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// Chapter 29: Cumulus Maze 
// Story: Sisters of Willowbrook 
// by Starscribe 
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Every trip into the Cumulus Maze was a new mystery, taking her somewhere that ponies hadn't seen for years, or maybe even centuries. Sometimes that meant unknown dangers, left behind in an age when the ponies still fought wars against each other. Sometimes that just meant getting crushed under collapsing cloud structures, trapped until her dad could come around to dig her out.

Rarest of all, sometimes it meant finding treasures from the past, things her father could sell to interested buyers in museums and wealthy families across Equestria, paying their rent for another few months and letting them do other nice things. Each new dress or accessory in Firefly's cabinet had come after a trip like this, and some new and interesting discovery.

Even after about a year of going up with her dad, some discoveries could still stop Firefly in her tracks, amazed by the weight of time crashing down on her.

She flew through an ancient fortress. This was nothing like the stage armor pony guards wore now, so thin it couldn't stop an arrow or deflect a sword. This place was old, and clearly well-used.

The open armory had suits of armor, along with lances and strange metal things a pony could wear on their wings. Blades? Firefly slowed as she passed a wall of ancient portraits, staring back into the faces of ponies long dead. Most had faded beyond recognition, or else been created with materials that didn't survive well in a rotting sky-building. But a few were recognizable, and appeared almost lifelike to her eyes.

"This is a find!" Dusty said, crossing the room with sudden intensity. "Why don't you check the downstairs, Firefly. I'll sort through this. I think Los Pegasus was looking for artifacts to populate a few fresh exhibits..."

She nodded, dropping to the ground in front of an open doorway leading down. Every time she did, Firefly felt a brief flicker of dread—this was just a cloud, and she was going to pass through it, falling to her doom in the sky below. But just like every other time, her hooves touched against the cloud as though it were a polished marble floor.

The Cumulus Maze wasn't exactly safe, but Firefly knew on some level that Dusty scouted the buildings first, and only invited her on days that didn't worry him. Only truly magical traps could last for any length of time in an environment like this, and those could be sensed from the outside if you practiced.

Besides, if she ever felt uncomfortable, Charlie could buck her way through a wall and out into the open sky. Clouds were solid only so long as the magic forming them held together—that was magic a pegasus could dissolve.

Even so, she walked carefully down the steps, avoiding sections of cloud that had collapsed or eroded. She didn't need a flashlight. Even without the regular holes, the rising sun shone through the walls, filling every room with a diffuse glow.

It's too bad Dusty doesn't want to live in one of these, she thought, for perhaps the ten-thousandth time. Every pegasus friend she had lived above town, in cloud-houses they crafted or commissioned. So long as they didn't keep persistent shade over anyone's fields, they could basically build whatever they wanted. But no, we have to live in a lopsided apartment that might fall over if too many ponies stand on one side of the building for too long.

Firefly passed mostly empty rooms, or sections where the cloud had collapsed entirely. These opened to a drop down to Willowbrook far below, so far away that her eyes could barely even focus on it. But Firefly wasn't afraid of heights anymore; that fear lasted about as long as it took her to get confident with her wings.

But at the end of the hall, she finally found something interesting: a locked door. It probably would've resisted her well when it was new, but these clouds were too old for that. Older than Equestria itself, maybe. She shoved her shoulder up against it, making a big enough hole that she could pry the clouds apart with her hooves. Once the shape was interrupted, the whole formation dissolved from under her, and she could step inside.

The room beyond hadn't been emptied like so many others. It also didn't look military—maybe it belonged to the noble pony who had commanded the fortress? It still had a fine four-poster bed, with a real blanket covered in cloud and pegasus patterns.

But most interesting to her was the open wardrobe, still filled with ancient clothes. Firefly didn't know how magical they had to be to survive this long, and she didn't care. Something in sun-yellow fabric caught her eye, drawing her attention all the way to the end. It was a gown, finer than anything she'd ever owned. Bright yellow and orange, in colors that complemented her own perfectly. The style was unplaceable in modern Equestria, a ballgown of sorts, though it had openings at the back for wings.

She reached out, feeling the soft fabric with the sensitive skin under her hoof. I would look amazing in this. Maybe one day she would, but lifting it off the rack was enough for her to see it was too long for her. Firefly was growing, but she wasn't big enough for this yet. One day.

She wrapped the dress carefully, stowing it at the bottom of her saddlebags. The rest of the space she filled with fine jewelry from the mirror. Most of it was worthless gemstones, but it had still been crafted into graceful, attractive shapes. Firefly posed in front of the mirror, settling an old circlet covered in green gemstones gently onto her head. Like the dress it didn't quite fit, slipping to one side as soon as she put it there.

Still, the gems complemented her eyes really well. Once she was a little bigger, that would look great.

I wonder if you were my ancestor, she thought, tossing the circlet separately from everything else. It would take a little convincing to get Dusty to let her keep two pieces from a single trip, but he would have to let her when he saw how well they matched. It was like they'd been made for her.

No, stupid. You're not from here, remember? Other ponies were yellow, that's it. They were still her own thoughts, but she imagined a different “sound” to it. Older, deeper, more mature. It was the voice of her old memories, reminding her whenever she got too invested in pony things. Stop dressing up like a little girl. This isn't what you are.

Firefly tucked her ears, grateful that no one was in here to see her put on such an embarrassing display. She went back to her work, gathering up anything that looked valuable. The other textiles in here—dresses and books and the like—had rotted away from the moisture and constant sunlight streaming in through openings in the wall. It took a bit of magic to keep something intact for this long, which meant somepony had really cared about it.

She knew it was time to go when an entire section of wall collapsed before her, taking a whole slice of roof with it. Cloud structures sounded like shattering ice when they broke, like ancient glaciers cracking under the sun. That sound of groaning, failing material wasn't something she should ignore. She sinched her satchel closed, then lifted into a low hover, flying back through the hallway instead of walking. 

Flying took far more energy of course, but it also meant she didn't get her hooves stuck in growing openings in the floor. When the stairwell fell out from beneath her, she didn't tumble out into the sky with it either.

A beautiful window of stained ice shattered just as she emerged into the central chamber, raining down shards through the floor. Her eyes twitched rapidly through the room, until she found where her dad was still working. He'd found some intact scrolls to go with an entire suit of armor, which he'd tied to the edge of his saddlebags. 

"Hey, you picked one that wasn't rusting this time!" She zipped over to him, hovering vertically in the air. It wasn't almost effortless, not when her saddlebags were filled with rocks, metal, and one nice dress. "That's great!"

Her dad looked up, then nearly walked off a cliff into the open sky. He took off too, visibly straining under the weight of his cargo. "Never let them say you can't learn anything from a younger pony. Too bad we didn't have more time with this one."

She nodded weakly. "I got some good stuff downstairs! There was an officer's bedroom, or maybe a noble. I found this amazing dress she had, the perfect shade of yellow. You have to let me—"

An earth shattering groan shook the room, and the ceiling began to crumble towards them. A heavy beam dissolved into clouds at the edges as it approached, but the sheet above it was still flat.

Firefly didn't even have time to think, she just rolled, dodging out through the missing wall into the sky. Her father wasn't so fast, and so she watched the building collapse over him. 

She still didn't know how he could do so well under impacts like that. When buildings fell on Firefly, it still felt like being crushed by a landslide of snow. It could take time to dig herself out, maybe less time than the collapsing clouds would take to spiral down into the Ending Gulf. 

Not so for Dust Storm. Sheets of broken cloud shattered around him, but he only dropped a meter or so in the air. He opened his wings again, fluttering over to her with wisps of moisture still clinging to his body. He shook the fog away, like stepping inside out of the rain. "I don't think we have enough time to watch the collapse," he said, patting her consolingly on the shoulder. "We have to get you home, then dressed for school. Come on."

She didn't follow him down, at least not right away. She had to watch part of it, she just wouldn't feel right otherwise.

Just as the Equestrian Central Gyre brought cloud-buildings here from all over the world, they didn't just remain forever. Otherwise there would be an entire cloud country overhead, with ancient buildings smacking together to replace old ones as they eroded. 

That didn't happen, because high in the mountains south of Willowbrook was a single point that Skywatchers like her dad called the Ending Gulf. Maybe it was the reason that old clouds drifted this way at all, or maybe it was just their natural end.

Either way, the old structures were drawn to it. She watched as the old fortress drifted away, dissolving into walls, floors, and other parts. They held together a little longer than the building itself, but not by much. As it drifted down, it trailed into mist, then rain.

Not all of it was moisture—there were objects too. Rusty suits of armor, old weapons, scrolls. Anything enchanted to survive this long rained down over the mountain peak, banging and clattering as it went. Refuse Cenotaph was one of Willowbrook's more sensible forbidden places for that reason. It was never completely safe to walk there. Unfortunately, exploring it on hoof was the only way for most ponies to comb through the treasures deposited from above.

"Come on, Firefly," Dusty urged, a little louder. "You can't keep being late, or they won't let me take you up anymore."

That got her attention. Charlie tucked her wings, and dove past him. It was easy to see her home, even from high above. That silly lopsided apartment building was visible from miles up.

She giggled with delight as the wind whipped past her, prompting her to tuck her legs in even closer, and lower her flight-goggles over her face. If she dove long enough, she could feel a growing roar of sound around her, and feel herself pushing into something unseen—the magical threshold called the “rainbow barrier” by her instructors.

Of course, she couldn't cross it, but it was fun to try. Even if that meant she had to start breaking well before she reached the ground, flaring both wings and even kicking out with her legs a few times, as though that would make a difference. She came in a little too fast, and had to dodge around the building, sliding to a stop on the street just outside.

A few local ponies scattered from in front of her, giving her angry looks as she spread a plume of rocks and dust from the street. She came to a stop a block down the road, grinning. She got a few glares as she turned to trot back home, but Firefly didn't care. They were just jealous they couldn't work in the sky.