As with most nights, Cloud Charmer had not arrived at her home until it was well into dusk. Not that she was hurrying very much; in fact she had arrived later tonight than on many others, simply because she was not rushing home. She had much to think about, as well as much to ask her parents about. She worried that perhaps they would be unhappy that she had pledged her assistance to the circus… perhaps they would even punish her!
No, that made no sense. Cloud Charmer’s parents had always told her that she should help other ponies, why would that change now? Maybe…
Ahhhh! She was tired, and when Cloud Charmer gets tired, she always starts to overthink her problems. She looked to the sky, trying to look away from her worries, at least for a moment.
The sky was darkening, though the stars hadn’t exactly taken over yet. Up above a white half-moon hung in the dimming blue, looking lonely without its shining companions around to light the night with it. For some reason, Cloud Charmer felt like the moon was kind of… sad tonight. Though she couldn’t really tell what made her feel that way, it just looked... well...different than it did on other nights… though that didn't make much sense either.
Cloud Charmer became slightly distracted for a moment. She could feel the pulse coming from her own house, sitting on top of the steep hill that she still had to climb to get home.
She would have to return in just a few minutes, but that didn’t mean she could not enjoy the view beforehoof.
Her attention turned to the rest of the sky, towards the horizon, which the sun had passed already, leaving nothing but a pink aura in its wake, and even that was fading. Within the bright pink horizon, Cloud Charmer could make out the colossal dark forms of clouds hanging far away… above somepony else’s home, perhaps. To her, they looked like blue mountains, blending with the darkening land to seem as if the sky and the ground were not two things, but one, making the clouds the peaks of the earthly world that she lived in.
For a moment, Cloud Charmer wondered if perhaps the clouds she was seeing were the clouds that had been around this morning, on their way to… wherever it was that clouds went when they stopped hanging around Cliffside.
She didn’t know where it was that clouds called home, but she knew where THIS Cloud called home, and she also knew that she should probably be getting back before her parents thought she was skipping her curfew.
Cloud Charmer marched up her hill, occasionally turning just to watch the last bit of sunlight fade from the evening sky as she went…
And because the trek home had been tiring, she needed to take a brake once or twice along her arduous journey.
When she did finally arrive at the top of her hill, Cloud Charmer was faced with the same unfamiliar familiarity that she felt every time she came back to this place.
This was her new home; an immense tree that towered high above the others in the same woods. Despite its height, it still left her unable to see Cliffside, even from its topmost point. It had something to do with how the hills folded down the mountainside, as far as Cloud Charmer could remember.
Her house was strange, odd, and new. It was the source of an inexplicable beat that vibrated through the air around her even now. It was a colour of wood that she had never seen on a tree before. There was no doubt about it; Cloud Charmer’s new house was a very alien and even scary place.
But it was also Cloud Charmer’s home, and the more time she spent there, the more that sentiment grew within her.
The bright candles that were used to light the interior of the tree house were burning bright; shining through the open windows on the bottom floor of the tree. Cloud Charmer felt justified in assuming that her parents were now home from their trip into town, just as she had hoped they would be.
Cloud Charmer galloped to her front door, becoming more excited at the prospect of telling her parents about her day than actually talking about what she had done. She often let herself get swept up in her own excitement, though nopony said that was ever a bad thing.
She burst through the tree house door, shouting for her parents while not realizing that she was actually greatly surprising them with her rather terrifying entrance. When she spotted her parents, they were sitting at the table, looking at her with wide eyes. There wasn’t any food on the table, so Cloud also assumed that they had just been talking before she got there.
When Cloud realized how she had startled her parents, she blushed in embarrassment, tapping the floor lightly with her fore-hoof. “Sorry, I’m home.” She said quietly.
Her father greeted her first, “Cloud, you’re home earlier than we expected.” He said in his deep voice.
“Really?” Cloud Charmer asked.
“Yes, child. Your father and I had expected you to be out for another hour at least. Is something wrong?” Oak Leaf asked her daughter.
“No! I just wanted to come home to talk to you.”
“Then, by all means, talk! And close the door behind you!” Stormflight encouraged heartily. “How was the circus, what did you see?”
Cloud Charmer came to sit in front of the table with her parents. She was about to start recounting her tale of the day’s adventures when her mother interrupted her.
“Have you had anything to eat, child?” Oak Leaf asked.
“I bet she was enjoying some fine candy, perhaps some of that new candy floss stuff!” Her father asserted, sounding as excited as his daughter usually did.
“Actually, no, I didn’t have anything to eat. The circus had to close early because they weren’t fully set up.” Cloud explained.
“Oh, it is no good thing to go an entire day without any food. I’ll make something for you right now!” Oak Leaf said as she trotted into the small adjoining room that housed the kitchen for the house. Cloud Charmer could hear some wooden bowls knock against each other as her mother prepared a meal for her.
“That doesn’t quite seem right. It’s not exactly like that circus, the way I remember it at least, to slack on setup…” Cloud’s father thought out loud, giving her the opportunity to elaborate.
“They weren’t ready because somepony sabotaged some of their travelling carts last night. There was some damage, and I think that one of their wagons was pushed down a hill. Master Mirage said he still had pony’s cleaning it up, and that they would need the rest of the night to prepare the circus.” Cloud Charmer explained.
Stormflight looked legitimately angry from hearing her story. “That sort of uncontrolled vandalism is atrocious! What sort of hooligans would act so cruelly against these ponies?!” he growled.
“What is it, husband?” Cloud’s mother called from the kitchen.
“Cloud’s saying that somepony vandalized several of the circus’ wagons during the night. Apparently they’ve had to push back the entire opening of the place because of it.” Stormflight yelled to her.
“That is awful! I hope nopony was hurt.” Oak Leaf exclaimed from the other room.
Cloud’s father looked to her for a moment, his eyes seeming to ask that very question. Cloud shook her head to assure him that there were no injuries. “No, honey, everypony was fine.” He in turn assured his wife.
“That is a good thing to hear, I cannot imagine how angry the travelling ponies must be for their wagons.”
“Actually, Master Mirage seemed more sad than angry.” Cloud told her parents.
“Ah, so you saw Mirage! What did you think of him?” Oak Leaf called to her daughter.
“He was nice. I told him that you were my mom and he freaked out. But he was even friendlier after that.” She said.
“So he remembered us, I hope both of us.” Cloud’s father seemed to ask through his statement.
Cloud laughed, “Yeah, he remembered you too dad.”
“Good, it would certainly seem that the circus is just like I remember it.”
“I wonder if Mirage is still how I remember him.” Oak leaf said, carrying a bowl of tasty looking leaves out of the kitchen and to her daughter’s place at the table. Cloud immediately dug into the food, suddenly hungrier than she remembered being before. In between her mouthfuls she continued to talk to her parents.
“Yeah… I don’t know if he’s like what you remember… he’s tall… and he has a silly black outfit…” Cloud said.
“That sounds like him.” Stormflight confirmed.
“But how did he speak? What did he say?” Oak Leaf encouraged.
“He talked about lots of things… he has a weird voice… I don’t know. He said he was immortal.”
“Ha! Now that definitely sounds like him.” Cloud’s father once again confirmed.
“Yes, it does. That old stallion sure loved to tell us stories about his age.” Cloud’s mother said, a smile growing on her face. She absentmindedly brushed a thick lock of her absurdly long mane away from her eye while she listened to her daughter.
“Really? What kind of stories did he tell you?” Cloud asked curiously.
“All sorts of stories, child. I don’t think he’s ever told the same story twice!” Her mother laughed. Just a moment later she seemed to become more serious again, “I haven’t really spent time with him since I was your age, Cloud. If he’s as young now as he was then… I suppose he must have been telling the truth.” Oak Leaf reflected.
“He looked really young. But Blink said that it was a trick… or something like that.” Cloud recalled.
She gave a confused look when her parents smiled brightly at each other. “Blink, so he’s still around too.” Her father said warmly.
Cloud’s mother just smiled, though for some reason it made Cloud Charmer incredibly sad. It was then that she remembered that Blink had also said that her mother would never go back to the circus, and just as before, the thought of her mother’s sadness made her extremely sad as well.
“Hey, do you wanna hear about the rest of my day?” Cloud Charmer said quickly.
Her parents assured her that they did, and Cloud Charmer proceeded to tell the story of her first day visiting the circus with Cloudy. She told them about Mirage and his story, about meeting up with Thunderstruck, and Wild Call and Merlin, even talking about Braun and Blink. Of course, she omitted certain parts, like Blink’s story about her mother, or the fact that Cloudy and she had been listening in on Mirage at first, and, obviously, she left out anything related to the beats that she and her friend heard. Cloud even left out the creepy mare that had been watching them while they were at the circus. Some things a kid just doesn’t tell their parents, especially when it’s about an adventure.
When Cloud Charmer finally got to the part about Prickly Pines, she stopped and stared at her parents, partially worried, and partially excited.
“What is it?” Her parents asked in unison.
“So, uh- we worked out that the reason nopony had come to the circus was that this pony named Prickly Pines, who apparently holds a lot of sway in Cliffside. Uh, we figured out that he’s hates outsiders, and that he’s making the rest of the town hate them as well… We think that it’s him who’s causing all these problems around here…” Cloud Charmer drifted off, seeing that her parents were upset at hearing about this pony.
“That is troubling news, Cloud Charmer.” Her father said, more formally than usual.
“It is always troubling to hear about ponies harming one another.” Oak Leaf said.
“That’s what I was thinking… so, I, uh…” Her parents looked at her curiously. “I… I offered to help the circus befriend the town, and I already invited as many ponies as I could to come with me tomorrow.” She blurted out quickly, closing her eyes as she did so.
She was met with silence. When she opened one of her eyes to see what was going on though, she saw two very different responses.
In the simplest of ways, the difference was this: her father was grinning, and her mother was frowning. She couldn’t really define why she was receiving such a different response than she had expected, and it was really frustrating her. The awkward silence eventually dragged on long enough that she thought she should end it herself.
“Soooo, I offered to help the circus out, and I was wondering if I should go any further, and I wanted to ask you guys.” Cloud explained.
“And rightly so, what’s your plan Cloud? How’re you going to teach that fool Prickly Pines that he can’t stop ponies being kind!?” Her father asked excitedly, almost giggling while he spoke.
Before Cloud could say anything else her mother turned to her father to reprimand him, “Stormflight! Would you encourage our child to danger!?”
“What are you talking about, dear?”
“This is dangerous; she could make enemies of this Prickly!”
Cloud Charmer tried to interrupt her parents, but their argument seemed to extend over her whenever she attempted to speak. It was very annoying that she was being left out of an argument about her. Eventually she gave up and rested her head on the table, waiting for the yelling to die down.
The argument did continue for some time, but it was at the very peak of the conflict that Stormflight resolved to pull out his trump card.
“She’s too young for things like this!” Oak Leaf yelled.
“She is not, in fact, I remember that you were even younger when you were doing things like this.” Stormflight recalled.
Cloud Charmer’s ears pricked up at that, “Really mom?”
Her mother looked speechless. In just one moment the mood of the room shifted from tense to light-hearted, as quick as a heartbeat. Oak Leaf looked to her inquisitive daughter, and then to her smiling husband. She seemed to growl, low and grumpy, before turning back to her daughter.
“Well… yes, child. I did do things like that when I was your age.” She admitted.
Cloud Charmer smiled, nudging closer, waiting for her mother to tell the rest of her story.
Stormflight spoke to his daughter, “Your mother was quite the rebel in her day. She was always getting into trouble.”
“Awesome, what did you do?” Cloud asked excitedly, her big grey eyes widening with curiosity. Oak Leaf sighed; it was hard to resist her daughter when she gave her that look.
“You know I used to travel with an old caravan of wanderers, roaming across the land without real destination. I had been doing that since I was a child, and had made many friends along the way.”
“Some of those friends were travelers in my group. I remember this one foal, a friend, who liked to torture the woodland creatures that he found while we crossed the forests. He’d chase them and scare them, like little boys often do. I, however, detested his tendency to do those things, and I made myself vocal to him.”
“Did he stop?” Cloud asked.
“No, he tried to hide what he was doing, but I’d still see him terrifying the dogs or cats that traveled with us. Every time I saw him doing that, it made me angrier and angrier. My protests to his father, one of the wagon drivers, went unheeded. ‘Boys will be boys’ he said, and shooed me away…” Oak Leaf tried to imitate a stallion’s voice when she quoted the driver, and she had to pause for a moment to wait for her husband and daughter to finish laughing at her impression. Even she began to giggle.
“So, what’d you do, dear?” Her husband asked playfully.
“One day, I saw him driving one of the caged animals mad by poking it with a twig. We often locked the more aggressive creatures up when we stopped for the night. I got so angry at the boy; I remember grabbing a branch off of the ground in my teeth…”
“And?” Father and daughter said in unison.
“And I whacked him over the head as hard as I could! He dropped like a rock!” She yelled, laughing along with her family as she told what she did.
“He ran back to his father, yelling and crying louder than I had ever heard even babies cry. Oh, the wagon driver was furious with me!”
“So, what happened after that?” Cloud asked.
“Well, I apologized for hitting him, and we went back to playing together again. We even started to become better friends after that.”
“Woah…” Cloud said. Her mom was awesome!
Stormflight put his hoof around his wife, and looked to his daughter. “Cloud, do you think the circus is worth fighting for?”
“I- I think so. To be honest, when Thunderstruck was telling me about Prickly Pines, I couldn’t stop thinking about how you guys always said that ponies hating each other is wrong, and- what?” She asked, confused. Bother her parents were giving her gigantic smiles as she spoke.
“Never mind, Cloud. Now listen; your mother and I want you to know that we think you helping the circus is a wonderful idea…” Oak Leaf frowned at him for a moment, but sighed and turned her gaze back to her daughter. “… And we want you to know that no matter how far you want to go to help these ponies, I and your mother will always be here to support you and defend you. Do you understand?”
Cloud Charmer nodded, for the first time realizing just how amazing her parents were. Where they should be angry they were instead supportive. It was like, they understood her. Cloud Charmer smiled, both on the inside and the outside, and wished that she had known earlier just how cool her parents were.
“Let me take your bowl, child.” Oak Leaf said, gathering cloud’s food bowl and carrying it to the kitchen. Cloud was mostly just relieved that her parents were okay with her helping the circus, and her mind immediately moved to her next steps.
“Now I just need to find a way to bring everypony in both the town and the circus together, without them having any common ground whatsoever…” She absentmindedly said aloud.
“Now, I wouldn’t say that. You’ll find that plenty of ponies have more similarities than differences. You just have to bring those similarities out.” Her father said.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Cloud asked incredulously. She sighed when her father shrugged.
“Plenty of ponies like the same things, like music, or food, or stories. When I was a traveler, my caravan would play all kinds of songs when night came. I could dance with even those who hated me then, because it wasn’t each other that we loved, but the music.” Oak Leaf told her daughter as she came back from the kitchen.
“Sure, but that still doesn’t remove the problem with Prickly. I have no idea how to get past him.” Cloud explained.
Stormflight smiled, “Say, honey, whatever happened to the boy who tortured the animals. I mean, after you whacked him?” he asked his wife.
“I told you, husband, we became fri- oh…” Oak Leaf clued in. She looked straight into her child’s eyes, no easy feat, considering Oak Leaf’s height. “He never tortured another animal again, even when I wasn’t around anymore.”
“Oh…” She stood up from her spot at the table, walked to her mother, and hugged her forelegs, thanking her for the food. Then Cloud walked over to the round stairs that wound around the room, and turned back to her parents.
“I’m gonna go to bed, goodnight.”
“Wait! Why so early Cloud?” her father asked.
“I think… that I need to think.” She answered.
He paused for a moment, considering. “As you wish, but remember there’s still an early wakeup call tomorrow. You’re exempt from chores but not from schedule.” He told her.
Cloud saluted her father, “Yes sir!” She shouted, immediately galloping up the stairs afterwards. Stormflight sighed after she left, turning to his wife, who was standing in the exact center of the room.
“How fast they grow. It seemed like only yesterday- what?”
“Do not undermine me, husband!” Oak Leaf hissed. She didn’t sound furious, but neither did she sound pleased.
“Come on, Oak Leaf. I just thought she needed to learn that lesson, you know I didn’t mean to override you.” He assured her.
“And what if you teach our daughter to make enemies of other ponies?”
Stormflight trotted over to his wife and leaned against her. “That’s the opposite of the truth. I’m teaching her to make friends, not enemies. I know how you feel, but I also know that she has to learn to do this, or she’ll be gone before you know it, and we won’t have taught her everything we could have.” He said soothingly.
“As you say, husband.” Oak Leaf said neutrally.
“Honey?” He said.
“Yes?” she responded.
“Are you mad at me?”
Oak Leaf leaned against her husband, despite the fact that she towered over him it seemed as though he was the only thing holding her up. “I want our daughter to be safe.” She said to him.
“Then we have to teach her how, and you know as well as I that conviction is just a step away from strength.”
Oak Leaf said nothing, but to Stormflight it felt like she had given in. “Let’s go to bed too.” He said. It was a simple statement, but for both of them it spoke volumes.
The husband and wife blew out the wall lanterns, and the house went to sleep.
Though one little mind may have stayed awake just a short time more, working on what seemed at the time to be a great puzzle.
She just needed the rest of the pieces.