"Hey, watch where you’re going!” yelled the furious earth pony after turning around, her crimson eyes darting back and forth for the rude, cloaked mare who had bumped into her. However, the mystery mare was nowhere to be found. The confused mayor glanced around for a moment before picking up her saddlebags and continuing on her way, briefly questioning her sanity after yelling at what was apparently nothing.
Beneath her layer of light-bending active camouflage, a cloaked pegasus mare watched it all from the shadows. She waited a moment more before deactivating her stealth bubble and fluttering off of the brick wall of the alley after the mayor trotted out of sight. The pegasus alighted on the pavement, her cloak falling back down around her flank when she folded her wings against her sides. Nimbus relaxed her teeth, the target’s wallet falling into a pocket in her cloak she held open.
Jackpot, she thought. It wasn’t her primary objective, but she knew Dusk Dancer liked gifts. Especially when money was involved. Glancing around to make sure she wouldn’t be followed, Nimbus spread her wings once more, taking off silently into the night, heading for the Eventide.
***
“Captain! Incoming target.”
Dusk Dancer’s ears perked up at the news, heading over to her crewmate’s station. “Size and approach vector?”
“Just one pony. Likely pegasus. Headed right for us, ma’am.”
Thump. An access hatch on the roof above them opened up with a hissing noise, and a cloaked figure dropped into their midst. Dusk Dancer immediately relaxed, as did the crew behind her, several mechanical clacks and hisses echoing as their rifles folded back into a safe, compact form.
“Ah, there you are, Nimbus, dear. Were you successful?” asked the unicorn captain, greeting her friend with a warm smile.
The mute pegasus nodded her head in response, then dipped it into her cloak and retrieved two objects. She tossed them both at the captain, who caught them both with a simple telekinesis spell. Dusk Dancer observed the tracker she’d been tossed, noting with satisfaction that the small red blip on the overlaid map was moving. A speaker at the bottom of the tracker would play audio if activated. She smiled at the other offering, turning it upside down and dumping the contents onto the floor - several electronic cards with undoubtedly useful sums of money on them.
“Well well, what have we here? That might just improve spirits a bit, considering we’ve lost some good ponies tonight...” At her words, several of the crew bowed their heads in either respect or mourning, and Nimbus’ face turned from a smirk to a silent gasp. “But they knew what they signed up for. Regardless, Nimbus, you should get yourself some rest. With the Empire on the offense now, we’re going to have to step up our game.”
The pegasus nodded, flashing her friend a friendly smile, and took her leave.
***
The sleepy filly bolted awake in her bed, her eyes wide open with barely-containable excitement. She hopped out of bed and hovered slightly above the floor, her still-developing wings straining with the effort to hold up her growing body. The filly hovered over to her wall calendar, dropping to the floor and panting with exhaustion. She glanced up, checked the date, and let out a squeal of childish delight.
Today’s my birthday! she thought. Her mind whirled with images of what her parents might’ve gotten her. The filly raced down the stairs and turned the corner, catching sight of her parents beaming back at their daughter. Sitting in between them was a large, sky-blue box, wrapped up with a dark grey bow.
“Hey there, birthday girl!” her unicorn father rumbled, getting up from the table and trotting over towards his daughter. He scooped up the dark blue filly and held her close, rocking her in his arms. Her mother trotted over as well, giving their daughter a kiss on the forehead. The look in their eyes betrayed some feeling of uneasiness they both shared. Her father opened his mouth to speak when a loud knock echoed thrice from the front door. Her parents’ eyes went wide, and the unicorn set his filly down. “Let’s play a game of hide-and-seek, okay dear? You get to go first.” The filly gave her daddy a funny look, but went along with it anyway. She loved playing hide-and-seek. She always won. The dark blue filly buzzed her way along the ground around the corner, looking around the dining room for a nice hiding spot.
CRASH. The sound echoed all the way from the kitchen, frightening the poor pegasus into hiding under a dresser. She then heard shouting, but it wasn’t just her mommy and daddy. She heard a pair of new voices. Mean voices. They yelled at her parents, calling them words she didn’t know. She caught words like ‘traitor’ and ‘punish’. The filly had to cover her ears with her hooves when a loud whine and crackle of what sounded like a small thunderclap threatened to damage her sensitive young ears.
The noise only lasted a few seconds. After that, the mean voices mumbled something to each other, and grew fainter with each step, before vanishing completely. The frightened filly emerged from her hiding place after several confused minutes, daring to peek around the corner. In the kitchen, she saw her mommy and daddy on the floor together, laying still, as if they had fallen asleep.
The filly hovered over to her parent’s prone forms and tried to prod them awake with an uneasy hoof. Wake up, daddy, she thought, Please wake up. They’re gone now, daddy. The game’s over. I’m here, see?
Her father’s unblinking eyes stared back into hers. Tears started to well in the filly’s eyes. A wet cough came from somepony nearby, making the mare jump. She looked around and realized it had come from her mother. Looking over her mother’s form, the filly realized something she hadn’t initially: Today, her mother was wearing a small, white pendant, which had been engraved with an emblem of a circle, yellow in the center but orange on the outside, with eight wavy spokes radiating from the center.
The filly was so focused on the pendant that she jumped again when she felt a slick hoof on her cheek. She relaxed when she realized it was just her mommy; her mommy was okay. She was fine. Everything was going to be okay, now.
“My...” the mare nearly choked on the effort to speak. “My beautiful baby girl... take this necklace, take it and... wear it proudly. Don’t forget your present either, sweetheart. But before you open it, I want you to... to promise me something.”
The filly stared into her mommy’s eyes and nodded weakly. “Anything for you, mommy.” Just speaking was starting to take considerable effort.
"That’s my girl. Promise mommy you’ll take your present and fly. Fly far, far away from here... Promise me.”
“I promise, mommy.”
Her mommy didn’t say anymore, but she looked sick so the filly knew enough to not bother her anymore. She took the necklace using her teeth and, with a bit of effort, managed to get it around her own neck, and fluttered up to the table. A note was taped to the side of the blue box, a note that read:
“Happy birthday, sweetie. Your father and I are so very proud of you. We’ve done everything we could to make sure that you could still have a future. Your true gift is one you won’t understand until you’re older: the gift of life. Stay safe, and trust in the Sun.”
Instead of a name, the note was signed with the same eight-rayed symbol. The filly unwrapped the bow and slipped off the lid, having to get onto her hind legs to peer into the box. The sudden weight made it tip over, spilling its fluffy contents.
A cloud. It floated above the table. The filly had seen them before, up in the sky, but she’d never been up close like mommy had. Curiously, she reached up and tapped it with a hoof. Her hoof bounced off lightly. This time, she used her teeth, biting into it and dragging it down to the floor. She hopped onto it like she had seen older pegasi do. The cloud started to float upward, but stopped when the filly jumped back off. She flew over to the table, grabbed the note, and hopped back onto the cloud, which resumed its speedy flight from the ruined home.
The now-orphaned filly looked back at her home, growing smaller as she wondered if she’d ever see her parents again. A small tear dripped from her muzzle onto the cloud, which absorbed the tear and turned a dark grey. The filly struggled to remember what the name for a raincloud like this was... It was... it was...
A nimbus.
***
Nimbus woke up with a start, panting for breath. Every single night... The mare’s golden eyes filled with silent tears. For years, that night had haunted her, the night when she had lost everything. No, she corrected herself: when she had gained everything else.
The mare reached up and touched her necklace, the one her mother had given her before her death. The orange sun shone up at her, catching what little light there was in her small room. Trust in the sun.
Nimbus couldn’t go back to sleep now. On a whim, she swung her legs out of bed and went over to her dresser, picking up the tracker and activating the audio, the small speaker at the bottom crackling to life.
“...e an update on the rebels.” a voice she recognized as the Mayor’s crackled first. Nimbus immediately turned up the volume and began listening intently. A voice she didn’t recognize responded.
“No good news there, ma’am. Neither of our assigned strike teams have reported back yet. Codenames ‘Captain’ and ‘Artist’ are assumed to remain active. ‘Inventor,’ ‘Spectre,’ and ‘Librarian’ have yet to be located at all. The captured pegasus colt is still safely in our hands.”
“He better stay that way. Luna sees something special in this kid that nopony else does, and as far as I’m concerned, keeping that thief locked up in Section Fifteen is our top priority. After She takes care of him, we can devote our full resources to taking down this rebel infestation.”
Nimbus’ eyes lit up at the mention of ‘Section Fifteen.’ A field of text slowly scrolled into her golden vision as she worked up a text message for Dusk Dancer:
Pegasus colt is being held at Section Fifteen. Apparently the Empress has taken a shine to him, to the point where HE is the their top priority. Expect security to be at maximum. If we do rescue him, I fully expect us to have the Empire’s complete attention.
Sent. A few minutes later, Dusk Dancer’s voice crackled into Nimbus’ waiting ear. “Great work, Nimbus. You’re on a roll, tonight. I have no earthly idea how we’re going to break into the most heavily guarded facility in Equestria. Having the Mayor's bank backing us up might help. But if this colt is valuable to Luna, he’s valuable to us. We’ll think of something once we all get some rest, okay? Sleep tight.”
Click. After ending her call with the Captain, Nimbus removed her lightweight headset, placing it back on her nightstand. However, she kept her pendant on, and tapped it with her hoof to make sure it was still there. Trust in the Sun.
Nimbus climbed into bed and pulled the sheets over herself, preparing herself for another onslaught of emotional nightmares.
When she opened her eyes again, she felt much heavier, as if she were wearing reinforced armor. Looking down, this seemed to be the case. A folded kinetic rifle lay at her side, though personally she despised the use of lethal firearms at all. The hallway she seemed to be occupying was alone save for her, and a single cell, which she felt drawn to. Curiosity overrode duty and she ambled over to the bars to take a peek inside.
From behind the cyan lenses of a Lunar Knight, Nimbus viewed a sight that almost made her lose her previous meal. There was a lone pony curled up on the bench inside, clutching his right side. Copious amounts of dried blood dotted the room and the bench itself. The pegasus seemed to feel her gaze, and began twitching as if waking. He rolled over, and as soon as his bloodshot eyes met hers, her heart broke, and then skipped a beat when he appeared on all four hooves next to her, and touched her pendant softly.
Nimbus bolted upright out of bed, tossed her sweat-soaked sheets off, and immediately felt a fire burning in her throat. The fire became more intense with each passing second, culminating in a sound almost completely foreign to her ears; her own voice.
“NOCTURNE!” screamed the mute pegasus, quenching the fire in her throat, replacing it with a dull throb. Nimbus was still trying to catch her breath when the Captain’s voice piped up nearby from her nightstand.
“Nimbus, was that you?”