The ruins of Las Pegasus

by Peace Petal

Chapter Four

“I didn’t expect to see it so close up,” I said.

“How about that?” Dust said.

I lay down and reached into my saddlebag. “This seems like a good place to eat lunch,” I said. As I was munching on oats, I looked up at the cloud city. Although my wings were still sore, I wanted to fly up and get a better look at it. “How are you feeling?” I said.

“Should I say exhausted or wonderstruck?” Dust said. “Are you going to fly up to see the city better?”

“It had crossed my mind,” I said.

“Is there any possibility you can carry me up there with you?” Dust said.

“Um…” I knew that pegasi could carry other ponies, although I had never done it myself. My wings were tired, too. But Dust was looking at me with those big, round, green eyes all full of hope. Her cutie mark was a question mark. She loved to ask questions and learn things. This floating city was eating into my curiosity, so I could only imagine how she felt about it. “I can certainly try. But I’m honestly not sure if I’m strong enough.”

“You’re the best, Peace,” Dust said.

“Thanks,” I said, feeling warm in the face. We ate quietly, staring up at the mysterious city. I had no idea how pegasus magic and clouds interacted to make a structure that could support actual buildings made out of stone. It was clearly dilapidated. In addition to worn-down buildings, I noticed patches where the clouds appeared to have dispersed, leaving exposed foundations.

I finished my lunch and stood up. “I’ll fly up there and look for a close spot to land, first,” I said. I stretched my aching wings and flapped. I climbed to see the city from above. Some of the buildings seemed unusually flashy, with long-dead lights outlining them. One even had pronounced onion domes like an ancient—or then modern—castle. There was clearly a half-broken roller coaster structure. I was surprised to see that in addition to the buildings, there were solid walkways between them, resting on the clouds. I landed on the nearest one. It was made of painted wood, but there wasn’t a lot of life up here to rot the wood. I jumped and stomped as hard as I could to see if it would hold. It seemed fine. There were a few broken planks, but there was definitely enough to walk on.

I glided back down to Dust. “There are wooden walkways between the buildings,” I said. “You should be able to walk around up there, if I can lift you.”

“You know you don’t have to, right?” Dust said.

“My curiosity is burning,” I said. “It’s worth a try.” I wasn’t good at hovering, so I moved to stand behind Dust. I backed up a fair distance and spread out my wings. “I’m just going to swoop past and pick you up. Like a hawk snatching a mouse.”

“Did you have to make such a morbid metaphor?” Dust said. “You’re not going to drop me, are you?”

“No way,” I said. “I’ll hold you tight. If I’m unable to lift us, we’re both going down.”

“Um, would it be better if I backed away from the precipice a smidge?” Dust said.

“Good idea,” I said. “Hey, uh, keep your horn down, okay?” That thing was sharp. Dust tilted her head down. I galloped forward and took off. I tried to think about pegasus flight magic as I approached Dust. I grabbed her tight, hugging with all four legs while my wings flapped. And…

We tumbled heads over hooves. At some point I smashed my face into the ground, and I ended up on my back with Dust on top of me. Dust rolled off of me. “Sorry,” she said.

I blinked, and tears came out of my eyes. My face hurt. “It was my fault,” I said.

“You did your best, didn’t you?” Dust said. I stood up. My glasses were askew. “Oh, what happened there?” Dust said. I jerked back as light filled my vision. Dust had levitated my glasses. “Sorry, did I startle you?” She inspected them closer and bent them back into shape. Then she put them back on my face.

“Thanks,” I said. She had fixed that much easier than I would have done. “I think I forgot to put my pegasus magic into you to make you lighter. I want to try again.”

“You what?” Dust said. “After that delightful experience we just had? Did you strike your cranium?”

“No,” I said. “It was my muzzle, not my cranium. I want to get up to Las Pegasus. Don’t try to stop me once I’ve decided I want something.”

Dust shrugged and walked back to where she had started, head tilted down. I trotted back to my starting place. Last time I had been thinking about flight magic, but I needed to focus very specifically on shifting my magic from myself to Dust. At least, that’s how other pegasi described it when they lifted heavy objects while flying. With determination and a parcel of dread, I galloped and took off again. I tried to focus my magic in my hooves. If all my magic was in my hooves, it would flow down the concentration gradient into Dust’s body, right?

I touched Dust with my outstretched front hooves and tried to shunt my magic into her to make her lighter. As I got closer, I wrapped all four legs around her tightly. I flapped with all my might, already feeling exhausted.

No crash. We were rising slowly and moving forward. We left the cliff behind, and Dust yelped. “Don’t drop me, okay?” I was too focused on flying to respond. We were moving slowly, so my muscles were doing all the work instead of the airfoils. I was flapping like a crazed chicken, just trying to stay in the air. I had seen other pegasi carry visiting earth ponies and unicorns in Zephyr Heights, and they made it look way easier than this. But we were climbing towards the surface of Las Pegasus.

After a slow, grueling ascent, we were level with the tops of the clouds. I dumped Dust on the walkway and let myself plop onto the cloud next to it. My whole body was covered in sweat. “Wait, the cloud can support you?” Dust said.

“Don’t try it yourself,” I said, panting. “It’s a pegasus thing.”

Dust stood over me. “Are you as exhausted as you appear?” she said. “Why go through all that exertion? Did you not think that I would wait at the surface while you explored the city?”

“Why not… take you with me?” I said between breaths. “Now I know that… I can carry a pony… And now we can explore… the city together.” I stood up. “I’m good. Let’s look around.” My face still hurt, and my wings were burning. But my breathing was slowing.

“Okay, here’s my first question: Why build walkways if pegasi can tread on clouds?” Dust asked.

“Hey, you’re right,” I said. I stepped onto the walkway myself. “The first reason that comes to mind is for other ponies to be able to walk. But with a name like ‘Las Pegasus,’ I’d think it would be a pegasi-only city.”

“Do these buildings seem… ostentatious to you?” Dust said.

“Do they seem what?”

“Showy?”

“Yeah, I had noticed that,” I said.

“Could it be a tourist city?” Dust said. “Was it a city where other ponies could live in the clouds like the pegasi did?”

“Maybe,” I said. “A good hypothesis.” We started walking towards one of the nearby buildings with the dome roofs. “Watch out for those broken boards,” I said. “If you step on a cloud, you’ll fall right through.”

“Did I appear to need more anxiety?” Dust said, keeping her eyes on her hooves.

“Sorry,” I said, wincing. We arrived at the building and looked inside. Windows were the only lighting, although at this time of day it was enough. The entry hall was huge, with dusty paintings on the walls. A dysfunctional fountain occupied the center of the room. Statues of pegasi in armor made a ring around the center of the fountain. It looked like the water would have flowed over their spread wings, dropping into the pool from the wingtips.

“Wow, who would have expected we would find all this?” Dust said excitedly, trotting in place. She cantered over to one of the paintings, whinnying with joy. With a flash from her horn, she removed the dust from the glass. She used light from her horn to inspect the painting closely.

I was looking at the story told by all the paintings together. Some of the paintings depicted earth ponies or unicorns. They were portraits in suits or dresses. I noticed an apparent shift in style as the paintings progressed around the wall. Nopony wore a corset after a certain point, for example. “To think, all this time there was archaeological evidence for pony unity,” I said. “The queen must have censored any findings that didn’t match her narrative.”

“Is Zephyr Heights surreptitiously a dystopia?” Dust said distractedly.

“Did you unicorns know about our unified past before the magic was restored?” I said.

Dust turned to look at me. “I theorized that ponies were once unified, but why didn’t other ponies believe me? Could there have been a sort of bottom-up censorship? There were books in the library that talked about historical evidence for pony unity, but did anypony besides me read them? Why weren’t these things talked about in school? Could it be… that unicorns didn’t want to believe in pony unity?”

“And what are your thoughts on pony unity now?” I said. “For or against?”

“Why not be united?” Dust said. “You didn’t cannibalize any of your younger siblings, did you?”

“Not one,” I said. I had heard that one before, but I still couldn’t fathom that unicorns believed that about pegasi.

“Then there’s no problem, is there?” Dust said with an air of finality before moving on to inspect another painting.

“Hey, uh, there’s a lot to see here, and we should hurry,” I said. “We need to head back before long.”

“Can we spend the night here?” Dust said.

“I have to be back in Bridlewood Forest by tonight,” I said. “I need to fly back to Zephyr Heights early tomorrow so I can get some work done.”

“Oh, how could I forget?” Dust said, deflating a little.

I tried to think through options. “Unless…” Could I take off straight from Las Pegasus? No, I couldn’t leave Dust to face the hike back alone. Maybe I could hike back with her tomorrow morning, then pay for a hot air balloon back. During the ride, I could get some work done on my phone. It still had plenty of charge, since I kept it off while in Bridlewood. But I would be less efficient on my phone than on my computer at home. But maybe this was simply more important. We just stumbled on an ancient city that probably hadn’t been visited in generations! Dust couldn’t explore it without me, and I couldn’t just leave her behind. “You know what, let’s stay here overnight,” I said. “We can hike out early tomorrow.”

“Wait, did you just exenterate all your plans because I got starry-eyed and enthusiastic?” Dust said. “Don’t you know that we can go if you need to?”

“I know,” I said. “But my whole job is to ask questions and explore. I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to do so just to stick to some confounded schedule. Let’s explore the city as thoroughly as you want. Wait, are you okay sleeping out here overnight?”

“Wait, what?” Dust mumbled, and her eyes went wide. “How did that not cross my mind?”

“I think we have enough food,” I said. “And if we’re hungry on the way back, I saw some edible flowers, grass, and berries on the trail.”

“Eat… things that are growing outside?”

I looked at her and flatly said, “All food grows outside.” She blushed, apparently realizing how silly that was. “With the waterfall and iodine tablets, we have sufficient water. It won’t be cold at this time of year, and if there’s rain the buildings will keep us dry. But we’ll be sleeping on the hard ground. Well, I’ll probably sleep on a cloud.”

Dust tapped a hoof on the tile floor as she thought. It echoed throughout the open chamber. “Can I endure a night out here to get a look at the city?” she said.

“Maybe we should just call it off,” I said.

“No, I, uh…” She trailed off. “Can you sleep on the hard ground with me?” she said quietly. “I’ll endure the night, but only if you’re close by.” Her use of a declarative sentence seemed to make the statement more emphatic.

“I can bear a night on hard ground,” I said.

“Is that settled, then?” Dust said. “Shall we explore?”

“Let’s,” I said.