The Leaving of Cloudsdale

by Owlor

Rainbowshines' Story

Have you ever been at the weather factory? Oh, you have? Maybe you’ve seen me around, I'm working on the snowflake floor. It's difficult work, lemme tell you. First of all, the room has to be cool in order to make them, and second, no snowflake can ever be the same, otherwise.... nah, you REALLY don't wanna to know.

There's a limit to how random a machine make them. If you want true randomness, you need the pony element, and the management sometimes hire some pretty weird pegasuses just to work the randomizer. That wasn't my job, goodness knows I'm normal... uhm, I used to be at least.

The mare they hired for the job was a filly called Rainbowheart, she always spoke a little too loud and she had no concept of personal space, she was kinda annoying. I kept getting mistaken for her, and the “double rainbow”-jokes got annoying quick, lemme tell you.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I received what I thought was just a standard memo to all employees, something telling us that our hours are getting longer and our pay is getting slashed. Again.

That's why I didn't really notice that it was addressed to Rainbowheart, not me. I thought everypony had gotten one and figured I'd tell her if it was something important. But instead what I got was a bunch of maps and plans written in some kind of code. They looked awfully important for something you'd just hand over to an employee. So I kept them safe, truth be told, because I thought maybe I could use it to bribe my boss.

I'd probably never had done it, I wouldn’t have the guts, but that's why I kept it stashed away without telling anypony.

A few weeks later, I was vitisted by a pair of ponies wearing.... buisness suits I guess, but they were worn by somepony who seemed to have only heard of buisness suits through second-hand description.

“We need to look trough your apartment” one of them said to me. “Goverment order.”

“What government?” I asked, being rather skeptical at this point. “Is it an order from Celestia?”

“OH, yes, it's an order from Celestia”

“Do you have any official paper or something?

“Uhm, we must've forgotten about it, can we come back?”

“Please do,” I said after them. “'cus next time I wont wait this long until I call the guards.”

I hope I don't sound silly, I don't want you to think I am some sort of conspiracy theorist. Even after what happened next, I still think that was probably just a prank or something.

Anyway, I guess I told you guys already about the accident? Now when I got back from the hospital, with help from too of my friends. My apartment had been ransacked. My collection porcelain pegasuses had been smashed, my Weather Report magazines had been ripped apart and most of my furniture systematically taken apart.

I'm not kidding, I found the pieces of the furniture lying in neat rows, ready to be put back together again ,even as the rest of the apartment was trashed. Luckily, if that's the word, they left the mirror intact, and that's where I hid the paper. I still can’t make heads or tails out of this, was I visited by superstitious burglars? With OCD and rage issues? It just doesn't make sense.

* * *

“Wow, that's quite a story,” Twilight said. “I'm not sure what I should believe.

Rainbowshine reached into her saddle back and took out a stack of papers held together by a half-rusted paperclip.

“I don't know if this will help,” she said. But here are the papers. I'm still a bit paranoid about leaving them at home...”

She paused for a second when she realized what word she had used.

“Look at me,” she said. “I'm starting to think of Sweet Apple acres as my home now.”

Twilight took the stack of papers and studied them.

“Well, this seem to be a radio frequency of some sorts... “ she said, then her eyes were drawn towards the symbol in the upper left corner, a sigil with five butterflies.

“Oh, and there's a symbol here, it's...” Her pupils shrank to the size of pinheads and her demeanor changed for a brief second, just long enough for Rainbowshine to notice.

“Is there anything wrong?” she asked. “Do you recognize it? The symbol, I mean.”

“No, nothing is wrong, absolutely nothing,” Twilight said. “Say, isn't it getting late?”

“Uhm, yes,” Rainbowshine said. “Isn't that kind of the point?”

“Why don't you go home, get some sleep, and I'll get back to you tomorrow, alright?” Twilight said, her demeanor seemingly back to normal, but Rainbowshine could detect something slightly off.

“But the meteor shower?” Rainbowshine asked.

“Oh, don't worry about that,” Twilight said and shooed her towards the door.

* * *

Twilight closed the door and slumped down on the floor. Panic was rising inside of her, and she didn't want Rainbowshine to see it. Of course she recognized the symbol, anypony familiar with obscure Equstrian history should. It was the Covenant of Eris, the sigil of the five butterflies. Back in the dark times when Discord ruled, it was used by the “Butterfly Brigade”, a cult of loyal followers that acted as his own personal intelligence agency.

They were known to be brutally effective in their methods, her books had only dared to illustrate them in the most crude and schematic manner, with drawings resembling the brutal depiction of sacrifice found in ancient temples.

This appeared to be the real deal too. Not like those goofballs who does harmless pranks whenever there's a major event in Cloudsdale, or like any number of secret societies claiming to originate from the Discordian Butterfly Brigade, or even pre-date it.

Somehow, Rainbowshine had managed to get tangled up with one of the nastiest and most brutal agent of chaos still surving in Equestria. And just by looking at these papers, she had gotten involved as well. Her panic was reaching its zenit.

“Oh bother, I think I'm gonna scream,” she said to herself.