Sylae sets down the screwdriver and stands, stretching her tired limbs. It's taken two hours, but now she is sure the condenser is fixed. Her hooves clop against the grated floor as she walks to the control panel and flips the lever with her mouth. With a groan, the condenser coils begin to rattle as steam forces its way into them, the floor shaking under her hooves as the machine whirs into action. Sylae breathes a sign of relief and activates the radio strapped to her side. "Glimpse, this is Sylae. How are the readings up there?"
"Looks like coil three is back online. Good work. Glimpse out."
Sylae nods to herself and turns off the transceiver. Over the years, the technology keeping Skyvale City in one piece had been falling apart, and the task had fallen to her to keep the whole thing running. And what did she get? Sylae snorts. Too little sleep and a crappy cloud right next to the power facilities.
Sylae always thought it ironic that she worked for the maintenance director of Skyvale City. While most ponies, especially those who worked doing repairs, had somber-colored feathers, hers are a bright green. Streaks of black in her tail and mane contrast against this green, a color someponies would describe as painful to their senses. Her reddish-violet eyes are always eager to stare down those ponies that always seemed to waste her time with inane requests. She is shorter and thinner than the average pony too, just under five hooves tall at the shoulder. Green dice rest on her flanks, a cutie mark she never understood receiving, or what it meant.
She steps down the metal grate stairway and out the doors of the condenser facility, nodding politely to the guard outside. The sun glows a brilliant red as she spreads her wings and launches into the chill air of the evening. Her green feathers ruffle softly as she catches the thermal up to the upper reaches of the city, lithely dodging two bulky ponies carrying some sort of cargo. Looks like the cloud-lifts are down again, she thinks to herself, sighing. If she was lucky, that'd be first thing in the morning, rather than an all-nighter that leaves her sleepless. Luck usually wasn't on her side, however. Ironic for a pony whose cutie mark was a die.
Around her the city passes by as she flies up the thermal that forms the core transportation route through the city, leading unbroken from the ground several miles below all the way up to the moist farmclouds far above her. In between, the city is home to hundreds of clouds, from modest puffs of a family's residence to the soaring arches of the Temple of Luna. All of Skyvale lies in a rift torn into a massive cloud, enchanted to retain its position and shape for generations to come. Wide airspaces seperate the induvidual clouds, none but the largest remaining static, the rest drifting slightly, yet still staying in the same general area. At the boundary of the sprawl, a mass of clouds extending over a mile in every direction, massive towers filled with Skyvale military protect the city from the dangers of the outside. In one sense, the city is chaotic and bustling, in another it is the ultimate sanctuary, a place completely isolated from the ground, hidden in its rift from all but those who knew where to look.
She gets off the thermal at the top, her wings guiding her to the City building. She lands in a puff of cloud, folding her wings and trotting up the stairs. The City building is a large imposing structure, built entirely out of hardened cloud-marble, a light yet resilient substance long used in Pegasus construction. The wide stairs rise up to a column-filled portico, guarded by several pair of Skyvale military.
Before she gets to the top, a familiar voice stops her, "Sylae! Hold up a minute." She turns to find Glimpse soaring up, landing right next to her on the stairs. If Sylae could describe the other pony in one word, it would be grey. Grey feathers, grey eyes, even his cutie mark was a grey wrench. In Sylae's opinion, his personality wasn't much more colorful. The pony was always leaving her stuck with doing the menial repair work around the city, with him always finding some excuse to get out of actually working instead of just sitting in the office watching guages and meters.
"Hello again, what's up?" she asks politely.
"I just got a message over the Council channel, they'd like to speak to you."
"Okay, I'll head up there after I--"
"Right away, they said, Sylae."
Sylae tries to keep her irritation inside. "If they wanted me right away, why didn't you say that. And why didn't they contact me on the maintenance channel? Everypony knows I monitor that."
"How should I know why they didn't tell you directly? I'm just passing on the message. Oh, and the cloud-lifts aren't working, so can you take a look at that before you head home? I'm hitting the hay. 'night."
"Goodnight," Sylae says, imagining her coworker falling into a turbine.
"Why are you smiling like that?" Glimpse asks.
"Oh, nothing." Sylae nods and resumes walking up the stairs. As always, she feels a chill as she enters the rotunda of the City building, her eyes settling on the seal of Skyvale. A cloud with a blue, yellow, and red lightning bolt shooting out of it, surrounded by olive branches. The chill permeates her entire body, and she shivers softly, her feathered wings rustling. She has always felt a strange connection with that symbol. Perhaps that was why she'd stayed in Skyvale City so long, enduring the long days and thankless job she'd been stuck with. The symbol of Skyvale had kept her here. Ponyfolk said it was the cutie mark of the Councilpony who'd founded the city, so many years past during the Fall. She shakes her head and trots down the hall. Nopony wanted to deal with the Council, especially when they were late.
"You're late," Councilpony Crimsonhoof states matter-of-factly.
"My apologies, sir," Sylae says, sitting at the foot of the table the guard outside had told her to sit at. "My summons was misdelivered, somepony must've forgotten I'm on the maintenance channel." She kept her smile to herself as one of the Councilponies smirked across the table at another. At least one of the fools has a measure of sense.
"Citizen Sylae, do you know why you've been summoned?" Crimsonhoof asks.
"I can't say I've been told. I would assume some Councilpony's air chiller has failed again and I'm the only person able to fix it," she says, a note of sarcasm entering her tone. "Has the most honorable Council tried checking the intake filter?"
Crimsonhoof sighs, "Sylae, that was one time, and Councilpony Blueblood still feels deeply sorry about waking you at three in the morning. Can we let it go?"
"You were telling me why I'm here, Councilpony?"
"I...yes. We've received a message from our allies down in New Canterlot..." the Chief Councilpony pauses, expecting some form of response. When Sylae gives none, he continues. "They've discovered some sort of artifact, possibly dating back to the Fall. They asked us to send a mechanic down there to help them on an expedition. We thought you'd be a valuable asset down there."
"I see. So you volunteered me for this expedition?"
"We...ah, yes, you could say that. We assumed you would say yes, given your...ah..."
"Given you'd rather sit around and bitch at everyone for having to do your civic duty, and we'd rather not have to listen to constant complaints about how you're not a team player!" one of the other Councilponies yells.
"What Councilpony Br--"
"Excuse me?" Sylae says, standing up angrily, "Complaining about how I'm not a team player? That's what you're going with? There's a damn good reason I'm not a team player, and--"
"Sylae!" Crimsonhoof yells over her, "You are out of line!"
"No, sir! I work my ass off keeping this city afloat. In the last week I've had one night of sleep, and you're complaining that I'm not a team player? THAT is what you're telling me? Maybe it's because my team is a moron who couldn't tell a screwdriver from a lift module!" She takes a deep breath, her muscles shaking, and sits back down.
Crimsonhoof calms himself, shaking his head, "I will not stand for any more outbursts in this chamber, citizen. The Council expects you to perform your duties on this expedition in the best of manners. An artifact like this is no light matter. They asked for the best of the best, and even with your...temper, you are the best we've got. The ponies down in New Canterlot expect you by dawn."
"By dawn? I have to fly all night for this?"
"Er...well, we only received this message this morning, and our other duties were more pressing."
"Oh, okay. That's alright, I didn't want to sleep anyway," Sylae says, trying to keep calm.
"Thank you, Sylae. You may go. Just remember, the fate of Skyvale may rest in your hooves."
Sylae shakes her head and leaves, slamming the door to the Council chamber behind her.
Sylae lays a hoof against the seal set into the wall of the rotunda. "Whoever you were, give me strength on this journey." Her head comes forward and rests against the smooth marble of the wall. Thoughts of the wars, the wilderness, the dark unknowns beyond Skyvale. Everypony knew the story of the Expedition to Equestria, how the last three Carriers of Harmony had set off to find their home, set off and never returned. "And please let me come back alive from all this," she whispers, a tear slowly running down her cheek. The anger at being volunteered had been replaced by fear, terror at what lay beyond the clouds of her home. The only thing she'd heard about other lands was what the pensioned soldiers whispered about, pensioners often missing hooves, wings, even eyes. Outside Skyvale was war, pain, calamity, and death. The only thing she hated worse than being trapped in this city was why she had never left. That was why she'd stayed, that and the strangeness of the seal that noponyelse saw. More tears run down her cheeks, running down the grooves set into the multicolored lightning bolt.
"Sylae? Are you okay?" At the voice, she jumps, startled.
She hurriedly wipes the tears off with a hoof and turns, "Hi, Glimpse. Listen, you're going to have to fix those cloud-lifts, I can't."
"Oh...Why not?" he says, stepping forward, concerned.
"I...The Council..." she looks away hurriedly, blinking away tears that suddenly want to appear. "They're sending me to New Canterlot," she says, turning to him and trying to fake confidence, ignoring the pounding of her heart.
"Well I'm sure you'll do good there, Sylae. Even if they're earth ponies, you'll be fine."
"You...you think?" she asks, her voice quavering.
"Of course I do." Glimpse lifts a hoof and pats her on the shoulder. "Any pony who can upset the Council as much as you do is sure to be able to fend for herself," he says, laughing.
Sylae looks down at the floor, suddenly filled with shame. Here he was, trying to make her feel better, after she constantly treated him like shit? "Listen, Glimpse...I know I'm not always the nicest...if I don't...If I don't come back, you should know I'm sorry for being like that." She paws at the floor tiles lightly, afraid to look up. Glimpse says nothing.
Finally, after several seconds she glances up. Glimpse is staring at her, wide-eyed. "Sylae, you just apologized to me. Are you sure you're okay?"