta eyes scanned the wispy cirrus clouds in the higher altitudes his breathing became regular and his heart rate steadied.

“You did it Arc, you made it.” he spoke to himself.

Arcus tucked his wings in and rolled several times through the clouds. Enjoying the slightly moist and spongy feeling of it in his feathers and coat. The dust his wings had collected from the long journey was drawn out and away by the ruffling. Standing to his hooves he hopped up and down a few times and flicked his wings together before stretching and folding them in once more.

“Ohhhh. Never thought I would say this, but i’m going to be glad to not use you guys for a while.” The colt chuckled to himself as he gave his tired wings a cursory glance.

They had carried him far today. The journey from Ponyville to Zephyns, the old Pre-Equestria cloud kingdom of Commander Hurricane was nothing to sneeze at. Almost 500 kilometers at a steady cruising speed of 150 kilometers per hour was a long trip for the young blank flank pegasus. With nothing but chance clouds to rest on along the way and a pair of saddlebags stuffed with sandwich fixings, Arcus had gone far.

“Well, I guess this qualifies me to race in the Windy 500 this year huh?” The colt ruffled his wings one last time and let them settle against his side, partially covering his bare flank once more. “Psh, yeah right Arc, like you would ever be a racer. Rainbow Dash could fly over 1225 kilometers per hour when she was just a filly. As if I could ever forget that story.” A rasp left the colts muzzle.

Arcus felt the pangs of hunger before his stomach announced them. Turning back to look at his saddlebags he shifted his weight from hindleg to hindleg to ensure that the weight was right and remind himself that he still had food, enough for a few nights if necessary. Beyond that he hadn’t planned, but that was the most exciting part about flying away.

“Time to find a good place to eat.”

~~~

The ruins of the once proud city of Zephyns deteriorated slowly. The majestic and mighty cloud structures would not erode the way an earthen structure would from wind and rain. The magical clouds would forever hold their place in the sky between the strong jetstreams the long forgotten pegasi soldiers would use to travel far and wide. The cloud city would only be reduced by the occasional mild high altitude breeze, flowing horizontally through the streets and open air buildings. The beautiful and sturdy Ioneighan columns held up roofs no longer. From the cornice to the capital of the support clouds, most of the buildings on the outskirts of the floating city state had been whisked away by the centuries of gentle breezes. The remains didn’t go far for most of them and the city itself was surrounded in the “rubble” of its former glory in the forms of misty streets and large staircases that resembled a time lapse photograph of a waterfall. All around the massive stratus and cumulus formations the wispy tendrils that remained from the ancient pegasus craftsmen tumbled in a swirl of opaque slow-moving waterfalls.

In the midst of all of this history and majesty sat a young colt eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He was kicking his hindlegs in absent-minded joy as his eyes roamed across the ruins, humming happily to himself as he chewed.

Arcus sat below the frieze of the “Partly-non”. The ancient structure sat at the highest point above the deteriorating city state. The frieze depicted the varying types of weather ranging from terrible hurricanes, relentless blizzards and dark storm cloud covered skies on the far left to the scorching hot sunny days and drought inducing heat on the right. But in the middle was the balance, the partly-cloudy weather. It reflected the ancient pegasus mythology of them as the guardians of climate balance. Their patron goddess Zephyra who brought the winds was said to have gifted her pegasi children with wings in her image so that they may water the crops that were thirsty and give them sunlight when they were hungry. As she provided the winds in the sky her children would use their gift of wings to provide the lift so that they may reach to the heavens and spread the magic of balance and harmony to all corners of the globe. They turned dry deserts into lush oasis, frozen tundra into warm forests and sunken swamps into rolling plains.

But as with all grand missions of inexorable change, those who resisted were either converted or swept aside. Penguins lost their homes to make tropical paradises and reptiles lost their watery glades to make farmland. The pegasi back then didn’t have the modern system of balance of all three pony tribes to put the needs of the ground bound critters in line with their own. Modern ponies had learned that there was perfection in diversity as well, that all who lived on the planet deserved a share of it, no matter how small.

Arcus sat and contemplated it all as he watched the high noon sun filtering through what was left of the cornice of the Partlynon. He had finished his sandwich and closed the jars of peanut butter and strawberry jam. It was almost as good as how his mom made it, but he could never tear off the crusts as well as her, just the way he liked it. But it didn’t matter anymore. He thought he didn’t need her anymore, he had vowed to get his cutie mark on his own.

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a soft whimpering sound on the breeze.

Standing to his hooves and knocking his saddlebags to the side before he could close them and wrap up the loaf of bread he scanned the area for the source of the sound.

“Hello? Is somepony there?” He called, his wings raising partway in case he would need to fly away in danger, just as his mother had always told him, fly away and fight another day.

sniffle

Arcus had definitely heard that, he cautiously made his way along the side of the structure, moving from cloud column to cloud column as stealthily as possible. He knew that whatever it was must be dangerous, nopony ever flew out this far on their own. Except for him he supposed.

“Where are you?” The colt asked to the quiet ruins.

gasp

Arcus was zeroed in on the target now, it was right behind the last column on the corner, the opposite side of the great temple from where he had sat to eat lunch. It must be something small if it could be concealed by such a worn down column. Hardly anything was left but the base.

A scuffling of hooves was heard and before Arcus could get react and get airborne he was encountered by the sight of a tiny pegasus filly with bloodshot eyes and damp cheeks. She rounded the edge of the column quickly but nervously and stared at him with hope in her eyes but fear painting her body language. Arcus registered that the tiny wings wouldn’t be able to carry her, she couldn’t have been more than six years old. A helpless child.

“Hi. Are you OK? Are you alone out here?” Arcus felt the immediate need to protect this helpless filly. Her pristine white coat and long pink mane trembled in the breeze as her skinny legs seemed to almost struggle to support her.

“I-I’m lost. I haven’t eaten in so long and...” The young filly struggled to speak as her throat was full of phlegm and holding back sobs, trembling on her hooves as she fought to maintain eye contact. But Arcus knew immediately what she needed. He swept forward in a smooth motion and gathered her up into a wing hug and held her while she fell to her knees and continued to cry.

“Shh. Shh it’s going to be OK, I can help you. My name is Arcus what’s yours?” He held the small and lanky filly close. She was practically freezing and her coat was a mess. He could feel her ribs through her soft white fur and tiny wings.

The young filly looked into the young teenage colts eyes and brought her breaths under control. She spoke softly and quickly, “Sundrop. My name is Sundrop.”

She sobbed once more and buried her muzzle into his neck began to cry once more.

Arcus realized that his plans of flying away from home just got a lot more complicated.