//------------------------------// // The Conquerors of the Skies // Story: Wings // by Silent Bob //------------------------------// The Conquerors of the Skies "Woah," was all Tom could say after he crashed through what he thought was Rainbow Dash's cloudhouse's walls and skidded to a stop. This 'woah' was due to many things, the least being that he just flown half-way across his universe, through a land essentially filled with aliens, and through a wall. The first and foremost was actually the fact he was standing on a cloud. A light, fluffy, cumulus he had only previously seen flying high above in the sky. The next was the furniture. He was in a living room of sorts, and there was nothing particular odd about it except for the fact the couch seemed to be made for human use and not pony and that it was also sitting atop clouds. He shook his head, baffled at this before glancing about a bit more. He spotted a photo in the far side of the room sitting upon a side table next to the couch. Gingerly, nervously he took his first step towards it, sighing in relief when he didn't plummet through the floor. Now more confident, he made his way over and examined it. In it were two adult pegasi, a stallion wearing what seemed to be a pony version of a military-style blue suit and a mare with a sparkling golden mane and dazzling white fur. They smiled proudly down upon what the male cradled in his arms, a tiny foal with Dashie's unmistakable rainbow mane. It would have been an adorable sight if they were human, but them being ponies upped the factor by eleven. He smiled warmly at the photo and at the fact he now had confirmation this was where his new friend lived. Still, it was funny that whatever had brought him here had dragged him half-way across the universe but couldn't seem to give him the courtesy of planting him right next to her. He had barely had time to take in that portion of the trip at this point. It was almost as stunning as seeing Equestria, though nowhere near as interesting. Astronomy wasn't really ever his deal. Still, he began to wonder if Dashie had gone through the same trip, though he quickly shrugged it off. Yeah, oddly enough I never really had some sort of existential meltdown after seeing how large the universe was compared to myself and my tiny little planet. I guess it never really bothered me that much, because why should it? Mah life can still be glorious and epic since it's all I'll ever know. It's from mah perspective and my perspective alone. There's no need to look at everything from such a large point of view, that'd just drive ya crazy. Besides, I'm not even sure if it was real or something my mind made up to help me handle the crossing between two worlds. I'll never know. I suppose I should be lucky that the whole universal road trip only happened once to me, though. Oh and great, here I am philosiphising again. That kind of crap makes my head hurt. Back to the talking ponies! Glancing about the room again, he wondered where Dashie could possibly be. He eventually found the entranceway to the house's kitchen, but it was vacant as well. Like the living room, it had a lot of things his own house had, save for a lack of modern technology. The Dashes didn't seem to have a gas stove, instead of it was a cloud-made fireplace with a single pot hanging off a bar that ran from one top-end to the other. They did have a sink, so it wasn't all medieval, but it still seemed to be a much less technologically advanced society as his own so far. They were ruled by a princess after all, though that made him wonder where their queen was. There were no other rooms downstairs aside from a small bathroom, so he supposed Dashie may have been upstairs. He went back to the living room and took the flight of stairs he had seen to make his way up. A hallway stretched before him with two doors on the right and one door on the left. He tried to tug on the handle to the one on the right, though he found his hand simply phased through it. Sighing, he then simply walked through it instead. It seemed to be Rainbow's parents' room, it with a double bed and fancy furniture. There was also a large glass case that contained a strange uniform in it. It was a mostly blue full ponybody spandex ordained with streaks of lightning near the 'heels' of it as well as a pair of goggles that hung on the 'face' of it. Next to it hung the same military-like uniform he had seen Dashie's dad wearing. There were a large number of medals and ribbons upon it he hadn't noticed in the family photo. Her father must have had a pretty high rank, or so it seemed. Near the case was a large photo of a number of pegasi wearing the same blue spandex that hung in the case, all in a large group photo. They crowded around one pony in particular who Tom guessed was Rainbow's father, one holding a piece of paper that had an arrow pointing towards the military pony with words below it that read, 'Property of the Wonderbolts'. What in the world was a Wonderbolt? With that question in mind, he exited the room and took the door across from him. Inside was a single bed. He smiled at the sight. So this must have been her room.. He then began to glance around. On the floor were a small number of light dumbbells, five pounders it seemed. On the fluffy cloud walls were a series of fliers and posters, some including those of 'Wonderbolts'. His heart warmed upon seeing this. Dashie seemed to be as close to her father as he was to his. Maybe he was like a hero to her? Still, it quickly cooled when he realized there was still no Rainbow to be seen.... And then it hit him, and he nearly facepalmed for not thinking of it earlier. Rainbow was probably at school. Well, that was great, except for the fact he had no idea how to navigate around the crazy city in the clouds he was in nor any way to ask for directions. His only options were to try to find the place on his own or wait for Dashie to come home. Yeah, like a nine year old kid is going to wait around? Smirking, he left Dashie's room and made his way downstairs. Not wanting to risk walking through a wall and falling to the ground, he opted to find the front door. It wasn't that hard, it being in the living room, and with that he made his way outside. His eyes widened once again at the sight. Sure, he had seen a bit of city while flying over it, but now here he was; in the thick of it. All around him pegasi of all shapes and sizes made their way to and fro place to place via both wings and hooves. Tom glanced at the sky curiously at this. The sun hung in the East, and if it worked the same way it did on his world then it was probably the early morning rush hour. The boy had never stayed all day in a city before, but he had heard tales of the hustle and bustle of places like New York. It was like that, but with traffic in the skies as well. There were no fillies or colts to be seen, though, so it seemed his assumption about them all being in school was correct. He took a look around. He seemed to be in a residential area with houses like Rainbow's lining a cloudy 'street' as well as a number of shops. Doughnut shops, hay shops.... Tom raised an eyebrow. Coffee shops? Ponies drank coffee? Anyway, lots of shops. In the distance stretched the 'higher' portions of cloud city, them almost like cloudy hills, with larger, greek-style buildings atop. He also saw something that looked like a stadium, with multi-colored flags sitting atop its rimmed, pillared' walls. It was almost Roman looking. Not knowing what to do next, he began to walk down the cloudy 'road'. After a minute or so, his eyes widened when a large object obscured his vision. After a second, it revealed itself to be the behind of a male pegasus who continued to trot forward. Dazed, it took him a second to figure out what had happened, and then it hit him; the pegasus had walked through him. Oh that's right, he was in ghost mode. Shivering a bit at the oddity of what had just happened, he began to move forward once again. Eventually, he reached the end of the long road, it diverging into two perpendicular new roads that ran in opposite directions. The one on the right seemed to only lead to more houses, but the one on the left.... Bingo. That was his ticket. Smiling at his luck, he began to make his way towards a larger, one story cloud building with a sign in front that read, 'CD-12 Elementary'.