//------------------------------// // 01- The Letter // Story: The Prism Engine // by FrostTheWolf //------------------------------// It had only been a few months after the return of magic all across Equestria and since then, the small town of Maretime Bay had changed significantly. What was once a town that lived in fear of the cities that neighbored its borders now opened its doors to anypony from anywhere, regardless of who they were. Earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi could now stand side by side one another just like in the old stories from the age of harmony. All because one mare and her friends chose to persevere and find a way to bring the tribes back together again. Yet, even after her accomplishments and the discoveries she made with her friends, Sunny Starscout felt as if there was something that was… missing. When looking back through the notes left behind by her father on the age of harmony, there were entries that spoke of places that seemed like something out of a pony tale. Some places, such as the mountain where the old city of Canterlot used to reside, was now the foundation that Zephyr Heights was built on. Though, there was one entry that stood out among everything that had been written for one key reason. Because there was nothing like it that existed today. According to the notes, there was once a city called Cloudsdale that floated among the clouds above Equestria. It was considered the home of many pegasi and as ponykind prospered during the age of harmony, it grew into a shining example of that prosperity. However, when the magic of Equestria disappeared, it disappeared as well. The most confusing part though was that there didn’t seem to be an answer as to why. So, only one question remained… “What happened to Cloudsdale?” The young mare had tried to look for answers outside of Argyle’s notes, but her search did not go so well. Most historical documents from the age of harmony were either long gone or would take months to restore back to proper condition, and neither helped with trying to uncover the answers she was looking for. Sunny had even tried to ask Queen Haven herself to see if she knew of anything. Unfortunately, even within the presence of pegasus royalty, the earth pony couldn’t find the answers she was looking for. Things seemed bleak… but she wasn't going to give up just yet- Knock Knock! Her ears twitched at the sound of a hoof knocking on the front door. “I’ll be right there,” Sunny called as she trotted towards the door and opened it. She thought that one of her friends had decided to stop by for a spontaneous visit. Instead, it was just the mail mare, “Excuse me, is this the home of Ms. Sunny Starscout?” “That’s me.” she happily replied. “Oh good, I was worried that I had the wrong address. Couldn’t tell if they had written lighthouse or brighthouse on here,” the mail mare replied with a relieved sigh, before they slowly pulled out a pristine looking envelope and gave it to her, “One last thing. I was asked to make sure this was given to you as soon as possible.” When Sunny looked at the envelope, it did not take long for her to notice who might’ve sent it. Because on the top left corner was the logo of CanterLogic Industries. “Oh, uh, thank you. I’ll make sure to read it right away.” “No worries. Have a good day, Ms. Starscout.” “You too,” As the mail mare trotted away and Sunny trotted back inside, she was quick to bring this over to a nearby table to open it up. Of course, even though she had an idea as to who had written to her, the reason as to why wasn’t entirely clear. That is, until she began to read. Dear Sunny, I hope this letter finds you well. I know it has been some time since we last had the chance to talk with each other and we’ve both been rather busy, but I believe that I need to set aside pleasantries for the moment. There is a matter of urgency that we’ve come across that I think is something that fits your area of expertise. But for everything to make sense, some context may be necessary. As you already know, since the return of magic, CanterLogic has undergone a major shift as a company. Instead of making creations in fear of magic and our neighbors in Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood, we’ve been trying to create inventions that can help us get a better understanding of magic. For the most part, everything has been going well. Yet, recently, we’ve had an unsettling series of events happen that I hope you can help us with. It started last week when one of our researchers, Trial Run, was doing some field tests on a few prototypes at the testing grounds we have far outside of Maretime Bay. Everything was going well, but then several ponies on the team that he was assigned to reported that he had gone missing for a few hours. When they found him again, Trial claimed that he had stumbled into ‘the ruins of a giant city’ that were there, even though there was nothing but wasteland for miles. Right now, there’s a lot of things we don’t know. However, the only thing that we do know is that shortly after Trial was found, his colleagues said that their research equipment he was testing picked up high concentrations of magic far south of the testing facility. Given the situation, I wanted to ask if you and your friends can help us investigate this matter as long as it's kept confidential. If anypony found out about this, I’m worried that we might inadvertently cause a panic and that’s something I want to try and avoid. If you can help us get to the bottom of this mystery, I would greatly appreciate it. Just please try to get back to me as soon as you can. Sincerely, Phyllis Cloverleaf At first glance, Sunny honestly did not think that there was much to this. But upon looking over the letter a second time, a particular detail had caught her attention. The way that Phyllis’ letter described the disappearance of the pony she mentioned, Trial Run, sounded too similar to what her fathers notes described about how Cloudsdale disappeared. Even more so, there were the stallion’s claims of what he found while he was gone. Could this… be the clue she was looking for? While there wasn’t much to it, it was certainly a possible lead. Heck, if it was true, then they might discover something ancient from the age of harmony! Yet, such an undertaking would be too dangerous to do alone. Fortunately, the earth pony knew a few friends who might be interested in such endeavors. While this might not exactly sound like the kind of thing they would normally do together, it wouldn’t hurt to ask. After all, she was going to be seeing them later and based on the letter, it sounded as if Phyllis wanted her to help with this matter as soon as possible. By the time that somepony had knocked on the front door of the Crystal Brighthouse, Sunny was needing a way to get her mind off things. The more that she thought about what was written in the letter and what was in her dad’s notes, the more that it made her think of different possibilities and wonder what exactly was going on. So much so that it distracted her quite a number of times when trying to do chores around the house.  Of course, she originally thought that somepony like Izzy or Hitch would be waiting outside. Instead, it was somepony else as they gently landed in front of the door. Her rose and cyan mane being quite noticeably messy as Zipp was trying to pull a few twigs out of it before she even realized that her friend had opened the door, “Oh hey, Sunny. Sorry for running late. There was a bit of turbulence coming down from Zephyr Heights this morning and I tried to take a shortcut through Bridlewood… Might have bumped into a tree or two on the way though.” “No worries, Zipp,” the earth pony replied as welcomed her inside. As Zipp trotted in and her friend closed the door, Sunny noticed the absence of another pony that would usually accompany her as she turned back around. “Where Pipp? Isn’t she usually with you?” “Yeah, but… todays been a bit weird. She told Mom and I about how she was doing some special stream thing with the Pipsqueaks earlier in the week and I thought it would be just for a day,” the pegasus replied as she got the last of the debris out of her mane and coat, “Buuuut, when I went to check on her, it turns out that what she’s doing is kind of a thing that goes as long as possible… I honestly can’t wrap my head around how it works, so I just decided to leave her be. She’s with mom though, so she can keep an eye on her in my place and step in if need be.” “Well, I’m glad you can make it,” Sunny smiled back, “In fact, there was actually something I wanted to talk about with everypony else once they’ve arrived. Somepony is asking for our help and I wanted to see who was available.” That had the pegasus raise an eyebrow, “Really? Who?” “Do you remember Phyllis?” The question was just met with a puzzled expression from Zipp as the earth pony continued to speak, “You know… light pink earth pony, lavish blond mane?” When she realized that her previous comment didn't really help, Sunny chose to say one last one that she knew for a fact was probably going to jog her friends memory, “Sprout’s mom?” “Oh, her. Yeah, I remember-” It took Zipp a moment to register that in her head, but when she realized who they were talking about, her tone shifted rather quickly, “Woah, wait a minute… she’s wanting our help? Please don’t tell me we have to babysit Sprout or something.” “No, no, that’s not what it’s about,” the earth pony was quick to reply, before she picked up the letter that she had received and gave it to Zipp for her to read, “I got a letter from her this morning and she says that there’s something outside of town that is… well, here. Have a look.” The pegasus was quick to pick up the parchment and read it for herself. At first, she didn’t really seem genuinely interested. However, as Zipp got closer and closer to the end of the letter, there looked to be a slight hint of curiosity. Like she didn’t quite care who it was from, but it somehow piqued her interest. Of course, her summary on the letter left a lot to be desired, “So, something out there can have ponies vanish and when somepony finds them again, they sound delusional? Are you sure that this isn’t the plot to some kind of movie?” “Wha-? No,” Sunny shook her head, “Well, to be fair, we don’t know what it is… But Phyllis’ description of what happened sort of reminded me of something that was in dad’s notes.” At the mention of that, Zipp couldn’t help but feel a little bit curious. While she only knew bits and pieces of Sunny’s story, she did know that her father Argyle was a big influence on her life when she was growing up.  So, hearing him being mentioned now made the pegasus wonder what exactly she found. “Really? What did you find?” Though, before Sunny had the chance to reply to Zipp’s question, that was when they heard another knock at the door. As she went over to the door to open it, both of them found the friendly neighborhood unicorn of Maretime Bay standing outside, “Hi there, everypony!” “Good afternoon, Izzy, how are you?” Sunny greeted her as she kept the door open and let the unicorn into the Brighthouse. “Very good,” she beamed, “Oh, Hitch is sorry that he can’t make it. He’s-” “Let me guess, taking care of Eggy?” Both Sunny and Izzy looked back to Zipp as the unicorn in particular tilted her head, “Yeah, how’d you know-?” “Because last time I saw him, he was spending his break on Hoof-le trying to look up parenting videos and tutorials,” the pegasus pointed out as they started to trot back inside towards the center of the brighthouse, “He told me that being the Sheriff around town is something he can handle just fine, but parenthood? That has a bit of a learning curve.” “That makes sense,” Izzy reasoned, before she looked at both of her friends now, “So, uh… how has everypony been? Anything new lately?” At that point, that was when Sunny had a new question, “Actually, yes. I was telling Zipp about this before you arrived, but Phyllis wanted our help.” When she heard the name, Izzy’s ears perked a little as she gave a puzzled look to her friend, “Really? Is Sprout in trouble again?” “No no, it’s not with him this time,” Sunny shook her head, “She wants our help to look into something that somepony found outside the city. Based on what was described, it sounded a lot like something that my dad had in his notes about a city during the age of harmony. One called Cloudsdale.” The moment that she heard the name, Zipp’s attention was immediately back on the earth pony, “Hold on a minute. Cloudsdale? Did I hear that right?” “What’s a Cloudsdale? Is that some kind of special snack?” “No, nothing like that,” Zipp shook her head as she looked back at the unicorn, “Cloudsdale wasn’t a thing. It was a place.” “Not just any place,” the earth pony replied, “Dad’s notes said that it was a city that flew in the clouds above Equestria and was considered the home of the pegasi. However… when magic disappeared, it somehow disappeared too. Nopony knows where it went or even what happened to it.” Zipp and Izzy looked at one another as Sunny was explaining this to them. However, to her, she was still a bit puzzled by a couple of things. “Okay, but how does this relate to that letter? I’m still a bit lost on that.” “Remember that pony that disappeared? When he was found again, he claimed that he found the ruins of a city. Even though nopony else saw it, their equipment did pick up magic.” At that moment, it felt like a lightbulb went off inside Zipp’s head as she soon realized what her friend was implying, “Wait a second. Are you thinking that the ‘ruins’ that this guy is talking about… is actually Cloudsdale?” For a moment, Sunny nodded her head as she gave a nervous look at her friends, “I will admit that this is more theory than actual proof. But we won’t know for sure unless-” “Let me guess, we won’t know unless we go see it for ourselves?” Zipp’s question was followed by a small nod from the earth pony. Which had the pegasus smirk, “If that’s the case, count me in.” “Ooh, let me come along too! It’s been so long since we last had an adventure together!” Izzy beamed as she bounced up right next to the pegasus. Sunny could only chuckle as she looked back at both of her friends. With both Izzy and Zipp accompanying her, there was nothing they couldn’t handle together. Now, all they needed to do was get ready for the journey ahead.