Two pegasi were flying in the endless sky. They were far away from home.
"You know, Sky? I like to spend time with you, but maybe we should do something other than flying," said the pink pegasus with a white mane.
"What do you mean, Cloud? Flying is fun," replied the white pegasus with blue mane.
"Yeah, but how about doing something inside the city? There is nothing here."
Calm Sky looked around. She could understand why her friend said this. She saw a blue sky around them, the sun above them, the moon below them and a layer of angular clouds just below them. The world could seem monotonous for an untrained eye, but she knew better. She knew the cloud pattern, and knew how it repeated. Even though they lost sight of their hometown long ago, she knew exactly where they were. She didn't get a compass as a cutie mark for nothing.
Calm Sky landed on a cloud. "Well, there aren't many interesting things here, but I am sure we will find something."
Sweet Cloud landed next to her. "No pegasi had even found anything outside. Just endless clouds."
"Do you think our city just appeared out of nowhere one day? Pegasi had to come from somewhere. What if there are more cloud cities in the world?"
"I don't know."
"There is something out there, trust me," Calm Sky said. She flew upwards and looked around. "See that H-shaped cloud over there?"
Sweet Cloud flew up. "I see."
"Race to it?"
"Sure," Cloud smiled.
The two pegasi raced to a few other clouds. Eventually, the sun started to set.
"It's late. Maybe we should go back?" Cloud said.
"Nah, we still haven't found anything. Besides, you agreed to have a sleepover outside, remember?"
"I did. If I get grounded because of you again, don't expect my help in homework."
"Don't worry, your parents think we are at my home," Sky said. "Will you help me set up a camp?"
"I don't want to fall down so I have to."
"Come on, I'm not that bad at cloud building," Sky complained. Cloud laughed.
The two friends took some cloud material from the clouds below and constructed a provisory house. It ended up looking nice anyway. In Calm Sky's opinion, a pyramid made out of pink cloud blocks didn't represent Sweet Cloud's talent in building very well.
Sun was setting. The sky started changing color to orange, the sun started to dim, and the moon started to shine more brightly. Eventually, the sun became just a white square below the horizon, the sky became dark and stars became visible. Calm Sky liked to watch stars. She always wondered if the stars were just some lights on a sphere surrounding the world, or if they were actually places you could go to.
While she was watching the stars, something unexpected happened. Purple star appeared in the sky and rapidly fell downwards. Calm Sky never saw anything like this before.
"Cloud, have you seen that?"
"I didn't know stars could fall."
"See, I knew we would find something."
The two friends watched the stars for some more time. Eventually, they went back to their provisional house, and lay back on cloud beds.
"Goodnight, Cloud."
"Goodnight, Sky."
Tonight, Calm Sky was dreaming about flying to the stars.
Next day, the two pegasi woke up by dawn. They ate breakfast – a few apples they packed into saddlebags.
"You still want to fly?" asked Sweet Cloud
"Of course. I think we should fly in the direction of the purple star. Maybe we will find something?" answered Calm Sky.
"I doubt it."
"Okay, how about this? We will fly until midday, if we don't find something we are going back to the town."
"Fine."
The two pegasi left their shelter and flew away. They flew for a few hours. They were talking about their friends, about school, about how much trouble they will be in if their families find out they left the town.
Midday approached. Calm Sky was about to admit defeat and turn towards the town.
Then, she saw something at the edge of her view. She stopped.
"Cloud, did you see that?"
"See what?"
"There is something down there."
Two friends flew in that direction. Calm Sky hoped she wasn't mistaken, and they indeed found something. That would be probably the biggest discovery in the history of Cloud Town.
Then they saw it. Below the clouds, there was a structure. It was made from an unknown, gray material.
"We found something!" Calm Sky shouted. She always wanted to discover a proof that they are not alone in this world, and she found it.
There were few platforms made out of gray material. They were connected by bridges. Calm Sky noticed that trees were growing on one of the platforms. There was also one building visibly larger than others.
"This was not built by a pegasus," said Sweet Cloud.
"It means we found aliens!"
"I don't see anything moving down there."
"Let's land and see what it is."
Pegasi flew down. They looked at the strange material the platform was made out of. It looked safe to land. Calm Sky touched it. It was hard and cold, definitely not a type of cloud. She landed. It felt weird on her hooves. She looked up at her friend and gestured to her that it was safe to land. Sweet Cloud landed next to her.
"Any idea what this is?" Sweet Cloud stomped her hooves on the ground.
"No idea. We need to take some of this material to Cloud Town. Maybe my dad will know something about it."
The pegasi looked around. There was no one here. Calm Sky walked towards the platform with trees. They were similar to cloud trees that were grown back in the town.
"I wonder if there are apples on these trees?" Calm Sky flew upwards and started punching down leaves. After destroying five blocks, she got an apple.
Sweet Cloud took this apple, and compared it to one from her saddlebag. "It looks normal."
Calm Sky looked at the ground. She noticed an entrance to the inside of the platform.
"Let's have a look inside." she said, and she opened the entrance.