A Nightmare of a night

by Ethereal Trixster

Chasing the clouds.

Moondancer couldn't hear her own screams of terror as she fell to ponyville, Any attempt made to look towards her approaching doom, only to be greeted with blinding gust of wind. 'I'm going to die,and all because I wanted to have a Gala like party.' Her screams stopped as her front hooves clamped down on the manila envelope, pulling it close to her chest.

Moondancer mind raced as she strained her ears hoping to hear anything to assure she wasn't going to die, the silence spoke volumes as three second passed, her mind now riddled with thought of her life, what she had yet to achieve, her accomplishments and finally her regrets.

Cloudchaser watched on top of a grey cloud, as an idiotic mare fell to her death from the golden carriage coming towards her town. It was only a matter of moments before she'd land in the center of ponyville startling everypony there, and ruining what should be the second best day of the year for the quaint town. Cloudchaser couldn't let that happen, and she definitely could not allow this mare to fall, to her death.

Her wings flapped with an incredible pace, the cloud she stood on dissipating from the constant vibration as the pegasus shot off towards the fallen pony. 'Come on I can do this, only one shot to save this pony, so don't screw it up.' Her inner monologue pouring on more doubts as she had approaching the mare.

Her front hooves latching on to the mare's hind hooves, the sudden weight added to the pegasus's wings only hampered the pegasus's ability to fly her to safety. 'Dear Cadenza, she weighs a ton.' The grey mare grunted as she floated the two down to the ground, personally wishing for this ordeal to be over and getting back to cleaning up Ponyville's clouds.

Moondancer's mind never ran out of regrets for her past misdeeds, but it slowly shifted towards another nagging thought, why hadn't landed in ponyville yet. Her eyes cracking open noticing the gust of wind that was once impeding her vision now a gentle breeze, and more importantly the ground still approaching her, but at s much slower speed. Realization came at an instant, her head craned upwards to see her savior expecting to see the two pegasus guards, only for her eyes to fall on a pale persian blue pegasus slowly descending with her.

Time passed slowly as the unicorn dangled in the air finding her self in awe of the Pegasus's strength and stamina as they were but a mere foot off the ground. Moondancer could only stare at the mysterious mare in interest, her light rose eyes twinkled with little confidence as the grip around her hind hooves tightened as her muzzle finally touched solid ground.

Her front hooves slowly propped herself up, the folder on the ground, the folder now a minor distraction as she looked at her savior in a better light. "Th-Thank you, I can't believe I'm alive and its thanks to you that I am." The unicorn could barely suppress any tears that dared formed in her eyes, her composure gone, with her savior standing in front of her.

The stranger's wings tucked in, likely recovering from the previous strain she once had the blue coat dripping with perspiration as her chest huffed back and forth. Her rose colored eyes filled with a welcoming warmth Moondancer had never seen in Canterlot except on a select few. Moondancer held back at praising the mare more, instead taking the mare's mane and tail, it's cerulean hue standing out brilliantly with the white highlights, and with the briefest of glances her eyes traveled over the mare's cutie mark a shooting star, obviously a sign of how fast the mare how traveled to save her from the fall.

"It was nothing, really I just got lucky I was on cloud patrol that's all." Her eyes looked past the mare calming down, trying to place where she had dropped the poor unicorn at. "Hmm, It looks like we landed near Fluttershy's, and she's not really in any position to help you or anypony; So I'll take you back to ponyville to meet up with that carriage, then I can get back to work."

Moondancer paused for a moment a saccharine like smile formed on her lips, as things started to look up for the mare. "You said Fluttershy right, as in the one in charge of the music for the princess' arrival correct?" Her tone rising, thoughts of meeting the musician and hearing what the town's best could perform brought the smallest twitch to her hooves.

"....Because if you did say Fluttershy, I'd really appreciate it if you took me too her, and if you can't then do that then point me in her direction." Her mouth upturned, keeping the best smile the mare could make, the situation that happened just moments ago long gone in her mind.

"Yeah Fluttershy, but you can't really see her right now, or really anypony at the moment." Cloudchaser's eyes averting, feeling uneasy as the stranger's lips twitched keeping the smile, while the pegasus delivered the bad news.

"It won't take but a moment and if you just tell me where she is, you can pretend like I never went there," Her eyes looked away hoping to see Fluttershy's house in the distance, and discreetly leaving her savior for a far more important task.

"I can't because, I'm sure you'd just come to ponyville after you find Fluttershy causing another problem all together, stranger." Her wings stretched out, stealing back the unicorn's attention from searching for the mare in questions home.

"First of all my name, its Moondancer, and second, visiting one mare isn't going to cause any problems, and finally I'm on business for Princess Cadenza, herself so thanks for saving me; but I need to see a mare about the music for today's celebration." Her hooves slowly moving backwards, gaining distance from the flighty mare as irritation started to grow on the mare's face.

"The name is Cloudchaser, and that explains the golden carriage you fell from, but princess Cadenza's orders or not, you can't go and see Fluttershy right now, maybe in a week or so but definitely not right now."

"Why not?"

"Because Fluttershy got the feather flu from a friend and the two of them are not in the best shape to be seen by anypony or go out in public in general." Cloudchaser's wings snapped shut at the brief mention of the feather flu, repressed memories of forced molting coming to mind and the teasing that came with it, oh she'd never forget the teasing.

"Feather flu or not, I still need a capable musician to play for the princess' and the celebration today, and Fluttershy is the only one, I can think of." Moondancer's hoof tapped against the ground in protest, her tone shifting from one of praise to one of bitterness and spite. She wasn't necessarily angry with Cloudchaser, she was just upset in general.

"I understand, and I love to help, but Fluttershy is sick and I'm musically challenged." Her eyes brightening slightly as the unicorn's glare softened a little. "So, you should go to ponyville and look around, I'm sure there's tons of ponies that could help you out."

Moondancer stared on as Cloudchaser's wings unfurled, her hoof pointing towards what she believed was ponyville. The pegasus making no notion to help the unicorn or send her towards Fluttershy's direction. "Can't you just help me out, I'm just here for today, and I can make it worth your while too."

Her periwinkle eyes smiled at the pegasus, her gaze lingered longer than she wished, but if making Cloudchaser antsy was the best way to get to Fluttershy's then she'd make the poor mare as uncomfortable as possible. Sadly it didn't seem to have the same effect that it did in Canterlot.

"How about I set you up with a pony that can help you then?" Cloudchaser's eyes shifted slightly, feeling the mare's hooves wrap around her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, your such a life saver, you know that a real life saver." She smiled at the thought of everything that started horribly journeying towards the quaint little town, had started to turn in a more positive direction. She grabbed the manila folder with her magic, the feat much easier now that it wasn't falling.

"Yeah its nothing, I mean its what friends do for each other right?" The mare didn't notice the hooves that unwrapped around her body, nor notice how swiftly the mare moved past her, the only way she realized that Moondancer wasn't there anymore was because of the fact that when she went to pat the excitable mare all she felt was air.

The pegasus craned her head looking behind seeing the mare slowly trotting towards ponyville, obviously in a hurry and understandable because the sooner she met Flitter, the sooner she could get back to clearing up the sky for the big festival.

Moondancer said nothing as the pegasus raced towards her, her mind was in a different place as she pondered on what her newest Acquaintance said. 'Its what friends do for each other right?' the sentence played over and over inside the unicorn's head like a bad recording. 'She thinks I'm her friend, no she's mistaken we just met, and we'll never see each other again after she introduces me to that other pony. Well, I guess we'll meet at my birthday party she did save me after all Yokel or not, this will repay my debt to her.'

While the unicorn relished in the silence, Cloudchaser felt different about the quiet atmosphere, while she was a fan of the easygoing days in ponyville, she would rather have the mare accompanying her at the moment talk about something, rather than the two of them trot in tandem to ponyville.

The pegasus moved her gaze towards the manila folder, hoping this was an icebreaker in conversation. "So what's with the folder?"

Moondancer glanced at the folder, then back towards her companion. "Its to help find the ponies that are helping with the preparations for the coronation festival." She found that simply telling the pegasus the truth was the best course of action, hoping that she'd help in some other way, besides her determent of Fluttershy.

"Ohhhhh, I see well what's all the tasks, besides music that is?" The mare stared at the folder longer hoping it would open up and spill its contents out.

"Food, Decorations and weather management which I can see hasn't been entirely taken care of yet."

"Yeah, sorry about that its just you know being told last minute that you've be given the task, saving a mare from certain impending doom and escorting them kind of ruined what little time I had to finish the last part of my job." Cloudchaser said a little to cheerily as she smiled at the look of surprise Moondancer was giving her, obviously not what she was expecting.

"But...I was under the impression that Rainbow Dash was supposed to clear the sky?"

"Yeah, the thing about that is she was the pony that kind of gave the feather flu to Fluttershy in the first place." Her rose colored eyes slowly moved downwards, finding the ground much more comfortable to look at.

"I see........do you think you'll have the skies clear by tonight?" Her voice came out in a concerned tone, staring at the pegasus, her mood obviously dampened at the unlikely turn of events, but still not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

The Pegasus's head raised, finding the tone odd, it was like she was pleading for her to say yes, which was her answer, but it just seemed off. "Yeah, I just need to move a few more clouds that way and then do a fly-by and presto cloud control complete."

Moondancer said nothing as she continued walking, the pegasus was a lifesaver and what she believed her best hope to get the party of her dreams, and the clouds cleared in time.

"Another thing, if you could not mention this to the pony I'm handing you off too, that'd be great."

Comments

[Walabio]

Interesting start.

[kitsune_shadow]

Dead history ?