The Leaving of Cloudsdale

by Owlor

...AND DAGGER

The headquarters of the Butterfly Brigade looked like an abandoned building from the outside, or what posed for an abandoned building in Cloudsdale. Since buildings in cloudsdale don't deteriorate the way ground-level buildings would, there was little need to tear down old buildings. The ones that couldn't be re-purposed would just be left half-buried in newer buildings, an empty but still habitable void in the infrastructure.

That was the outside, the inside was a different story. Inside, the headquarters were far from a void, more like a clutter. At the far end of the room there was a podium decorated with an emblem containing five stylized butterflies. In front of the podium was five loosely aligned rows of seats. The chairs had once been standard-issue folding chairs, but every one of them had been customized in various ways.

The entire room had a similarly patchy aesthetic. The walls alone was a trippy sight, layers upon layers of splattered paint on top of the white cloudy walls.

Apart from a few ponies making preparations, the room was empty. But you could hear the echoes of dialogue from the arriving ponies in the hall:

...” seriously, could you go out with a guy who can't even be able to distinguish between a Cirrostratus and a Stratocumulus cloud? Talk about a Groundhog...”

“...It's just that I I don't always feel like myself, y'know, like there' somepony in my skull seeing things happen but only being able to shout suggestions...”

“...I like dynamites as a symbol, they are only dangerous because they expand, like thoughts expand...”

* * *

It took an embarrassingly long time for the ponies to find their respective place, and when they did, it took an even longer time for the commotion to die down. It wasn't until a tall pony with a buzz-cut stepped up on stage and stomped on the podium five times that, finally, the sound of whispered arguments stopped.

“You may now say your oats,” he demanded. Everypony had their own motto they spoke into a quick burst of mumbling. Afterwards there was a moment of solemn silent before the Pegasus at the podium began to speak again. After a few polite greetings he launched into a long-winded lecture:

“The principle of Discord is that of apparent disorder...” He coughed briefly. “APPARENT disorder,” he clarified, “for you see, disorder is just as much of an illusion as Order.

“Chaos runs much deeper than both order and disorder, for it goes beyond what we can perceive. Just as our goals is only the goals of apparent anarchy, merely a transition back to chaos, beyond the illusions of Celestian order or of Anti-Celestian disorder...”

He continued until most everyponys' thoughts started to trail of, and he himself had forgotten what he was talking about.

“... and archeological evidence has shown that flax is the first plant domesticated by earth ponies, it is as much of an ally of us as we are an ally of it, wait.. I had a point somewhere... ANYWAY all rise and put your hooves together for Supreme individual Commander Lacuna!”

* * *

The commander appeared on stage, wearing his ceremonial uniform with dignity. Said uniform purple and looked like somebody had begun to make a standard-issue military cape, but couldn’t choose between the earth pony and the wonderbolt style and decided to make it both at once.

Lacuna tapped the microphone five times.
“Is this on?” he asked, sounding like a rock-star.

“Yes,” the front rows replied.

I can't hear you!”

“YES, It is on!” the crowd erupted.

“Too bad,” Lacuna said. “I hate microphones!!.

He turned the microphone off and raised his voice so that he could be heard across the room.

“As we all know,” he shouted bombastically “,our plans are drawing to a close, what we have worked in five years is drawing to an end. But because of a careless error, our plans risk being delayed!”, he gazed across the room as some of the more involved ponies gasped at this.

“ My soldiers, he continued. “We are running out of time, we CANNOT wait another year. I beg you all to do your best. Chaos will determine the fate of our noble brigade, just as it will determine the fate of any of you.“

The crowd cheered, first a few oooh's and yeah's, but then more ponies started clapping. Somepony in the front row started to chant “Gobble gobble gobble!” and a few others joined in, including the commander. Ampersand entered the stage and discreetly called for Lacunas attention.

“Uhm, Greyface...” he began, but the mere mention of that name made the commander roar in protest.

“my name is NOT Greyface!” he said. “In official capacity you will call me Supreme individual Commander Lacuna, you understand?”

“Yes, Lacuna... “ Ampersand began dejectedly. “Supreme individual Commander Lacuna.”

“Now, what did you want to tell me, Assistant individual Ampersand?” Lacuna said impatiently.

“There's been a letter sent from somepony on the monitor list.”

“So what?”Lacuna said, giving him the hoof. “Have the monitoring team look at it, it's not MY job.”

But Grey...” Ampersand began to plead, but corrected himself. Supreme individual Commander Lacuna, it's from HER... “

Lacunas eyes got wide and his hair somehow grew to twice its size. The crowd suddenly fell silent and just watched the display.

“HER?” he shouted. “Send in the solider, send the assasains, send the poisonous cookies, send EVERYPONY!”

* * *

It was a dark, but frightfully clear night as Rainbowshine passed by Twilight's home at the library. She was only out for a nighlty stroll to clear her mind, but she noticed that the light was on inside.

Some company on this lonely night sounded good, so she knocked on the door and was let inside by Spike, who looked just about ready to fall asleep where he stood. She found Twilight at the telescope, looking up towards the stars. The studious mare didn't seem to notice her presence and Rainbowshine hesitated a moment to start up a conversation.

“I'm sorry,” Rainbowshine said finally. “Are you busy?”

“A bit” Twilight said and made a note on a parchment while she was working.

“should I come back?” Rainbowshine asked.
“oh no we can talk” Twilight said. “I actually invited my friends here, you see there's a meteor shower tonight and I wanted us to look at it, but nopony was interested, can you imagine?”

Rainbowshine didn't answer. The sky just seemed blank and barren to her, from Cloudsdale you had a much better view of the stars. The funny thing was, when she lived there, she had never really cared for it, astronomy wasn't her thing. It wasn't until now she had even thought to miss it, but homesickness cut trough her like a knife, and even a bare sky was better than no sky.

“If you want to”, she said nonchalantly. “I can stay and watch the meteors with you.”

“sure, it'll be fun, there's just so much to learn about the stars.”

They are tiny dots of light, the northern star is useful for navigation, what more do you need to know? Rainbowshine asked, but sat down besides Twilgiht anway.

The meteor shower wasn’t until a few hours, and the two ponies passed the time by looking at various planets and constellations. Twilight did her best trying to lecture Rainbowshinw on astronomy, but her disinterest was apparent, She did appreciate Twilights enthusiasm though, and it was enough to turn what would otherwise be a boring lecture into a nice quiet evening.

* * *

“How are you adjusting?” Twilight asked eventually. “I haven’t actually had a chance to talk to you since you arrived. But I've heard of you from Applejack. She says you're a really hard worker.”

“I do my best to earn a living,” she said modestly. “Besides,I 'm used to work in a factory, back at Cloudsdale, I'm just glad I dont have to do th same exact thing day in and day out.” The mention of her previous life made a spark of sympathy appear in Twilights eye.

“Yes, I heard about that part as well”, she said. “How are you holding up?”

“Surprisingly well,” she said. “They do still hurt sometimes, like if I'm under stress.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Twilight said. Rainbowshine shifted a bit, she was a different pony now than she had been when she just arrived in Ponyville, and a very different pony from when she used to work in Cloudsdale. But now, for the first time in a long time, she felt parts of her old personality return, a part of her who still could rely on friends. She sighed.

“I may not have been completely honest with you all,” she said. “I mean, the thing with the hurricande DID happen, but I don't think it was an accident.” That caught Twilight's attention and she listened intently as Rainbowshine told her story.