Pinkie awoke to the sound of her tent fabric flapping in the wind.
Though many layers protected her from the elements, she shivered; it was nearly impossible to stay warm at this elevation as far as she was concerned. She was chipper in spite of this, however, and how could she not be? It was finally time for the exciting part of the journey, and she couldn't be more ready for it. With a stretch, she crawled out of her sleeping bag and quickly slipped on her wooly coat, warm hat, and fuzzy socks.
Unzipping her tent and stepping out, she was greeted by the same wind as before, now howling in her ears as she glanced around. The high altitude camp was fairly impressive in Pinkie's eyes; while a dozen tents were strewn about to house the exploration team themselves, the advance team had managed to set up a prefabricated building here a week prior to the expedition proper. It now sheltered not only the food and medical supplies, but the more delicate of the weather monitoring equipment as well. An anemometer sat atop one corner, spinning furiously.
Her gaze traveled away from the camp and skimmed the horizon. Even from this high up, the mountains seemed to stretch on indefinitely where they weren't obscured by low clouds. The pass they had taken to get up here stretched below them, ending in a cool, damp valley of evergreens. It had been a three-day hike getting here from the closest semblance of civilization, but even then, the idea that they were a stone's throw from the highest piece of land on the continent was enough to make her hooves tingle.
"Hey, you're up."
A voice snapped Pinkie out of her reverie and caused her to spin around, putting her face to face with a face she knew all too well. Its owner carried a steaming mug and a small bundle in her telekinetic grip, holding them out to Pinkie as she approached. "You'll want to stop by the shelter too since the eggs are almost done, but I figured you'd be ready for breakfast right away, so..."
"You bet!" Pinkie grinned, digging into the bundle with her snout and plucking one of the crackers. They weren't particularly flavorful - she would have much preferred pancakes or a big old muffin - but she wasn't one to turn down food in any case. With a wicked crunch, she wasted no time chowing down. "Fankf, Moomdamfer!"
Moondancer flinched slightly as cracker crumbs deflected off her glasses. "Don't mention it."
Pinkie snatched the mug from midair and tilted it back, savoring the warmth of the coffee as it spread throughout her body. She didn't much need its help to wake up, but the extra energy would keep her going on the journey ahead.
"We've got all your stuff ready by the Path," Moondancer added. "Come find me once you're done eating and we'll get you saddled up."
With a grin, Pinkie nodded and headed off to help herself to something a bit more substantial than crackers and coffee.
A few minutes later, she stood amid a circle of ponies all pitching in to load her up with supplies. Her saddlebags bulged a bit, but weren't unmanageably heavy. She grinned as they finished their task and shifted to permit Moondancer, who carried a necklace set with an ornate jewel.
"Remember, you've only got three days before the enchantment wears off even if you haven't used it up yet," she explained as she clasped it around Pinkie's neck. "One for the trip up, one to mingle, and one for the trip back. It shouldn't take nearly that long, so you've got some leeway in case things go south. You remember your lines, right?"
Pinkie scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Come on, Moony! We've been over this, like, a bajillion times. I totally know what to do!"
"I know you do." Moondancer smiled, patting Pinkie's shoulder. "I just want to tell you... good luck. We're all counting on you."
Pinkie's eyes watered briefly, and she gave Moondancer a quick hug.
After a round of goodbyes and well wishes, the assembled ponies backed up, giving Pinkie a clear view of the Cloudy Path. In defiance of the rest of the cloud layer around it, it stretched, slithered, and spiraled its way into the sky, connecting the various islands of the Floating Atoll like a cottony rope. She spent a moment staring at it, taking in the majesty of the sight before her; her hooves tingled again as she realized she'd be the first known pony in centuries to get a different view of it.
Gingerly, she set hoof on the very end of the cloud. It gave under her weight but ultimately held up as the jewel of her necklace began glowing softly. A quick hop put the rest of her hooves on the spongy surface of the Path; her journey had officially begun.
With a wave and a grin over her shoulder, Pinkie took off at a trot.
For the first hour, she felt as though her energy was boundless; the chill and the climb were no match for her spirit. Every few minutes, she would glance back down the way she came, the colorful dots of the tents far below not yet obscured by distance.
She did this for more than just her own benefit, of course. Though they wouldn't be able to keep it up for the entirety of her trek, she knew her fellow explorers would be tracking her with a telescope, and so made sure to give them every opportunity to see her alive and well.
That aside, the view was everything she could have imagined and more. She had climbed so high by this point that the mountains lining the horizon had begun to give way to the seas beyond, all lit by the gradual rise of the sun. As she paused once more for the crew below, she dug around in one side of her saddlebag and fished out a small rectangular object made of wood and carefully cut crystals. The magic camera held only enough film for six shots, small as it was, and she didn't want to waste them... but to come back down with unused film would be the biggest waste of all.
click
A satisfied grin spread across her face as she turned back to the Path ahead.
The next hour or so was relatively uneventful until she came upon the first major feature of the Atoll: a floating island.
It was the smallest of the bunch as far as she knew, a vague circle barely fifteen meters across. From below, all she could see of it was the dry soil of the underside. Pinkie stared at it as she trotted the rest of the way up and finally got a look at the surface.
The top side of the island was nearly perfectly flat and covered in dry grass, varying here and there in length and thickness. No sign of its means of levitation was visible anywhere.
She scratched her head. "That's super weird!"
The Path stopped at the edge, picking up again at the far end; she would have to cross it to continue. Not difficult, right? Her weight shouldn't mean much to it given its size, even if this was the smallest one. Still, she clenched her eyes shut as she lifted one hoof from the cloud to press it down on the edge of the island - and gave a quiet sigh of relief as it held fast.
With an eager hop, she stood on the first solid ground she'd found in over two hours.
Did this warrant a picture? It really wasn't that interesting, aside from the obvious. She was sort of hoping there would be a giant fan, or a cloud of balloons tied to it, or something - but no, it was just a boring old chunk of dirt with some grass on it. Bland grass, no less, she decided as it crunched between her teeth. How did it grow up here, anyway? This was higher than normal rainclouds could reach...
Pinkie glanced down at her necklace, which had stopped glowing. Now that she was on proper ground, it didn't need to expend energy on its enchantment to keep her from falling through the clouds, making this the perfect place to rest. The grass rustled as she plopped down on top of it and began rummaging in her pack for a snack.
She frowned as she peered into one bag, the smell of various confections wafting from it - cookies, cupcakes, even a pie made from famous Apple family apples. They looked super scrumptious, but she knew better than to dig in; those were an important bargaining chip for later. With a sigh, she nudged them aside and pulled out a packet like the one Moondancer had offered her earlier, the dry nutrient wafers inside looking no more appetizing now than when she had first been introduced to them.
The sacrifices she made for this mission, seriously!
She chomped a wafer in one bite before reaching for her canteen to wash it down. She wasn't terribly hungry by any stretch, so that was probably more than good for now.
Hopping back up on all fours, Pinkie trotted to the edge and crouched, looking down. The expedition camp below was just barely visible from this height, but she waved all the same, lingering for about a quarter of a minute in case they hadn't spotted her yet.
There really wasn't much left to do here. Her eyes traced the Path spiraling ever higher above as she approached the other end of the island, taking careful steps onto the cloud to give her necklace's magic time to kick in before she fell through.
The first island gradually shrank beneath her as she continued her skyward journey.
Yeah, this one was way more interesting than the last.
The sun was quite high in the sky at this point; it had taken another two hours of walking to reach the second island, but the effort had been well worth it. It was at least ten times the radius of the last one, featuring a greater variety of flora in the form of various shrubs and even small trees, but that wasn't the most noteworthy thing.
There were buildings.
Or the ruins thereof, at least. The skeletons of several small structures made of mud and stone, crumbling slowly under the ravages of time, stood in a neat row nearby. Pinkie trotted up to one and placed her hoof on it, the better to take it all in.
"Yipe!"
She yanked it back as the rock she had touched immediately came loose from the surrounding cement and fell to the dirt in front of her.
She tilted her head at the rest. The roof was long gone, leaving behind no visible seam where it would have met the walls - had it been made of something else that hadn't withstood the elements as well? Come to think of it, what would have weathered it away in the first place this high up? She shook her head - those were questions better tackled by Moondancer.
She peered over the crumbling wall. The interior was empty, save for a bit of debris. If she didn't find anything cooler on this island, she would totally come back for a picture; rationing them was still important. A brief glance at the other buildings revealed them to contain little else of note, so she shrugged and moved on.
The vegetation thinned out in front of the ruined buildings - the remains of what was once a road, likely. The trees and shrubs nearby actually thickened enough to block her view as the road curved away, so she followed it with a spring in her step.
The first thing that met her was a tiny grove of bushes covered in dark berries. They grew wild and unfettered, the only thing encroaching on the former road aside from the usual bland grass. Pinkie approached one, peering so closely at a berry that it nearly brushed against her nose. What did poisonous berries look like again? These looked almost exactly like blackberries, excepting that they were the wrong size, sported a slightly different color, and smelled like nothing at all. With a shrug, she munched one off its branch.
"Bleah!"
It also tasted like nothing at all. She pulled a face, sticking her tongue out so far she could see it - and scowl at the black stain it now featured.
Pinkie frowned. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm suddenly glad for those lame wafers."
She took a swig from her canteen, swishing the water around in her mouth in an effort to rinse the color from it. It worked only marginally well. With a sigh, she left the berry bushes behind as she rounded the bend.
A wide clearing came into view and caused her to gasp, halting in her tracks.
A pit had been dug out of the center of the island, sinking a couple dozen feet below the surrounding soil. At the bottom, an array of strange purple crystals jutted out of the ground at odd angles, glittering in the sunlight.
"Whoa..."
With a mighty leap, Pinkie landed in an empty patch of soil surrounded by crystals, kicking up a puff of dust in the process. As she coughed and waved it away, she noticed the remains of several decrepit mining tools nearby, most of which were beyond repair. She plucked a nearby shovel in her teeth, the one that looked the sturdiest, and glanced around.
"Aha!"
A small crystal poked out of the ground in front of a much larger formation. Maybe it was loose? Trotting over to it, she jammed the shovel blade into the dirt with a grunt, walked around to one side...
"Hiya!"
...and bucked the handle for all she was worth.
Snap! It broke instantly from the force of the blow.
Pinkie frowned at it. Once again standing behind the now ruined shovel, she placed her hooves at the end - careful to avoid splinters - and shoved down hard.
Crack! She lost her balance and fell flat as the shovel broke yet again, but not before dislodging the crystal from its earthen prison.
"Ha! Take that!" she crowed as she got back up and dusted herself off. "Pinkie, one; crystal, zero. Now let's - hey!"
In the time it had taken her to do this, the crystal had begun to levitate, wobbling slightly as it floated higher and higher into the air.
"Get back here, you!" Pinkie dashed forward and leaped into the air, but to no avail - the crystal was already beyond her reach, floating ever higher above the island. She watched it go with a frown, but it soon gave way for a smile... then a grin... then a fit of giggles, as the realization of what she was seeing finally struck her.
It was probably for the best, anyway. If these things were what was holding up the Atoll, it might be a bad idea to try to carry one around with her - a stiff breeze could blow her off the clouds!
Giggles subsiding, she climbed back out and fished for her camera, stepping back for a wide shot of the entirety of the pit. Four pictures remained.
There wasn't much else to see between the pit and the next stretch of the Path, so her mind wandered a bit along the way. If she didn't know better, it looked like someone was digging up those crystals, but she couldn't imagine why that would be. Surely if she had figured out their purpose in a matter of minutes, then they would have too, right? So then...
She shook her head. Another question better left to Moondancer.
Speaking of which...
Before long, she stood once again at the edge of the island where the clouds continued their upward spiral. At this distance, she could no longer pick out the camp on the mountaintop, even by following the Path with her eyes. Still, she waved at the ground far below regardless.
She plopped down in the grass, helping herself to a couple of wafers from her saddlebag. She needed to make it to the biggest island by sundown, but it wouldn't do to push herself too hard by climbing without rest. There was a good chance she would never get to come back up here once her journey was over, either, so she had to make the most of her time while she still had it.
Pinkie dug blindly through her pack, unable to take her eyes off the scene before her.
She sat at the leading edge of the third island, an order of magnitude larger than the last, and gawked. Flanking a wide main road were rows and rows of crumbling stone structures, some of which stretched three or four stories tall. A wooden wagon sat in the overgrowth nearby, missing a wheel on one side. The road stretched for at least a mile before splitting in two directions; the size of the place was hard to tell from her vantage point.
click
Still, a picture was clearly in order. Tucking the camera away, she started off down the grass-covered road, glancing this way and that as one thing after another caught her eye.
She stopped briefly to explore one building in particular, stepping around a partially fallen sign whose lettering had long since weathered away. As her eyes adjusted to the muted interior light, she found herself staring down a glass display counter, surprisingly intact - albeit completely bare save for a layer of dust. Shelves lined the wall behind it, equally devoid of features, and broken by a doorway at one end. A folding sign sat on the floor nearby, almost indistinguishable from the dust in which it lay; with a mighty breath, she cleared it off just enough to have a look at the bagels, muffins, and loaves of bread it featured.
She was standing in a bakery.
Immediately, Pinkie's gaze snapped to the door in the back. She raised a hoof to step forward, but hesitated and ultimately set it back down; if there were any treats left behind for her to scavenge, they probably weren't edible anymore. Stranger things had happened, sure - but it seemed wise not to get her hopes up. With a sigh that disturbed another pile of dust, she turned and left the derelict building.
A nagging worry began building up in the back of her mind as she returned to the road, only half noticing the weathered debris and the husks of buildings around her. What if these ruins were all there was to find up here?
She couldn't help shivering at the thought.
Five hundred years was more than enough time for a civilization to die off. Maybe they all got sick, or ran out of food, or started fighting each other for some reason! She wasn't sure how likely any of those were - she wasn't sure about a lot of things, if she was being totally honest with herself - but they were certainly possibilities. At the very least, the ruins she was in now meant that things might not be going great up here.
All the more reason to carry out her mission, then. She shivered again, this time from the cold... but steeled herself.
Besides, if the worst had happened, that at least meant she would get to enjoy all these delectable treats herself! So it wasn't a total loss. Though she would still definitely feel bad if that turned out to be the case. A whole lost floating pony kingdom gone? That would be a total bummer... no, more than that - it would be a super bummer! Her ears drooped as she imagined having to go back down and tell Moondancer there was nopony left to talk to... that all she found were tasteless berries, floaty rocks, and some dust...
Realizing she had been wandering for a bit while lost in thought, Pinkie stopped at the entrance to something resembling a courtyard - or maybe a small park? The tall grass made way for cobblestone, flanked by a row of trees on each side to give partial shade. A low wall stretched around the whole thing, crumbling here and there just like the buildings behind her.
She approached a round stone basin that had probably held water at some point in the past. A statue in surprisingly good condition stood proudly in the center, a pony covered in armor with her forehoof outstretched and a pair of flared wings sprouting from her back.
click
Two shots would have to be enough for the next island, because there was no way she was passing this up.
She trotted in a quick circle around the statue, but found no plaque or other obvious identifier to tell her who the winged pony was. Then again, would she even be able to read it either way?
"..."
A thought struck Pinkie. She had always wanted to do this back home, but the attempt had always gotten her yelled at. Not only was this statue even bigger than that one, but this time, there was nopony around to tell her 'no' - though she took a quick glance just to be totally sure.
She perched on the edge of the basin directly behind the statue and crouched. With an anticipatory wiggle, she leapt as high as she could and landed solidly on the statue's flank.
"Heeheehee!"
The outstretched wings made it a rather awkward seat, but she plopped down on her haunches regardless and grinned at her surroundings. To her moderate disappointment, there wasn't much to see from her new vantage point; unkempt as they were, the trees blocked all but the tallest buildings from view. Still, she giggled to herself in satisfaction and gave the statue an affectionate pat on the head before turning around and hopping back down.
There was almost certainly far more to see in this ruined city, but she really needed to get a move on; the sun had already begun its descent into mid-afternoon, and she was still on a time limit. Thankfully, this island was much longer than it was wide, and the clouds connected to it on that width; she was likely fairly close by now.
Sure enough, a mere few minutes of walking put her at the base of the Cloudy Path once more. The city itself ended just a few yards from the edge, a pile of crumbling stone sloping right up to it. At least there was nothing but empty mountains beneath, or these rocks could have caused serious damage falling from this high up!
Pinkie had to stand at the very edge to see the ground at all - she was so high up now that the sky above and clouds below completely filled the view otherwise. The sight made her hooves tingle again, and she shivered.
When she was just a filly, Pinkie had a recurring dream in which she found herself able to walk on clouds. She always awoke from it with a smile on her face, even as she knew it would never be possible in the waking world. When she found out she was wrong about that, she immediately volunteered for this mission - how could she not? It was literally a dream come true!
She hadn't counted on the novelty wearing off quite this quickly.
Pinkie trudged onward, the clouds beneath her hooves glowing a warm orange in the light of the evening sun. Every step took her higher than she had ever been in her life... but as that had been true for every stretch of clouds before this one as well, the monotony had robbed the idea of excitement. Instead, she found herself simply wishing the next island would descend on its own so she could reach it more quickly. At the very least, her latest venture was almost over; she was looking forward to stopping for a snack as soon as there was proper ground beneath her hooves again.
Then her ears twitched.
She froze. Considering how much empty air surrounded her on all sides, there wasn't too much to listen to at this altitude - so any sound at all made for a rather sharp contrast... but even then, this was enough to make her heart skip a beat.
Voices.
At least two, unless her ears deceived her. A conversation going on above her, too far away to discern any words, but there was no mistaking it.
Caution lost to the winds, she took off running, leaning sharply into the curve of the clouds as she galloped upward. There were ponies up here after all! She couldn't wait to talk to them - she had to get up there now! She was going to give them the speech she practiced so much, then offer them sweets, become instant best friends, and -
In hindsight, she really should have known better.
One of the things the exploration team had fought hard to drill into her for this excursion was careful hoofing. The Cloudy Path didn't exactly have railings; knowing she would want to bounce around and play, they spent over an hour teaching her that the enchantment on her necklace wasn't a toy, and that one careless step could spell the end of more than just her mission.
But Pinkie was still Pinkie. She always would be... and that meant there was no helping the occasional distraction.
She yelped as her hooves lost purchase with the fluffy terrain beneath her, causing her to overshoot the curve. In desperation, she reached out to grab on, but succeeded only in tearing off a chunk of cloud - like ripping into cotton candy with her teeth. It wasn't nearly enough to support her weight, and ended up slipping from her hooves a second later.
Legs flailing madly, she screamed at the top of her lungs as she plummeted.
The Floating Atoll leaned at an angle as it rose into the sky, meaning the Path did as well; in seconds, she had already missed her chance at landing on the clouds... assuming they would have saved her in the first place. Now, there was nothing between her and the mountains far below.
Her screaming continued.
It would be minutes before she finally reached the ground, even at terminal velocity. She wasn't sure what was scarier - the fatal landing she was in for, or the extended period of time she had until then to regret her carelessness.
Tears streamed from her eyes as she screamed and screamed and -
"Peace, friend."
She gasped, her uproar ceasing as a soothing voice spoke in her ear.
"Fear not," said a second. "No more are you in danger."
Pinkie blinked several times, squeezing a few more tears from her eyes as she looked around. She was no longer plummeting - instead held up by two sets of forelimbs from a pair of ponies, one on each side of her. The first had a pale sky blue coat, a darker blue mane, and a soothing smile; the other gave a concerned frown from beneath her red mane, her coat a dark orange. None of this held Pinkie's attention for long, however, as she noticed a much more prominent feature on both of them...
...namely, the wings that held the two of them - and her by extension - aloft in the air.
"..."
It wasn't often that Pinkie found herself speechless, but here she was, mouth moving yet producing no words. Her goal from the very beginning had been to make contact with the lost tribe of flying ponies, but this was another thing entirely! Should she give her speech now? She wasn't sure if she could - her heart was pounding in her throat, it felt like. Plus, she was getting that tingling sensation in her hooves again from the feeling of nothing but empty air beneath her. She hoped it would be okay for her to wait till they got back onto the island; Moondancer and the others wouldn't blame her for that, right?
Distracted by her thoughts, she hadn't noticed their gradual ascent until the underside of the island loomed above them. A mere few seconds later, she felt herself being set down gently, all four hooves slightly rustling the short but unkempt grass.
"Whew...!"
She collapsed on her belly immediately, thinking only of calming her breathing and the thunder in her ribs.
"Thank you," she whimpered, her eyes still leaking tears. "Thank you, thank you... I, I thought... I was a goner for sure...!"
Her ears twitched again at the sound of one of her rescuers marching in a circle around her; a quick peek revealed it to be the orange one.
"I find her suspect," her deep voice declared.
"As all but the most innocuous of things," came the much lighter pitch of her blue counterpart. "I miss how her peril aims to threaten."
"You miss much. Ponder her garb, hm? Her manner?"
The blue pony crouched slowly until she was eye level with the prone Pinkie. "Friend, how fare you? Pray - what state are your wings, that you would need our aid so?"
She straightened up a bit as a pink hoof raised partway.
"I gotta... gotta speech," panted Pinkie. "Just... need a sec. Hard to... catch my breath this high up..." She sat up slowly, wiping the tears from her face. "I'm good! I'm good. Okay."
The flying rescuers exchanged confused glances as Pinkie noisily took a deep breath.
"I represent a collision of - no, um, coalition of earth ponies and unicorns. My name is Pinkie Pie, and I uh - what was the next part? Oh! I bring good tides - tidings to you and your winged... um, brothers and sisters! I'm here on a diplomatic mission - hey, I got that one! - to restore the peaceful co... coed... extant... coexistence we once shared with the ponies of the sky, so if you could take me to your leader, um... that would be super rad!"
Nailed it!
Unfortunately, her audience looked as bewildered as ever.
Pinkie sighed. "I told Moondancer it wouldn't work..."
"Your manner is peculiar indeed," said the blue pony. "You are one... Pinkie Pie? Yes?"
"Mhmm!" Pinkie nodded vigorously; she had managed to convey something with that silly speech after all! "What are your names?"
"I am one Whirlwind." The blue pony bowed her head and flared her wings. "My companion is one Aerial Ace. Fair winds to you, friend Pinkie Pie."
"You offer too much," Aerial Ace warned her companion. "Still she does not bare her wings, yet you have asked."
Whirlwind seemed to consider this for a moment. "Friend, would you indulge us...?"
Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Earth ponies don't have wings, silly!"
"Earth?" Aerial Ace scowled. "You speak madness."
Whirlwind, however, was suddenly mesmerized. "Earth? No wings...?" She blinked. "Groundwalker...?"
Aerial Ace's scowl deepened. "The sky is impermeable to groundwalkers. She deceives."
"No, for real! Here, lemme show you!"
In a single motion, Pinkie leaped out of her saddlebags, coat, hat, and socks, leaving them hanging in midair in defiance of gravity. With a flourish, she landed gracefully a meter away, now wearing nothing but her enchanted necklace. "Ta-da!" She immediately began shivering. "G-Goodness, it's c-c-cold...!"
Aerial Ace gawked at the floating garments.
Whirlwind trotted a quarter circle around Pinkie, leaning in close to examine her back. Grinning excitedly, she pointed as she turned to her comrade again. "She speaks truth! A groundwalker, here among us!"
"I've g-got m-more p-p-proof!" Pinkie hopped backward, sighing with relief as she occupied her warm clothes once more. She flipped open one side of her saddlebag and rummaged for a moment before producing a thickly frosted cupcake. "Here, try it! This one's strawberry."
Aerial Ace gave the treat a deadpan stare. "Of what function is this object...?" She hesitated, glancing between it and the strange pony holding it.
"It's a cupcake, silly pony goose! You eat it!"
Without missing a beat, Pinkie turned and tapped the cupcake on a nearby rock until it produced an audible crack and split into two roughly equal halves. Peeling the wrapper off, she took one half in each forehoof and shoved them into the winged ponies' fallen jaws. "What do you think? Tell me, tell me!"
Whirlwind chewed slowly and cautiously, as though not yet convinced that the thing she had just been fed was actually food. By contrast, Aerial Ace's eyes lit up; though she seemed to struggle with it for a moment, she finished her portion quickly.
"This... these are groundwalker rations?" she asked, clearing her throat. "I... believe I require more data for a proper assessment."
Pinkie giggled. "There's more where that came from, but I gotta save some to share with your leader, too!"
"The Constable," said Whirlwind, eagerly licking excess frosting from her upper lip. "She must be enlightened - and our friend has earned an audience, yes?"
"...Perhaps yet," admitted Aerial Ace. "You seek council, groundwalker? Come - you will have it."
"Aww, yeah!" Pinkie pumped her hoof. "Score one for the Pinkster!"
Two winged ponies stared at her incredulously.
"Um... aheh." Pinkie cleared her throat. "Anyway..."
Pinkie's eyes darted around so much, she had to consciously remind herself to blink.
This town was no less weathered by time than the previous island she had visited, but it was clearly much better kept; there were no piles of debris from the crumbling buildings, whose missing walls and ceilings were patched expertly with sheets of woven straw. The roads were level dirt, no grass or weeds encroaching on them. Here and there a wagon would squeak on by, most carrying loose heaps of a kind of grain Pinkie couldn't identify at a glance.
Mostly because she was barely looking at any of these things.
Winged ponies fluttered about everywhere she looked. They talked, they ate, they laughed, they played, they flew; craning her neck, she saw some hovering at least a hundred feet above.
click
She hoped they wouldn't mind. It was for the mission, after all.
Not that she wasn't getting plenty of the same in return as she trotted her way down the road. Being the only clothed pony on the block, she seemed to be earning a good number of curious stares as she followed her guides down the road. Curious foals poked at their parents, asking the same questions that were running through the heads of their elders.
"You are a portent," said Whirlwind, clearly having noticed as well. "They sense this, I think, though they might miss its meaning."
"As still do we," warned Aerial Ace. "Whether good or ill sits yet in shroud."
Whirlwind sighed and turned to Pinkie. "Her wariness must tire, but it is among her strengths."
"That's okay!" Pinkie grinned. "She can't be a big old grumpypants forever. Before I'm done here, all three of us are gonna be the best of friends!"
Aerial Ace rolled her eyes.
Before long, they came to a stop in front of a three-story building. It looked even more patchwork than the rest, with wooden supports bracing it from inside and out. The upper two floors had balconies; it was to the lower of these that Whirlwind fluttered, landing gently and gesturing at the doorway in front of her with a hoof.
"From this place does the Constable guide and order," she explained. "Come, we must - "
A distant cough interrupted her words.
Pinkie Pie and Aerial Ace stared up at Whirlwind, their faces blank.
"Er... ahem."
Blushing, Whirlwind descended once more to help lift Pinkie onto the balcony.
A sliding screen served as the front door, which Aerial Ace nudged aside. "Fair winds, Constable. We gift you an anomaly."
Was it supposed to be so dark in there? Pinkie found herself wondering if there was even anypony home. She got her answer swiftly in the form of a voice responding from within, somehow soft and firm at the same time.
"What form does it take?"
Whirlwind stepped inside, gesturing for Pinkie to follow. "A groundwalker seeks your audience!"
Pinkie squinted into the darkness, the dim evening light barely illuminating the room enough for a shadowy figure to be visible behind what she assumed to be a desk.
"A groundwalker..." The figure slowly stood up on the desk, towering over the scene.
"Hiya, Your Lordship Princess Captain Constable, sir and/or ma'am!" Pinkie grinned. "I brought cupcakes! And pie, and cheesecake, and some lemonade... Oh, and a message too, I guess, but that can totally wait until after the party!"
The next several seconds were silent.
"The words of Commander Hurricane were explicit indeed regarding the fate of the groundwalker who should once more tread upon the Cirrus Kingdom," said the figure.
Pinkie blinked. "If you have a particular theme in mind, that's totally fine! I can work with that. I wouldn't be the best party planner in all the land if I couldn't!"
The figure continued. "That groundwalker shall be destroyed."
With a great wingflap, the figure leaped into the air and landed hard in front of Pinkie, causing her to stagger backward in alarm. "Um... if you don't like lemonade, I'm sure I can whip up some fruit punch instead...?"
A pale yellow face framed by a pink mane peeked out of the shadows, smiling pleasantly. The pony behind it wore the only clothing Pinkie had seen thus far besides her own, a faded brown uniform shirt with a rusty star pinned to the lapel. "Fortune upon you, then, that we are not the Cirrus Kingdom."
Pinkie's alarm slowly gave way for confusion. She dug in her saddlebag for a moment before producing what appeared to be a folded map - which she promptly unfurled upside-down. "Aw geez, was I not supposed to take that left turn at Santa Fe? Or was it - " She gasped in realization, scowling. "Albuquerque...!"
The pony before her giggled softly and extended a hoof.
"Fair winds, friend groundwalker," she said. "I am one Constable Fluttershy... and I welcome you to the town of Alto, final bastion of the sky."
There was a moment of silence as Pinkie glanced between her map and Constable Fluttershy's outstretched hoof.
They couldn't have made a mistake, right? She was definitely where she was supposed to be. It's not like they had picked the wrong chain of islands tethered to a string of clouds floating way high up in the sky. There weren't exactly a lot of those to choose from!
She folded the map and tucked it away before shaking the hoof in front of her.
The Constable glanced at the ponies behind Pinkie. "I would grant this groundwalker her audience," she said.
Aerial Ace nodded. "By your will."
Whirlwind smiled and winked at Pinkie. "Fortune to you, friend."
With that, the two departed.
"Now then," the Constable began, "if you would - "
"Here!"
Pinkie thrust a small plate under the Constable's nose, a slice of apple pie upon it. A fork protruded from the pastry like a spear embedded in a slain animal. A curious hoof reached for it, tucking it in the crook of a fetlock and pulling a bite along with it.
The crust was crisp and flaky, perfectly contrasting the gooey filling with its tart, crunchy apples and just the right amount of cinnamon.
The Constable stared at the fork in her grasp as though in contemplation of its nature.
"Sooo..." Pinkie leaned forward, still holding the plate of pie. "What do you think? I've got plenty more where that came from! Or maybe you're more of a strawberry shortcake kind of pony? I also have this invention I've been working on. It's like a chimichanga, but with cherry filling! I'm still trying to figure out what to call it though. Maybe if I make one for you, you can help me decide!"
The Constable was still for a moment longer. Finally, she returned the fork to the plate and waved her hoof at the doorway. "If you would...?"
Pinkie blinked.
What did that mean? Did she not like it? Had Pinkie messed something up? Was she being sent away? Slowly, she slid the plate into her saddlebag and turned to march through the still open doorway, back out onto the balcony.
"Five hundred fifteen."
The Constable took a seat beside Pinkie, looking out onto the twilit street below.
Pinkie tilted her head. "Huh?"
"Five hundred fifteen," the Constable repeated. "The years that have passed since we seceded from the very earth itself, by decree of Commander Hurricane."
This was something Pinkie already knew, now that she had been reminded... but it sounded like the buildup to a greater point, so she kept quiet.
"A legendary figure indeed - yet a flawed one, as are all. Unparalleled on the field of battle... but wanting as a leader of ponies. Such stubborn pride, no doubt, would have gladly seen us waste away in our magnificent prison so long as our graves still flew above all other ponies."
Pinkie's ears drooped.
"Yet the good Commander is long buried now, and I must ponder this pride. Five hundred fifteen years, and we would still put honor before reason?" The Constable waved a hoof. "Tell me of the sight before you."
"Um..."
Pinkie looked around. The scene was much as it had been before, with winged ponies flitting about here and there everywhere she looked. She wasn't entirely sure where this question was leading, so what should she say?
"They look, um..." She paused. "Happy?"
More that they didn't look unhappy, really. They seemed satisfied with their lot in life, if based only on a glance.
"They know no better." The Constable shook her head. "Nor did I, though it is my station to wonder - and you have shown me our blindness in a single bite."
Pinkie's ears perked up. She did like it!
The Constable finally turned to look at Pinkie again. "You trod upon the tethered clouds to reach us, did you not?"
Pinkie gasped. "How did you know?"
"What other conveyance might have brought a wingless one to such heights?"
A pause. "...Good point."
The Constable frowned. "No doubt you saw the remnants of our former kingdom on your way."
"Yeah, I was wondering about that." Pinkie scratched her head. "So, um...?"
"We number beneath a thousand," said the Constable.
Pinkie grimaced.
"The land below bears plenty we have not known in generations, far beyond living memory. The sky offers us nothing but a painless destruction. As Constable, the lives of the ponies are my willing burden... and today would I choose to cast away that stubborn pride and preserve the blood of my charge." She looked at Pinkie with hope in her eyes. "I trust your purpose is greater than so simple a gift... bear you a message for us, groundwalker?"
Pinkie stared for a moment, her gaze locked with the winged pony before her. Her lips slowly curled into a grin.
"I totally do!"
Clearing her throat, she tried her speech one more time.
It was an hour after dawn. An entire day had passed since Pinkie's departure, and they had long since lost track of her, even with telescopes. The waiting game had already begun.
These were the moments she liked the least - the ones where things were completely out of her hooves. She had already done all the calculations, the prototyping, the testing... There was nothing for it now but to wait.
She stared at the anemometer as it spun lazily in the breeze, the calmest weather they had seen since reaching the summit of the mountain.
Then she noticed the speck.
Moondancer's ears perked, and she sat up. A tiny dot had begun to descend from the Atoll. Immediately, a nearby telescope floated over courtesy of her magic, and she fiddled with it for a moment in an effort to get a better look at the anomaly.
Her jaw nearly hit the floor.
"Wake up, ponies!" she barked, leaping to her hooves. "We've got incoming! Code green - I repeat, code green!"
All around, ponies scrambled. Notebooks, cameras, and telescopes flew telekinetically every which way, many nearly bonking heads in transit.
As the assembled watched with bated breath, the speck slowly grew larger. Now, even those with unaided eyes could make out two pairs of flapping wings, followed by a very small carriage with two figures seated inside. The air was jubilant - one of the figures was familiar.
The scientists scattered from the flattest stretch of ground, leaving an impromptu runway that drew in the flying carriage. The two winged ponies leading it flared their wings, bringing it to an only somewhat bumpy stop.
"WHEEEEEEE!" Pinkie threw her forehooves into the air. "That was so much fun! Can we go back and do it again?"
One of the ponies leading the carriage sighed noisily as she unhooked herself. "By fortune may we refrain..."
The other was too distracted beaming at all the scientists to respond.
Pinkie leaped from the carriage, somersaulting in midair as she landed beside it and offered a hoof to the other passenger, who took it with a pleasant smile and climbed down.
"Ahem-hem-hem!" Pinkie waved her hoof with an exaggerated flourish. "May I present Constable Fluttershy of Alto!"
"Alto...?" echoed Moondancer.
The Constable curtsied with a graceful flare of her wings. "How do you do?"
Pinkie grinned. "And this is my good friend Moondancer, leader of the Floating Atoll Expedition!"
Moondancer's glasses glowed for a brief moment as she adjusted them before offering a hoof. "I can't tell you how much it means for us to be meeting like this."
"I am honored indeed that I should be the first leader of my ponies in five hundred years to bridge the divide with the surface," said the Constable, taking the offered hoof and giving it a friendly shake.
"Hey, Whirly! AA!" Pinkie called out to the ponies who had flown their carriage down. "There's more 'groundwalker rations' in the building there. Help yourselves!"
Aerial Ace's sour expression evaporated as she curiously approached the prefabricated building and poked her head inside.
Whirlwind was still preoccupied by the act of flying around a scientist's head, examining his horn curiously. "But surely such an implement must inconvenience you time and again?"
The scientist shook his head with an amused chuckle. "Tore a couple of pillowcases when I was a foal, but you basically get used to it."
"Those wings, though!" demanded another scientist. "Your wingspan's way too small for your body, so they have to be powered by... I dunno, some kind of winged pony magic, right?"
Moondancer smiled at the sight before turning to Constable Fluttershy. "That seems like a good sign, I think."
"If I might share a deep truth..." began the Constable with a wistful smile, "never did I dare speak of hope for a day such as this, yet how I longed despite..."
"I don't know whether it's more luck or fate that we came here with the same goal, but I'm definitely not complaining," said Moondancer.
"Nor might I," said Fluttershy. "Still, a mighty feat indeed awaits our efforts, concurrent though we may be. Five hundred years has more than left its sting."
Moondancer nodded. "Yeah, let's not waste any time. But first..." She glanced around. "Pinkie? Pi - where did she go? I swear I can never keep track of - "
"GASP"
The two spun around to find a brilliantly beaming pink pony smiling at them.
"So does this make my new friend and my old friend friends?"
Moondancer hesitated, making sure she had kept track of the question well enough to answer it. "I'd say so, yes... and we couldn't have done it without your help."
"YEEEEE!"
Pinkie's legs promptly coiled and extended, launching her several feet into the air, and then flailed with excitement as she squealed her delight to the valleys below.
Rolling her eyes, Mondancer flagged down a nearby pair of ponies with a wave of her hoof.
"We're heading to the conference tent, and I need three things. Rivets? Get me an inventory on transports and refit supplies. Fountain Pen? Draft a letter to the Duchess - we may need a camp for a few hundred ponies until we can set them up with proper housing, I'll give you exact numbers when I've got them. Pinkie? Stop defying conventional physics and get down here; you're with me."
"Aww..." Pinkie gave a disappointed huff as her hooves touched ground once more. "Fiiiine."
The third day's dusk saw the last five ponies in Alto gazing off toward the sunset - all except for one, of course, who busied herself with balancing on a lone front hoof.
"Moony, you goof," said Pinkie. "Isn't that a good thing?"
Moondancer chuckled. "Well yeah, it's just... I spent almost ten years preparing for this expedition, and we wrapped the whole thing up in a week. It's just a little surreal, is all."
"Strange..."
The pair looked over as Constable Fluttershy spoke for the first time in minutes.
Pinkie blinked. "What is?"
"That the natural instinct toward the unknown should be fear," replied the Constable, "even as it represents the greatest hope we have seen in living memory."
"It's perfectly natural to be nervous," said Moondancer. "Everypony here just packed up their lives in little carts and flew off to a land they've never even heard of before to start over. It's going to be pretty bumpy from here on out."
Fluttershy smiled. "Yet even in my apprehension I have every confidence this was the correct path to take."
"Hey, I got an idea!" Pinkie let herself topple back down on all fours and began rummaging through her saddlebag. "We should have one last dessert before we leave, like a little farewell picnic for - GASP"
Moondancer and Fluttershy stared at the wide-eyed mare.
"Hang on! Hang on hang on hang on! Even better!" Pinkie's hoof retracted, holding her magical camera. "I forgot I still had a shot left! GROUP PHOTO!"
"Wait, why was that in the pocket with..." Moondancer shook her head. "Never mind."
"Hey!" Pinkie called out to Whirlwind and Aerial Ace, who had been chatting beside the cart they had used to bring the two groundwalkers with them. "Everypony gather 'round!"
With slightly confused looks, they fluttered over and sat on either side of Moondancer and Fluttershy.
"Okay! On three, say 'fuzzy pickles!'"
Before she could begin counting, the camera floated out of her grasp.
Moondancer smirked, her horn glowing. "Get over here, dork."
Pinkie's grin widened as she bounded over. In an instant, both Moondancer and Fluttershy were squeezed to her sides by her forelegs.
"You know this is going in the history books, right?"
