Chapter 28: Skyward
Charlie did everything she could to be supportive, as much as any friend could. But Derek didn't get them home anytime in the next few weeks. The more time passed, the further divorced they grew from the reality they'd left behind—a few months, and all their possessions would be sold. A year, and their loved ones had already mourned their passing.
That didn't mean Charlie stopped reminding her. She still wanted to get her old body back, and return to her old life. People had gone missing before, and rebuilt from worse. She needed some hope, and a goal. Otherwise, she would probably keel over and give up. She needed something driving her.
Months turned to years in Willowbrook. Charlie's gliding turned to flight, she mastered pony writing, and got pretty good at cooking for herself without hands. Most importantly, she made friends—with the other flying ponies like Sunbeam and River Breeze.
Word was already out that they were different, marked somehow. Most of the other students at Whispering Willow didn't know or appreciate what that meant, but the other adults did. That took many forms—some people were just afraid to talk to them, quietly shooing them away whenever they were nearby, or falling awkwardly silent in public.
For others, it meant a strange respect, with citizens offering Charlie free food or stuff when she walked into the city's shops. She wasn't going to say no—she might not understand much better than the locals what her presence in Willowbrook meant, but she knew she'd had everything stolen. A little free stuff and ponies being nice to her was the least they could do.
As one year turned into two, Charlie saw other things start to change. Old buildings got bulldozed, and a huge section of the skeletal wood got cleared to make room for rows of identical houses. She joined in with the other kids, whispering of how strange and weird it would be to have “outsiders” moving in. Why was this allowed?
Dusty couldn't tell her, though it did seem like his fortunes were improving too. They bought the other apartments on the top floor of their building, giving him whole rooms he could use to store his excess furniture while the part of the house Charlie lived in actually had space to walk around, or bring over her friends for sleepovers.
Not that she would ever admit to wanting anything like that. She just had the best environment, since Dusty usually got out of their way early in the night. They had enough pillows to build the most epic cloud-forts.
Just like that, and an entire year in another world was already gone. Somethings didn't change—she still couldn't say much about where she'd come from, no matter how badly she wanted to tell her new friends the truth.
But other things did; it wasn't so bad that other ponies called her Firefly. If she was going to be stuck in the body of a stupid horse alien, at least she could be a stupid horse alien with wings.
Another year went by, and still they were in Equestria. Lilac kept studying, though Firefly's faith in her began to wane. It didn't matter that her knowledge of magic grew in other ways—rewarding and interesting for her still wouldn't bring them home.
Firefly brought in a few blank books, and started keeping a journal. Not what happened to her in Equestria, but everything she could possibly remember about the world she came from. As it turned out, she could write a great deal, so long as she was careful about how.
She could use the names of others, but not herself. She couldn't write her address, but she could describe the kind of house she lived in. She couldn't name the girl she'd been dating, but she could talk about their first date, and how many kids they wanted.
She kept the growing volumes tucked away under her bed, where Dusty wouldn't find them by accident. She also used English, a dense, hard-to-write script compared to the simple glyphs of pony writing, which lent themselves to easy scribbling even by mouth.
She wasn't particularly smart, or maybe she would've kept an index, writing things only once. Instead she rambled, describing memories from her childhood, friend she'd made, the kind of person she used to be.
Firefly didn't have the power to make a doorway home, but at least she could get things recorded. With each page she scribbled with her mouth, her memories got stronger. Did wonders for improving her handwriting, too.
Over the next few years, it wasn't always easy to remember where she'd come from. The faces of her family sometimes felt fuzzy, and she wasn't good enough with her pen to sketch them. Sometimes she'd write something about her little sister, and realize she'd used the word “mare” or “everypony” somewhere on the page.
She got taller, her wings got bigger. Lilac's magic got better, so much that Firefly could no longer follow much of what she said. She usually found her friend surrounded by books in her adoptive mother's library, or else stalking around the workshop getting things made for her. None of it made any sense to Firefly, but she trusted her friend when she said that it would help them get home one day.
"It's a process of mastery," she would say, usually wearing a pair of goggles or maybe a work-jacket. "I think I'm closing in on something. Just be patient for a little longer, I'll figure this out."
Then she would start explaining something extremely smart-sounding. She looked cute doing it, but Firefly just didn't know how to help her. She tried to learn, tried reading some of the same books, but she just didn't have a mind for it. Learning magic was like learning calculus for her, it just wasn't going to happen.
Besides—between helping Lilac's magical research and studying weather magic in Whispering Willow, she had just enough time left over to work with her dad in the sky. Now that was something she could really put her heart into.
Well, “work” was the way she talked about it to her friends. "Exploring a lost world of unimagined secrets" was what it really was.
It meant getting up early in the morning, but it was still worth it.
"Up in five!" Dusty said, banging on her bedroom door. He didn't let himself in anymore, not since she got her cutie mark. So there were plenty of little things to be grateful for. She could've ended up with a way worse pony adopting her.
During her first few months in Equestria, waking up at sunrise had been agonizing. But these days, she was on her hooves in a few seconds, and straight into the shower.
She still didn't have warm water in the house, but she hardly noticed. Her mane was longer now, so that was several minutes of careful grooming and attention. But she hadn't been adopted by the most important mare in Willowbrook, she couldn't just walk outside with her mane a mess and expect ponies to take her seriously. Firefly had to look the part.
There were a dozen little cheats ponies used to cope with their physical limitations. Like mounting a brush up against the wall, so she could brush her mane without needing to hold it. She did the same thing with makeup, when she wore any.
It wasn't much—ponies didn't wear nearly as much as humans, but despite their fur they did use some. Enough to make the cheeks seem paler perhaps, or outline the eyes in a particular way.
Firefly still didn't really know what she was doing there either, but having friends her own age helped. She was learning.
Lastly she tossed on a scarf, and a pair of light cloth saddlebags. They were completely empty, though both sides could expand to hold a lot if they had to. That was the whole point of her dad's work, and now her own.
"Ready, sweetheart?" he asked, from the other side of the bathroom door. "You know we only have an hour up there."
She stepped out the open door a few seconds later, glaring weakly at him. "I know. But I still need to sleep, Dad. We can't all run on spite and pineapple juice."
He grinned, holding a little glass bottle towards her. It was pineapple juice.
She tore off the wax cap, then downed it in a few long sips. The rush of sugar would give her the energy she needed for a brief flight. It wasn't good to overeat before such an intense athletic endeavor.
She tossed it aside, then followed him out onto the balcony.
In a few years, her dad had barely changed. But that didn't surprise her; ponies lived a long time. He was still the stronger flyer, and so he carried all the tools. Heaviest of these was a camera he wore around his neck, probably worth as much as their entire apartment. "See it up there? It's a big one today."
She looked up. That gesture alone stimulated related instincts—she opened both wings, feeling the wind passing over her feathers and judging the day's conditions. Quite the breeze today, blowing fast enough to make the morning's task tricky.
The slowly spreading orange of sunrise illuminated their destination, passing overhead towards the mountains. This was the reason Willowbrook had clouds most days of the year—the great Equestrian Central Gyre that brought currents from all directions, carrying abandoned cloud structures from the whole world to die here.
And before they did, ponies like her could explore them.
Today the sky was thick with clouds, diffusing the sunrise. It was rare to be able to tell which were structures and which were just natural clouds from the bottom. That meant a long flight up.
She galloped along the balcony, taking off only before she reached the edge. Sure she could take off straight up, but that just didn't feel as fun. The burst of speed on the ground made her curve into a gentle vertical arc, trailing a long ponytail of mane behind her.
Flying wasn't easy, even after a few years of practice. After just a few seconds, her muscles started to ache, protesting the exertion she required. But now that pain was a familiar thing, like an old friend welcoming her up into the air. Besides, if she was going to work out anyway, she might as well get it on her way into the sky.
Dusty passed her after about a minute of flying. Despite his age and experience, he didn't fly like the other pegasi she knew. He just sorta... lifted up, fighting the current directly instead of tucking his legs and using the air to his advantage.
Somehow he could still fly past her most days. She pulled her legs in closer, flying in a tight upward spiral. The village of Willowbrook fell further and further away, becoming a charming little model town of old-fashioned houses, distant fields, and the cookie-cutter development of Brookside. Sometimes she spat on them, but not today.
She was coming up on the clouds from below now. There was a technique to breaking through clouds, at least when you were a pegasus. She counted carefully, then tucked her wings sharply against her sides at exactly the right moment, breaking through from below with her head. It was especially important she keep her legs underneath, or else she'd hit the clouds like a snowbank instead of a patch of floating moisture. That could lead to a spectacular, albeit not usually painful, crash.
Today she did it perfectly. The clouds parted from around her, and she opened her wings again, soaring upward another few dozen meters. She dodged around stretches of white, until she found somewhere clear to float in the sky, looking down.
She whistled, coming to a stop just beside her dad. "Where do you think this came from?"
He shrugged. "Orange and black—not sure what city uses those colors. Might be the oldest building we've done in a long time."
It was also one of the largest. Like a military fort, complete with crenellated walls, round towers, and a drawbridge. All made from the clouds, with frayed and tattered banners hanging over the ramparts. As with all ruins, this one was starting to warp and fade at the edges. There were holes in the walls, and the fort at its center had an opening in the ceiling.
"How long do you think we have?" she asked.
"Longer than most," Dusty said. "But not long enough to get careless. Come on." He didn't dive like other pegasi either, just dropped vertically down towards the opening.
That gave Firefly the advantage this time. She dove past him, giggling at his shouts to slow down. She would be the first one in this time.
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A couple years later and they're no closer to getting home. Though the sisters are mastering their bodies with each passing day. If Earth is forever out of their reach then it wouldn't be too hard to make Equestria their new home. Though they'll have to find a way to deal or run from the cult and possibly Celestia.
As much as Charlie is desperate to remember the past, the journals may be a liability.
Could be a bit safer to hide the contents of the journals. Could also be a dead giveaway of Charlie's origins if the ponies reading it knew what they were looking for.
I wonder if changeling magic is limited to things or people the changeling saw. Sure only a few years have passed but they should be able to extrapolate in a little bit of aging.
Perhaps it'll shed some light on the old kingdom. And the beings the cult wants to bring back.
Got to have some fun if you're trapped in another world for several years. Not to mention growing up again.
I'm gonna laugh if all these hints that Dusty is a changeling are all red herrings, and it turns out he's just a complete weirdo of a pegasus.
Hey, at least this time transition felt more natural.
that was a fine way to make a timeskip.
now the story can really begin
I learned a new word today Gyre. This please me keep up the good work.
nice timeskip chapter
Flying into an abandoned potentially ancient fortress in Equestria. Yeah she’s gonna get wrecked
I normally don't like time skips, but this one was very well timed, it felt like the pace of the story ground out to a halt.
It's looking more and more likely they'll not get home without outside help.
I mean it already seemed unlikely beforehand, but this just seems to further cement that.
Let's just hope Derek doesn't make too many deals. It's always awkward when your agreements would put you on both sides on a war, or enforce contradictory taboos. She's probably smart enough to avoid that sort of situation, but "probably" is hardly comforting.
In any case, Charlie's wise to keep a journal... though it's unclear if she still remembers that name. I'm also curious to see what her cutie mark is and how she got it, though I suspect we'll find out soon. Raiding cloud ruins certainly explains where and how Dusty got all that furniture.
Sudden timeskip! I like it...
Minibox certainly has a great point! This could well be the ancient alicorn kingdom. I can't think of what else would use orange and black... Orange is certainly used for Celestia, but black? Luna uses blue. The options are open...
Staying focused on a goal can keep one sane, for a time. Hope it's worth it...
What does Firefly’s cutie mark look like?