Merry May Is An Amazing Pony OR Three New Pegasi Vacation In Cloudsdale
The search for Merry May shouldn’t have taken too long, considering, but Caramel insisted on flying so he wouldn’t look like a fool if Wind Whistler flew by. Caramel couldn’t fly in a straight line. In fact, he kept swerving so much we thought he’d actually hit his head the last time he fell. And suddenly, there she was.
“Hey, what are you three doing on the ground? The Best Young Flyers Competition is about to start!” It was Merry May, hovering over us.
Lucky was the first to recover from our good luck. No wonder.
“Merry May! Just the pony we wanted to see!” He called to her. Confused, Merry May flew closer to the ground to listen to what we had to say.
“We want to go to the Best Young Flyers Competition, but we can’t fly.” I said. Both Lucky and Caramel gave me dirty looks. Merry May just looked thoughtfully concerned. And that’s what everypony loves about her.
“It’s a long story.” Lucky explained. “We’ll explain when there’s more time. The Competition could start at any minute and there’s somepony we really need to see there.”
Merry May, respecting our wishes, didn’t comment any more on our strange inability to fly.
“I hope the somepony you need to see isn’t a competitor. There’s not going to be a way to see them because they’ll be backstage warming up.”
“Oh no, she’s not a pegasus.” Caramel made the mistake of adding. Lucky and I facehoofed simultaneously.
Merry May looked suspicious. “Not a pegasus? Then how is she walking around Cloudsdale? Only pegasus ponies can walk on clouds.”
For the umpteenth time that day we were at a loss. Then I supplied us with an answer.
“She’s Twilight Sparkle. Of course she’s found a way to walk on clouds. There’s no other way for her to be up watching the Competition otherwise.”
“Oh, well why didn’t you say so? I saw Twilight and her friends going up to the clouds in a balloon earlier.” Merry May said.
“Do you think you could teach us how to fly enough that we could make it to Cloudsdale?” Lucky asked. Merry May looked thoughtful again. “I don’t know. Flying is already so difficult, and Cloudsdale is so far away, and we don’t have much time before the Competition…”
“Please?” I asked, wearing my cutest face. I got the intended result. Merry May melted.
“Oh…why not!” Merry May started off by showing us the best ways to kick off the ground. Once we were airborne, she taught us how to hover.
“Normally, I’d say we need to go over that again, but that can wait until we have more time. Perhaps tomorrow?” We all exchanged looks. With luck, we wouldn’t need her tomorrow.
“Let’s just focus on today.” Lucky finally said. Caramel and I nodded urgently. Merry May was very patient with us. She never got frustrated or anything. Finally, we got to the part we’d been waiting for.
“Okay, we’re all going to go up to Cloudsdale together. There’s just no other way to do it.” Merry May looked somewhat doubtful, but she tried to hide it. We three followed her, sometimes stumbling as best we could in air and needing help to steady ourselves, but for the most part we were flying.
“Almost there! The important thing after this is not looking down!” She called to us encouragingly.
Immediately Caramel turned to me. “Don’t you dare, Noteworthy!”
“What? I haven’t done a thing!” I said, glancing down.
“See! You just did! Now you’re gonna upset what we’ve been working on for the past twenty minutes.”
“Will not!” I said more confidently than I felt. That look down really spooked me. I wanted to grab onto somepony, but I knew that was useless. Now I knew for sure I wanted to be an earth pony again.
“Hey guys, I just thought of something. Once Twilight changes us back into earth ponies, how are we going to leave Cloudsdale?” Lucky said.
We all considered that for a moment. Then Caramel answered our question as if it were obvious.
“Well, we just ask her to change us back when we’re back on the ground. After all, she probably has to go home and look at a book to get the spell anyway.”
“Here we are!” Merry May was hovering next to the base of Cloudsdale looking relieved. Lucky was the first to land on the cloud, poking it gingerly as he touched down. He landed very well, considering the change in air quality up here. Caramel and I followed, but when we landed, we collapsed on the fluffy cloud ground. I was even tempted to go to sleep just then.
Merry May landed next to us, very gracefully might I add, and smiled at all of us.
“You did it!” She cheered, rearing up and doing the whole Hi-yo Silver thing. Then she walked over to me and Caramel and helped us up. She’s so nice.
“Thank you, Merry May.” Lucky said, turning back to us.
“Thank you so much.” Caramel echoed.
“Merry May, you’re an amazing pony!” I said, hugging the real pegasus. She seemed surprised, considering I don’t really know her that well. But under the circumstances, she just hugged me back.
“You three are very welcome. Anytime you need some help, just call on me. I’d throw you a seashell, but that’s not really my thing.” Merry May glanced at the central clock in Cloudsdale. “Oh!” She said, just realizing something. “We’re actually a whole hour early for the competition. In that case, we’d better get to work!”
“Work?” We all said together. Merry May nodded.
“There’s a place in Equestria that needs snow. Noteworthy, you’re good with detail, aren’t you? You go on to the snowflake factory.” Merry May pointed to me and then presumably in the direction of the snowflake factory. I was so confused I went in that direction.
“Medley! Rainbowshine! Help Noteworthy out!” Merry May called to two mares who were flying in the direction of the snowflake factory. Before I could do anything, they swooped down and carried me with them. I couldn’t help wondering where Merry May had sent Caramel and Lucky, and I looked for them as we flew. I didn’t see them and I was moving faster than I wanted to, getting colder by the second. I started shivering.
“Hey, can we slow down? I’m getting cold.” I looked at the two mares supporting me.
“Sorry, Noteworthy. Merry’s orders are pretty final.” Medley, the turquoise pony, looked sorry.
“Yeah. She’s always looking out for a pony’s best interest.” The purple pony, Rainbowshine, seemed sorry too.
“Okay, I know. But listen, I’ve got to go meet some ponies. They’re already here, actually. If you could just let me down…” At that moment, they finally landed and let go of me. Rainbowshine gave me a factory uniform and told me to put it on. It was then that I realized both mares were wearing uniforms too. Again yielding to what I did not understand, I followed their orders.
Five minutes later I found myself making snowflakes by hoof, flake by flake, without any recollection of how I’d ended up there. The first few came out more than a little crooked and I felt ashamed.
“What the hay am I doing here?” I muttered. Medley, who was sitting near me, gave me an encouraging smile. I smiled back, but only because I was still acting on instinct. Suddenly, I heard some familiar voices.
“This is where they make the snowflakes.” Somepony was saying. I looked over and saw Rainbow Dash speaking to her five friends, most importantly Twilight Sparkle. I wanted to run over to her right then and ask her to change us back, but a supervisor was hovering over me at that moment so I had to focus on my work. I fumbled through another three snowflakes shamefully.
“Each one is hoof-made. You can see it’s a delicate operation.”
Then I felt a soft breeze, like the wings of a giant butterfly…
Supervisor or not, I whirled around to see Rarity fluttering up next to some of the snowflakes hanging from the ceiling.
“Ooh! The snowflakes look even better from up here.” Rarity said, the air from her wings disturbing the hanging snowflakes. Suddenly, all the snowflakes we were working so hard on started flying all over the place. Everypony was chasing after them in a frenzy. In all the commotion, I tried to get close to Twilight and maybe tell her about our problem. But at that moment, Merry May appeared out of nowhere and said
“Noteworthy! We need your help in the Rainbow Department!” Without warning, Merry May grabbed me and flew me over to wherever it was she needed me at the time. Because that’s just the kind of pony I am.
Still no sign of Caramel or Lucky.
She flew me to a place where beautiful waterfalls of rainbow liquid cascaded over fluffy clouds. It was wonderful and I wanted to play in it. But before I could fulfill my fantasies, Merry May shoved a pointed thing into my hooves.
“Here, we need extra hooves to stir these rainbows! There’s a small Equestrian city that needs our help as soon as it stops raining!” Merry May called upward to another pony. “Raindrops! How is that storm in Trottingham?” A yellow pegasus mare with a greenish blue mane replied
“It’s been over for a while. I left Lightning Bolt there to make sure that big cloud emptied properly. I just hope what happens last time doesn’t happen this time.” At this, both mares shuddered, and I gave them confused looks. Raindrops finally noticed me.
“Oh, hello. Are you new here?” She looked familiar to me but as she was always flying, she of course didn’t know me.
“My name’s Noteworthy. Nice to meet you.” I said, awkwardly juggling the stick in my arms so I could shake Raindrops’ hoof. That was when I noticed Caramel some ways behind Raindrops, stirring a vat of something big.
“Caramel! Hey Caramel!” I called, trying to get his attention. Caramel looked up from his work and waved at me.
“Alright! Time to get to work!” Merry May, aggressive when there was a job to be done, blew a gust of wind at me with her wing power to push me over to my own vat.
“Hi Noteworthy.” I looked over to see a yellow mare with a pink mane giving me a confused look.
“Hi Parasol!” I sighed in relief to see a familiar pegasus face.
“How are you flying?” She asked, somewhat stunned that she should find me here of all places.
“It’s a long story, but I’ll tell you if you have the time” At that moment a loud voice called out
“Get to work!” which startled me so much I did a backflip in the air and just barely caught my balance again by using the stirring stick I had. Parasol giggled endearingly as she started stirring her vat of rainbows.
“And here’s where they make the rainbows!” Rainbow Dash’s voice somehow reached my ear from way down on the grounds--if you could call it that--of Cloudsdale.
I sneaked a look at the six ponies and noticed Pinkie Pie dip her hoof curiously into a puddle of rainbow. Instinctively, I knew that was a bad idea.
“No! Pinkie! Don’t!” I was so distressed I dropped the stick and turned to watch in anxiety as Pinkie tasted the rainbow. Her face turned multiple unpleasant colors before she screamed out
“Spicy!” It turned out, my instincts were correct.
“Oh, Pinkie.” I sighed, shaking my head.
“Oh, Noteworthy, that’s so cute.” I heard Parasol say. I turned around quickly.
“What?” I asked, feeling warm.
“It’s nothing. It’s just that I know that tone.” Parasol explained, still smiling like I’d done something exceptionally cute. I pulled at my uniform nervously.
“If you have something to say, Parasol, say it.” I murmured, not looking at her.
Parasol giggled again. “No, you’ll figure it out someday, Noteworthy. Don’t you worry.”
Utterly confused, I sighed again and looked back over at where Pinkie and her friends had been. But suddenly they were gone.
“No…there’s gone again…” I said softly to myself. “Caramel! They can’t be too far, let’s go find Twilight and her friends now! And Lucky, now that I remember him.”
Caramel flapped clumsily over to me.
“I think I heard Rainbow say they were going to see where clouds are made.” He said, wobbling midair.
“Then let’s go!”
“Hey, where are you two going?” Parasol asked, appearing behind us. Caramel and I both jumped. “Ooh, you sound guilty. What are you up to?”
“Twilight turned us into pegasi and now we have to find her so she can change us back!” Caramel said, impatiently trotting mid-air.
Parasol nodded in sudden understanding. Then she looked around. “Come on, let’s catch up with them before the supervisor gets back. I’ll help you get through any barrier you face.”
“Thanks, Parasol.” Caramel said.
“Thank you so much, Parasol.” Parasol just winked and lead the way to the place where they made clouds. There were even more vats in this room. Some ponies were pouring buckets of liquid, probably water, into them. There was this strange thrumming noise, like the beat of a big machine. I don’t like the sound of big machines.
I noticed Rainbowshine and Merry May there and I waved. Merry May looked at us and mouthed ‘What are you doing here?’ and I shrugged. Caramel smiled sheepishly. Suddenly a group of ponies, including Rainbowshine, Merry May, and even Parasol, gathered around Rarity, who was enjoying showing off her beautiful butterfly wings. And I do admit they looked rather stunning in that light…
“Lucky! There you are!” Caramel said. Suddenly, my best friend was gone. I let out a sigh of relief when I realized he was just over by Rarity, admiring her wings with the rest. Relaxing, I joined him. Lucky seemed more than overjoyed to be able to gaze at Rarity lovingly without seeming creepy.
“Come on, now’s our chance.” I nudged him with a hoof.
“Oh, Rarity, you’re so beautiful.” Lucky sighed.
“What? These old things? Go ahead everypony; photos are encouraged.” Rarity laughed indulgently, flashing her wings in the light.
“Noteworthy! I want you to take a picture of Rarity for me! Make sure I’m in the picture, too!” Lucky babbled, pulling at me insistently.
“I don’t have a camera, Lucky. And get your hooves off me. I shouldn’t even have to say that to you.”
“You’re no fun anymore.” Lucky pouted. Then he went back to admiring Rarity fondly. Caramel and I exchanged annoyed expressions.
“Lucky, she’s not the unicorn we’re looking for right now.” I poked Lucky again, hoping he’d snap out of it. “Come on, don’t you want to be an earth pony again?”
“Why should I do that? Then Rarity will never talk to me while I’m a lowly earth pony. Why do you think I haven’t complained about these things yet?”
“But wait a second, let’s just think logically--” Caramel was cut off by more of Lucky’s outrage.
“Rarity and I are equals now and I’m not going to let you mess that up for me! I just followed you two here so I could catch up with her! Now I’m going to finally talk to her! And she’s going to LOVE ME!” With that Lucky tried to fly right up to Rarity, but we’d been arguing about the whole thing for so long, we’d lost them all again. All three of us groaned.
“Great. We missed Twilight. How are we ever going to change back now?” Caramel grouched, sitting down on the clouds with a strange, audible thump.
“Rarity!” Lucky wailed. “Where art thou, my sweet Rarity?”
“Hold it, Lucky. Don’t get poetic on us. We can barely handle you normal.” Caramel patted Lucky’s shoulder, trying to comfort him in his own way.
“If you’re looking for Rarity and her friends, they went on to the competition. Rarity’s competing too. I just can’t wait to go see it.” Rainbowshine said excitedly. “It was me who gave her the idea. I’d show you the way, but I’ve got to finish my shift.” Rainbowshine sighed, then she fluttered back to her vat of cloud matter and stirred it disappointedly.
“The competition…” Lucky murmured to himself. Caramel and I didn’t pay any attention to him.
“I’m sure it won’t be that hard to find. Let’s just go the way we hear all the ridiculous applause and excitement?” Caramel suggested. I nodded, then looked over to Lucky to tell him we were headed off. I was more than a little surprised to see he had run off.
“Lucky?” I called.
“Where’d he go?” Caramel groaned. Parasol suddenly appeared back with us again.
“I came back to see if you were lost. You look lost. I’ll lead you to the Cloudiseum if you want me to.” She offered.
“Yes, that’d be nice. Thank you again, Parasol.” I said.
“You didn’t happen to see Lucky, did you?” Caramel asked. We both braced ourselves for a terrible answer. Parasol, still fluttering in front of us, looked completely calm as she said this next thing.
“Oh yes, actually. He said something about wanting the join the competition.”
“What?!” Caramel and I shouted together.
“Lead us to the Cloudiseum, Parasol. And fast!” Caramel shot into the air with a skill and mastery I didn’t think possible.
“Please?” I added, always polite to a fault, as I joined my friends in the air. Parasol seemed concerned by our intensity, but she decided not to ask. However…
“Merry May and I have come to be very curious about your whole story here. When this is all over, I think you owe us an explanation.” Parasol said as she lead us speedily to the Cloudiseum. Caramel and I nodded, not completely sure what we were agreeing to as we were too preoccupied with Lucky at the moment.
When we finally arrived, Lucky was nowhere in sight. We couldn’t see Twilight or her friends either.
“Ooh! I’ve got to go now, get a good seat for me, please!” Parasol, suddenly very flustered, zoomed out of sight instantly.
“Wow! She looks like she’s been taking lessons from Rainbow Dash! Look at her go!” I said, watching the yellow and pink blur fly out of my vision in an unclear direction.
“I don’t even see her anymore. Which way did she go?” Caramel looked around, currently neglecting Lucky.
“I just don’t know where he could be.” I said as Caramel and I exchanged a confused look.