04- Wake up
As Sunny and her friends reached the door at the end of the hall and began to descend, she couldn’t help but feel her heart race. Not from excitement, but because of the sheer amount of pressure that was on her mind. She always wanted to find the answers to some of Equestria’s biggest mysteries, but wasn’t prepared for what those answers would be. The earth pony and her friends weren’t prepared to learn that a place that was supposed to be an institution of progress and learning led to the downfall of everything Equestria strived to be.
And the responsibility of making sure those same mistakes weren’t repeated now fell on her shoulders.
Floor by floor, they continued to descend. The farther they went, the more that the three of them saw what looked to be an aurora of different colors that shimmered with the atmosphere. At different points, the aurora appeared to briefly take the shape of different creatures that once worked on each floor as they appeared to be frozen in time. As if to show glimpses of the past that they had never seen.
Once they had reached the bottom and the three of them had stepped off, Sunny and her friends were greeted by a different sight from what they were expecting. Around the room, there looked to be several giant boxes that looked to be bigger than that of a pony. Angled off of the ground to where it was neither laying flat or standing upright. In a way, they almost looked like coffins from the vampony movies Sunny had heard about.
However, out of all of them that were there… there was only one that was not occupied. Inside it was a cyan pegasus mare that looked to be roughly the same age as Phyllis, but had a rainbow colored mane and tail. A cutie mark of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt was on her flank as realization soon kicked in.
“W-wait a minute,” Zipp was the first to speak, “Is this… who that guy in the journal was talking about? The one he called Rainbow?”
“It must be,” Sunny said, “Rainbow Dash, one of Princess Twilight’s closest friends from the Age of Harmony. I… thought that she was gone, just like with many other things in the past. But here she is.”
“Well, can we try and wake her up?” Izzy asked.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Izzy. If we interrupt this, we might end up causing problems,” Zipp tried to reason with the energetic unicorn, “Besides, we still have a bigger issue to deal with. We know that the engine’s down here, but where exactly is it?”
Sunny was going to say something. Yet, something flickered at the farthest corner of her vision as she turned to try and see what it was. It was faint, but it looked exactly like the trails of aurora that the earth pony saw on the way down. Maybe it was leading her somewhere?
“Hey girls, can you wait here for a moment?”
As soon as Sunny asked the question, she didn’t stick around to hear an answer and began to follow the faint trail that was left behind. There were times where she thought that she had lost sight of it, only for her to turn around a nearby corner and find it again. The entire bottom floor was a maze she had to navigate through and every turn could lead to her either getting closer… or farther away from her goal.
Yet, there was something else that was happening that Sunny didn’t realize at first. The more that the earth pony felt that she was on the right track, the more that her own magic began to manifest and take form. The spectral yellow wings and horn that she had seen only a few times before were present with each step she took. The warm glow around her served as a guide as Sunny navigated her way through.
At the end of the path, the earth pony found what she was looking for. A contraption made from unknown materials that had the same aurora colored glow and pulsed like a heart. The room was empty… and yet, it felt as if something else was in here with Sunny as she slowly approached the contraption.
Then, from everywhere, all at once… a melody of voices spoke as one. “C-can you… hear me?”
Immediately, the semi-darkened room began to flash with light as Sunny found herself in a new place. One that stretched out endlessly and looked as if she was in a meadow of twinkling stars. In the place of the engine though, there was… something else. It looked almost like her, but was transparent as tears were coming down her face. As they looked to her, a look of fear began to emerge on her face.
“W-what are you doing? S-Stay away-”
“Wait, please,” Sunny insisted, “I… want to help-”
“H-help?” they asked, looking down at their hooves, “How? I… ruined everything. I was to help everypony achieve their dreams. Give everypony hope… yet, all I could do was take… take… and take. And when I couldn't take their magic... I took their lives instead. Now, there’s nothing left. I stole the dreams of everypony that counted on me, including the ones that c-created me.”
At that, something began to click in Sunny’s mind. This pony she was speaking too… was it the engine itself? But that didn’t matter right now. “You didn’t steal everything.”
The manifestation looked to her in confusion, before its eyes glanced at the spectral horn and wings on Sunny’s form. “W-what? B-but… magic’s gone because of me. H-how-?”
“Not all of it is… and even though it took a long time, things are beginning to change for the better. My friends and I are making sure of that. So, please, leave it to us. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
It was moments after she said those words that she felt the spectral pony race towards her and embrace her in a hug. As Sunny watched this happen, more figures began to take form behind this one. Creatures that Equestria had not seen in ages, ponies that looked to be students, A collective of creatures in scholarly robes with one being a unicorn with a short mane and glasses and another being the same pony she and her friends saw when they first stepped into the Akademia. And among them, a stallion who looked exactly like the one she had seen in the picture from the security office.
All of them stood behind this single mare that grasped onto Sunny with tears in her eyes and had their attention fixed on her.
All at once, every creature said two words and everything around the earth pony went to white. “Thank you.”
When the light died around her, Sunny found herself back in the same room as before. However, a lot of things had changed. The engine that once stood in the center of the room had turned into dust and scattered and much of the magic that was around the room had vanished, evaporating before her eyes. In the engine’s place, there was one thing that wasn’t there before. A small crystalline object that looked like a seed. Not a seed that would be used to grow crops, but one that somepony would plant if they wanted to grow a tree.
Maybe Alphabittle had an idea as to what this was-?
“S-Sunny? Sunny, can y-you hear me-!?”
The sudden voice startled the earth pony as she looked down to the walkie talkie that was attached to her bag. Somehow, whatever was preventing her from contacting Mr. Castle before was no longer there. Yet, the voice on the other end was… different from the pony they first met. If anything, it was… a lot more familiar.
“Hitch? Hitch, is that you?”
“Oh, thank goodness!” the sound of the sheriff’s voice came in through the radio, “Do you have any idea how long you had us worried for? Matter of fact, where have you been?”
“How long-?” Sunny blinked, “What do you mean? Zipp, Izzy and I had only been exploring here for a few hours.”
There was a long period of silence after that, but the sounds of murmurs from a few ponies could be heard on the other side. “Sunny, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it wasn’t a ‘few hours’ over here. After Phyllis told us about what you three were doing, I had set up camp here with Sprout and Pipp while we waited for you to come back. It’s been nearly a week since you three entered.”
That threw Sunny off guard. A week? H-how was it possible? They only spent a few hours here trying to find answers. Was it… an effect of the engine somehow?
But before she had the chance to say anything, the other stallion that was outside had the chance to say a simple remark, “Personally, I wasn’t even sure if half of what mommy was talking about was… well, believable. Didn’t expect to see an entire city show up out of nowhere either. If anything, I thought Hitch wanted me to come because he was worried about his marefriend.”
“Sprout!!”
The earth pony could only giggle at that, before she looked back at the walkie-talkie, “Well, don’t worry. We’ll be sure to fill you in on everything… but there’s one thing that we need to take care of first.”
“And what’s that?” Hitch asked as Sunny looked back towards the way that she came in with a small smile on her face.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
For as long as she could remember, her dreams were always the same. What was to be a glorious and perfect evening rapidly became a nightmare of their own design. The creatures in charge who thought that they could have their home and Equestria become a paradise ended up becoming the architects of their own downfall. She wanted to save them… she wanted to find a way to stop it from happening. But no matter what attempts she made or what she tried to do to change the outcome, it was always the same. And to make matters worse, a trusted friend prevented her from doing what was necessary to save them.
Yet, now… the dream stopped. She felt her senses slowly return to her as the case that confined her there began to open. Whatever had kept her in the dream was now gone… and now, she was free. Her body was weak as she fell to the ground, but she was free to move.
Something was different though. When she fell asleep, she heard the screams of every creature in the city and could smell the fire that was burning. But instead, there was silence and fresh air. As her hearing started to come back to her as well as her sight, she noticed two figures. One was a unicorn, that much she could tell. The other, a pegasus that… looked close to her when she was younger. Just that her fur and mane were different than hers.
“Hey, miss, are you okay?”
The pegasus was trying to say something to her, but she couldn’t make out what. She could only go by her expression that the question was out of concern. Maybe she should try to say something back? “W-who… are you?”
Immediately, the unicorn bounced off in a fashion that was similar to one of her friends while the pegasus tried to help her to her hooves. “H-hey, easy. Let me help you.”
Again, she tried to repeat the question. But before she could, she heard the unicorn shout loudly to where her voice echoed throughout the chamber, “Sunny, over here! She’s awake!!”
As she turned, she watched as an earth pony came from out behind the rest of the pods in the room. Yet, they did not look ordinary at all. For the magic that was around her made her look like that of a princess as she hurried over to where she was. Which was enough for her to say one word.
“T-Twilight?”
The earth pony looked puzzled, before shaking her head, “S-Sorry, but that’s not me. My name is Sunny Starscout… and you must be Rainbow Dash, right?”
She blinked at the sound of her own name being said, especially by this pony that she had only just met. “Y-yes. H-how-?”
“That is a bit of a long story,” Sunny herself replied, before looking towards the way that she and her friends came in, “But… it’s one that I’m more than happy to share with you. Come with me, there’s something I think you’d want to see.”
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This was pretty good.
11363792
Thanks.
I... had some doubts when I started to undertake this project, but I'm glad you like it
I was totally expecting a Rainbow Factory tie in when I first clicked on this. Didn't get that but I was still very pleasantly surprised by this story. You put some great lore into storytelling the events of Cloudsdale and it unfolded in the story very well. Pretty nice work overall
11386689
I wasn't trying to go for Rainbow Factory, but I am happy to hear that you enjoyed it. The main premise for what I had in mind for Cloudsdale was along the themes of 'Even when they were warned ahead of time, they couldn't prevent the calamity that was to come'. I drew that from a couple of inspirations that went into the story and served as motivation while I was working on it