//------------------------------// // Don't Let Clouds Claim You // Story: Utaan // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Swooosh! Cl-Clakk!! Metal-laced talons dug into the top of a jutting sandstone peak. Seraphimus perched atop the craggy spire. With cold, charcoal eyes, she glared across a foggy cloudbed shifting through a forest of sporadic mountain peaks. The cold, humid wind kicked at her fluttering wingfeathers. Her armor glinted with hazy sunshine and beads of moisture. She looked to her left. Inexplicable trees rooted themselves in knifing mountain summits, their bent trunks and gnarled branches swaying green and thick in the wet breeze. A deep breath. Seraphimus gazed to the right, squinting. Mists rolled across uneven walls of pale stone, washed over with dangling vines and moldy vegetation. The air was deathly quiet, with nothing more than the occasional roar of gushing winds in the deeper valleys—beyond impenetrable fog and dipping clouds. Seraphimus blinked. Her ears tickled with the sound of flapping wings. She tilted her head up. Raptr soared on by, sweeping across the western reaches of the nearest canyon. Starstorm shot past Seraphimus' right side, swooping low... slowing her speed so as not to slam into a random wall of stone beyond the mists. After a deep breath, Seraphimus spread her muscular wings and leapt off the mountain summit. The cloudiness in front of her parted ways as she pierced on through, ascending for a better look at the erratic topography. Eventually, the three members of the Talon split up, silently... voicelessly searching the lengths of the Mist Cliffs. “... … ...” Rainbow Dash stood ice-still, her body pressed to a wall of rock. Just a sneeze away from her blue muzzle, the cliff gave way to empty air and even vaguer fog. Clouds shifted past her, creating the illusion of the mountain peaks themselves shifting through pale surf. The mare tilted her head at a crooked angle. An ear twitched, pivoting towards the morning sky. She heard nothing but the dull rush of wind in the distance. For a brief moment, trees rustled from their lofty perches—somewhere beyond sight. Then they were still yet again. All was cold, moist, and dead. Rainbow gulped. She looked at the floating figures beside her. Fluttershy gestured quietly, pointing in the northwest direction with a slowly pivoting hoof. She nodded. Rainbow nodded back. She looked at Rarity. Rarity silently gestured a right angle with her hoof, followed by an ascending climb. Rainbow held her breath. Crouching low like a cat, she snuck forward, crawling her way up the cliff-face and hanging a right around the nearest jutting crag of rock. Starstorm scraped the cloudbeds with her claws. The white mists parted ways, revealing row after row of jutting peaks beneath her. Starstorm's hawkeyes narrowed. Her pupils danced from one tiny plateau to another. Suddenly, a dark shape appeared to her right. “...!” She braked in mid-air, wings aching from the friction. She pivoted to her side, talons raised. A bough of leaves swayed in a cold breeze, full of fluttering leaves. It belonged to a tree that leaned precariously off the crumbling summit of a teetering mountaintop. Starstorm slowly exhaled. Her ears echoed from the sound of whipping breezes. “...?” She spun and glanced west—or so she thought. With a frustrated growl, she realized that she was disastrously close to losing any and all bearings. What's more, the occasional howl of canyon winds was playing games with her senses. Shaking her head with a rattle of her helmet, Starstorm refocused on the task at hand. She flapped her wings, soaring forward, scaling the craggy walls to her right. Fwooosh! Rainbow Dash jerked in place, clinging to the mountainside. She flung a breathless look over her shoulder. Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie blinked curiously at her, then turned to look as well. Rainbow held a hoof up to her muzzle, desperate to mask her panting breaths. Her ruby eyes continued scanning the clouds—for she was almost certain she spotted the shadow of something darting through the clouds. With a nervous expression, she glanced at Fluttershy. The ghostly pegasus was in the middle of rubbing her aching head. She struggled to get her bearings. Rather than wait, Rainbow Dash courageously persisted, shuffling forward along the tiny space of stone hoofing afforded her. Eventually, he path evened out, and she was able to trot evenly—all the while hugging the earthen face to her right. Raptr blinked... then blinked again. The Sergeant teetered left and right as he glided through cloud after cloud. After days and days of flight, exhaustion was settling in. Despite his better training, the rookie was finding it hard to keep his hawkeyes open. He squinted, twitching. The guardian's beak opened as he fought the urge to yawn. He pierced more and more clouds. The tips of his wingfeathers grew heavy with moisture. The Mist Cliffs were intoxicating with their humidity... bathing him... soothing his feline flesh. The rustle of unseen leaves were like lullabies to his ears. His eyes blinked... blinked again... then lowered entirely. Just then, the clouds parted ways, revealing a solid wall of stone. “...!” With a gasp, the griffon flapped his wings in the opposite direction. He stopped just inches before he could plow bloodily into a looming mountainface. Waking in a breathless instant, he hovered in place, shivering in his heavy armor. Raptr looked up... and up and up. The inexplicable spire loomed at the north end of a canyon. As the mists parted to his left and right, he saw even more sandstone columns rising up out of the fog. With a heavy sigh, the Sergeant flapped his wings harder. He ascended briskly, scaling the stone needles as he continued his graceful glide northeast. Rainbow Dash shuffled forward, her steps slow and steady. Rarity floated ahead of her, keeping her horn aglow in a feeble attempt to light the pegasus' way through the fog. Ruby eyes squinted against the crawling mists. The stone wall had fallen to her right, and Rainbow Dash found herself traversing a veritable bridge formed by adjoining mountaintops. It would have been a perilous sojourn even without the persistent fog. The pegasus relied on all four of her friends floating in a circle around her—acting as markers. At one point, Rarity froze in place. She spun about, smiling, then waved with an eager hoof. Rainbow Dash reached her, blinking curiously. Rarity pointed straight forward. Both mares waited for the cloud to part briefly. In a momentary pocket of clear air, Rainbow and her friends spotted a flat plateau of converging paths. One led northwest, another due north... and a third northeasterly. Rarity grinned at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow smiled back, and she darted ahead in a brisk trot. Pinkie gasped. She wasn't quick enough to stop— Cl-Clunk! A loose row of pebbles made contact with Rainbow's hoof. The tiny rocks fell clear off the cliff's edge. Rainbow sucked in her breath. Twilight and Fluttershy watched, flinching. The pebbles fell into dull grayness. Silence. And then... Th-th-thudddd... “... … …?” Seraphimus froze in midair. Stopping on a dime, the Commander pivoted to her right. Charcoal eyes narrowed as she absorbed the full brunt of a resonating echo. Somewhere above her, Starstorm glided. Seeing the Commander freeze, the Sergeant halted in midair as well. Both griffons looked at one another. Wordless, Seraphimus performed several brisk talon-strokes. Starstorm nodded. Swooosh! She flew high. Fwooosh! Seraphimus flew low. Fluttershy's ears folded. Turquoise pupils shrank in her sockets as she pivoted to look at Rainbow Dash. The mare grimaced. Rainbow gulped. She looked at Rarity. Rarity nodded fervently, motioning Rainbow along. Rainbow scampered as briskly as she could, galloping down the rightmost path as the fog overtook her. All was dim and gray once again. And then... ...dark, streaking shadows.