Here it is, my debut story. Be sure to criticize if I have it coming. Plot holes? tell me. Flanderization? tell me. Character derailment? tell me. Narration stale and dry like saltine crackers? you know what to do.
EDIT: Realized what I was doing wrong. Anonymous reviews are allowed now. Please Review.
EDIT 2: In case you checked the reviews before reading this, Chapter 1 is NOT posted twice, It was for a day by accident, but I fixed it.
EDIT 3: I'd like to be on Equestria Daily someday. So now I need to go through and make the chapters... Not suck. Old readers will notice things have changed.
Note: Over the course of this story, and hopefully future ones, I am going to completely annihilate any sort of canon geography for Equestria and the world it inhabits at large. For example, other countries besides Equestria
It has always been assumed there were lands beyond Equestria in the world. It would certainly be a small world if that was all there ever was, almost pointlessly small. There was no fear in exploring the whatever lands lie beyond the un-drawn borders, it was simply that no pony had ever been given reason enough to tread beyond the idealistic land of Equestria. Curiosity is a powerful thing, but who wanted to put in the time, effort, and bits it would take to document new ground? An imperialistic group of pegasi on the other hoof was very interested in the world beyond their home. As they looked on with opportunism in their hearts, they saw only gain. After all, what could possibly pose a threat to them?
Rainbow Dash yawned and stretched her wings and legs as she stirred in her bed, cumulus made the greatest down. It was an overcast day, so she had her work cut out for her. Still, she was always up for a bit of exercise. The usual hustle and bustle was muffled as it pushed through the dense blanket of cloud. A swift buck provided a panorama of the square's activity. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were standing in the center, practicing their "heroic" poses; maybe later she'd give them some pointers. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were arguing over who got to set up shop in a particularly busy part of town; they'd get over it and be selling candied apples together by lunch. Twilight was penning down notes in the shade of her tree, surrounded by texts and scrolls, whilst Spike brought her reference materials on demand. But there was somepony who stood out. This one was not often seen walking about the square, and what's more was her frantic pace.
The Mayor of Ponyville meandered her way through the crowd followed closely behind by a large wooden cart, a cart full to bursting with a variety of items, (mostly foodstuffs) on a beeline for the edge of town. The mayor almost never left the town unless on important business, such as the occasional meeting with another Equestrian delegate, and even then her departure was announced ahead of time. But no such announcements had been made, and that was very interesting. Against her better nature, Rainbow followed overhead watching as they went farther and farther away, treading out of the city limits and straddling the Everfree Forest, of all places. Then, miles away from where any other pony could see, they stopped the cart and waited. Rainbow Dash glided softly to the ground a short distance away, and took to a nearby push to watch what was about to happen. They were meeting somepony here, that much was certain. But the purpose of this meeting and why it was kept so discreet were a mystery. Who could only be met on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest? Who would want to conduct trade with such an unpleasant place as a backdrop? Did it make bartering easier?
After what felt like hours to the young pegasus, Rainbow spotted two other pegasi flying overhead followed by their own cart, however she had never seen a cart like this before, it seemed to be made out of cloud, but she didn't know how it kept its shape and was able to support the weight of what must have been a couple dozen pounds. True, thousands of pegasi could crowd Cloudsdale's stadium, but that was only because the innate magic of the pegasi gave them a state of near weightlessness on clouds. The Pegasi pulling the cart were both a light golden color. One was lighter than the other, a few hues shy of white. They were adorned in bright orange armor, the color of which could only be described as the shade of orange at the very end of a sunset. They held themselves with an air of grace and confidence, that alluded to the royal guard as they looked down at the mayor and her entourage. Despite their best efforts anypony studying them for but a moment could see it was feigned, and in fact there true feelings were that of discomfort. Both of them then unhooked themselves from the cloud like cart, which floated down softly down to the earth, without so much as a rattle.
Their cart, in contrast with the fruits and vegetables of the Mayors, was filled with various curios and furniture. Lamps, bells, pillows, what appeared to be a folding table, among other things. Even from a distance Dash could make out small intricacies within each piece.
"Have you brought the supplies agreed upon?" the lighter pegasi, maintaining a faux superiority.
"Yes." The Mayor hastily replied, with perhaps a twinge of fear in her voice.
"Right then, you may begin the exchange." The darker pegasi said, motioning with his front hoof from one cart to the other and back.
"May!" Rainbow Dash said to herself as the ponies went to begin switching the traded supplies from one cart to another, the pegasi not lifting so much as a hoof in assistance. While the lighter one was content to simply hover and observe, the other mouthed to himself, counting. When he was done an expression of suspicion worked its way onto his face, and he suddenly yelled.
"Stop, Stop!" The ponies instantly ceased their actions, dropping what they were carrying and awaiting further orders.
The dark pegasi flew down to meet the Mayor's face, being very careful not to touch the ground for some reason.
His face was angry as he said, "This is not nearly enough, explain yourself, you're holding back."
The mayor replied, "Th- This is all we could spare from our stores until the next crop comes in soon. What more can w-." The mayor was interrupted as the brash pegasi struck her upside her head with the back of his hoof.
"Worthless. Worthless little dirtcrawlers. Barely willing to hunker down, spare a morsel from your children's selfish maws to provide for your betters! And such behavior, after our gracious invitation of mutual trade? We should be collecting this asking nothing in return, as tribute, but wiser pegasi than I decided it was better to trade. And you go and repay there kindness with this. this... Pittance!"
Now, Dash hardly knew the Mayor, case in point the only means of address she had for her, than anypony had for her, was the ubiquitous title of "Mayor". But she did not at all approve of violence against somepony who obviously didn't deserve it, whether it was against one of her best friends or a perfect stranger. As the pegasi readied himself to strike at the mayor again, Rainbow Dash could watch no longer.
She burst out of the bush shouting."Hey, leave her alone, she didnt do anything to you." The pegasi looked at her not with the rage he had wielded against the mayor, but instead with confusion, perhaps a hint of horror, as well. Rainbow Dash was knocked off her guard, this was clearly the last reaction she was expecting.
The darker pegasi shuddered, "Is-Is she?"
The lighter pegasi flew up to her and said in a deadly serious tone, "You! You are... You're coming with us" Still momentarily stunned, she didn't grasp the meaning of this threat until it was too late. the clang of metal coming from behind her knocked her out of he stupor. The dark pegasi had placed some sort of cruel harness around her midsection, constricting her wings from moving as they were pressed shut against her. She fought against the harsh device, it was tight, it felt as though she had been strapped with a bear trap.
"What is this? Get it offa' me! It hurts like crazy!" She demanded as the pegasi grabbed her by her find hooves and lifted her off the ground.
"You have no right to complain. This isn't even close to what you deserve!" The dark pegasi replied in a gruff, but restrained tone, as if he had been personally offended by the her but was holding himself back.
The Mayor raised a hoof in protest. "Wait! Please, don't take Rainbow Dash; she is one of the most valuable members of our community, a dedicated loyal worker, and a local icon! Take the food, take your own possessions back with you as well, just leave Rainbow Dash here."
The light pegasi said maliciously "Now there's an offer I can get behind, We'll take it. And we'll take your "Rainbow Dash" as well."
The dark pegasi blurted in, "Hold on a minute... You know this pegasi? What's more, you say she's a 'valued member' of your community? Should have just stayed quiet and let us work, harboring Rogue-borns is a serious crime back in Pegalysium... How many others are you holding out on us?" Rainbow Dash was kicking furiously to escape, bringing the pegasi's attention back to the matter at hoof.
"We don't have time to worry about any other's, our hooves will be full with this one." The dark skinned pegasi warned his brother.
As the two callously heaved Dash onto the cart, the brother replied, "You're right, we'll tell the court and they can deal with it. Now let's get back home, this place reeks of the earth."
Rainbow Dash raised her head and asked, "Wait, you guys are from where? Pega-what-ium? I've never even heard of this place." The two pegasi quickly exchanged sharp glares, before the dark one clocked Dash over the head with some kind of cudgel. The world went blurry, then it went dark.
Fluttershy was watering her garden as she did every morning, all of the fruits and vegetables had been planted in convenient alphabetical order, from asparagus to zucchini. Harvest time was coming up soon, all the plants had poked their various leaves and stems out of the ground and were stretching towards the sky, soaking up the sun's bounty. In but a few weeks there'd be treats for all of her animal friends, and her pony friends as well. The thought brought a smile to her face and made the tedious chore tolerable.
About the time when she had reached the red bell peppers, she noticed a shadow moving across your yard. Sky traffic was rare, sky traffic near the Everfree Forest was rarer still. She looked up and saw two pegasi flying with a strange cart containing all manner of odd things, on it's own a tad strange, but didn't warrant concern or investigation. But the one thing that really caught her eye was the un-moving body of one of her friends! Rainbow Dash lied motionless on top of the heap, blood trickling from her head. Fluttershy had nothing to go on, but she knew she had to make a split second decision. Running to town to get her friends help would have taken too long, the pegasi were moving fast, and would be too far away to track. She was not about to leave one of her dear friends in a perilous situation, Any of them would have done the same for her, and she knew it. But in her haste, she would not leave her home un-cared for. If only the care-taker was less... belligerent.
"Angel?" Fluttershy called. Angel stumbled out of his little pen drowsily, and rubbed his eyes. "Some mornings..." Angel wasn't a morning person, and he would have ignored any other pony's call, but never Fluttershy's. "Angel. Mama's going away for a little while. Can you take care of everything while I'm gone?" Angel with his half shut eyes and a slouched posture, gave the best attempt at a salute that he could. "Thank you, I knew I could count on you. I promise I won't be gone a moment longer than necessary. I'll be back soon." With that Fluttershy flew off after Rainbow's captors. As soon as she was out of sight, Angel walked back into his home, the plants could go thirsty for an hour or two until he was ready to start the day.
"Constricted, helpless, at another pony's mercy... Some days you just gotta ask yourself, 'how did I get here'?" Dash thought as she awoke for the second time today, A throbbing headache kept her pinned on the uneven pile, blunt and jagged objects poking her incessantly. But she managed to pry open her eyes to gaze upon one of the most incredible things she had ever seen. It was gigantic. The largest thing she had ever seen in the sky. The whole thing was a city on the clouds. Not a city of clouds, but built on top of them. Cloudsdale was impressive, but this... She could fit a hundred Cloudsdales onto this place.
The base wasn't a single cloud but thousands of clouds, cumulus, stratus, and cirrus all formed into one un-shifting amalgam. Pegasi buzzed in and around like a swarm of flies. She wondered how it stayed whole and didn't drift apart as clouds tend to do unless treated very specially. It was covered edge to edge in all sorts of buildings: over a dozen towers, two stadiums, and countless houses and stores. But the most striking building was the central Spire, it was very tall, several hundred feet and least, with a point upon it's top that seemed to pierce a hole in the sky, and it was detailed so intricately, she could make out hundreds of individual details from a good distance, the work of ponies with not much to do and a lot of time on their hooves. Her mouth would have fallen open agape, when she realized her mouth was already open, having been gagged.
"Your voice annoys us." The light pegasi teased, answering her unasked question, his tone and composure had eased from tense to confident and relaxed, after all, they had the home field advantage. As they got closer, Dash noticed all the structures littering the massive cloud-scape seemed to be built out of cloud, like one would build a house out of wood or brick. Back in Equestria, clouds were carved into houses. The material ranged between various shades and hues of blue and white. The rare tinges of purple, black, and orange worked their way in too. The cart was made out of the same material, and rubbing her hoof against it, she found that it still had the smooth texture of clouds, it was very hard, almost rock hard.
"Behold Pegalysium, the home and original birthplace of the pegasi, who knows what your ancestors did to earn displacement from its beauty. The last bit of beauty you'll ever see, Earth-Tainted." Earth-Tainted, what did that mean? Whatever it was it certainly wasn't a compliment.
The two pegasi began to slow down as they approached a dock, jutting out of the edge of the clouds. Rainbow Dash watched as, for the first time since she had seen them, the pegasi touched their hooves to the ground, and rested their wings. They both uttered a loud sigh of relief as they could finally relax. The look of relaxation, or any positive emotion on their faces was somehow alien. They yanked the helpless Rainbow Dash onto the ground and they attached two sets of manacles, securing the first cup to a ring in the harness, and the second cup to one of their hooves. Dash figured it was a measure to prevent escape. This was obviously a society of paranoia if such precautions in place. Dash didnt see the point, what was she going to do? Take a leap of faith off the clouds? Still, this was the least of her worries as she was yanked out of the cart and dragged along on the ground until finally gaining her balance.
Her detainees moved a fast pace with little patience, not even stopping if she tripped, just scraping her along the ground, she was almost certain she was being tripped on purpose. They hadn't exactly treated her like royalty before, but now it was like she didn't even exist, just a load to haul around. As she went through the streets she had a chance to look more closely at the cities architecture. This was a housing district, but the houses didn't look like regular cloud homes, they lacked the soft edges and curves characteristic of clouds, these houses had no curves, everything was sharp and geometrical, like a house you'd built of wood or stone. Clouds were not supposed to look like this.
The various pegasi walking the street all had similar features: they all were either some degree of yellow, white, or blue. Most peculiarly their cutie marks were all sky themed: the sun, clouds, feathers, bird, etc. Sky themed cutie marks were common among pegasi, as her own cutie mark demonstrated, but there were just as many that had nothing to do with the sky. Unbeknownst to Rainbow Dash, these marks had little to do with talents, but instead served as a kind of caste system in Pegalysium, they signified what family you belonged to. Like most of the Apple family had apple related cutie marks. Somehow this culture had managed to alter the fundamental mechanics of cutie marks...
As they passed the numerous pegasi, nearly all of them stopped and stared giving looks of disgust and anger to Rainbow Dash. The kind of reactions a criminal would expect, but she had no idea what set them off. How could they be so upset with somepony they didn't even know? They didn't know what why she was here or what she did, they just saw her and assumed the worst. She admitted it was most likely the heavy chains and rusty harness or the fact she was smashed between two burlesque guards. But she still had no idea what she had done wrong. The gravity of her situation struck her for the first time. She had been: 1. filly-napped for no adequately explained reason. 2. Taken to a place far away from everything she knew and loved, that was hostile and wanted nothing good to do with her. And 3. The place in question seemed to have a grave punishment in store. She was extremely upset at both this place and herself for letting her curiosity get her into this mess, "If I'd just stayed home and done my job, I wouldn't be in this mess." She thought to herself as they paced.
they kept on walking through many busy streets, there was amazing the amount of activity here. If the entire city was this busy, there must have been at least a couple hundred thousand pegasi living here. At last they drew closer to their ultimate destination. There was no mistaking the spire she had seen coming into the city. It was even more intimidating up close. Countless months and tons upon tons of materials must have gone to creating this landmark. Rainbow Dash's heart sank even lower, if she was being taken to a place this big, this important, this downright scary. She was in bigger trouble than she thought. She stared at it sharply. Maybe her gaze would somehow make it fall to pieces; where was Derpy when you needed her?
The Mayor was frantic. She rushed through the town towards Twilight Sparkles residence, as she knew she had easy contact with Princess Celestia. Her mind was one track towards this one goal, missing or ignoring several friendly greetings from other Ponyville residents. She walked up to Twilight's door and gave it two sharp knocks, tapping her foot awaiting response. Twilight answered, although in a less than advantageous moment, Her mane was wrapped up in a towel, and she was still dripping having just bathed.
Surprised to see her guest, Twilight said, "Mayor? What are you doing here? Can I... Help you with somethi-"
"Twilight? You can sent a letter directly to the princess, correct?"
"Ye-es." Twilight cleared her throat, and took on the proper term for addressing a delegate such as the Mayor. "Yes. Why? What's happened?"
"I don't have time to explain! The Princess needs to be contacted immediately."
The Mayor ran to Twilight's desk and scrounged together a pen and scroll, she then began writing as fast as her hoofs could maneuver the feather quill. (How hooves move quills, or any object for that matter, we shall never know.) Within but a few moments she was finished, hastily raveling and sealing the scroll. Spike happened to be coming down the steps and the Mayor seized the opportunity.
"You! Send this! Now!"
"Ah! Okay!" Spike replied startled, he instinctively blew a plume of green flame, disintegrating the scroll into the usual puff of smoke which in but a few moments would reconstitute in front the Princess's eyes... The Mayor sighed and sat down of the hard oak steps, breathing deeply. "Er. What did I just send?" Spike asked, very confused.
"Yes, What did Spike just send. I'd like to know as well." Twilight said in a decidedly interrogative tone. The Mayor inhaled sharply and pressed down mane, trying to regain a semblance of her usual professional attitude.
"Twilight... Rainbow Dash has been filly-napped."
Twilight was taken aback "filly-kidnapped? By whom?"
"The answer of 'whom' is a long one, even I don't know all of the story, I was given my orders from Princess Celestia on where to meet them, and to take them seriously, very seriously. Poor Rainbow Dash, if only she'd known her place and hadn't followed us."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Spike asked, concerned for Dash's safety.
"No. There is nothing to do but wait."
"Now that's just a cliche answer!"
"Spike!"
It was a quiet midday in the castle. Par for the course as not that many major crises broke out in Equestria, a fact for which all its ponies were grateful. Princess Celestia was sitting (Well, ponies can't very well sit, so I suppose laying) on her throne, the main hall providing a great view of many Equestrian landmarks, When all of a sudden a small scroll appeared in front of her. This was no new occurrence but considering the time of day...
"Hmm, what this? A report already? But it's so early." The Princess mused, telepathically breaking the seal. "Hold on, not a letter from Twilight but... Ponyville's Mayor? This is a pleasant surprise, she hardly ever writes." As the Princess skimmed over the letter, the expression on her face changed from a smile to a more plain expression, her eyes narrowed as she finished reading. The parchment fell to the floor and the princess arose, startling the four pegasi guardsponies stationed at the throne. "I had hoped my trust had not be misplaced, I was afraid of this from the start, but I expected better from these ponies."
"Princess, is something wrong?" One of the guards asked, following the Princess in her stead.
The Princess walked to the balcony over looking the capital, turned and said, "ready the royal chariot, find our two best and strongest fliers, and tell them to prepare for a long journey."
"Princess, if this is a diplomatic matter, we could have a representative out within the hour."
"Thank you, but this is a personal matter, I must resolve it personally." Celestia cleared her throat, "Now, you have your orders, please carry them out." The guards rushed to see to the Princess's request. She looked off into the distance and muttered "Rainbow Dash. I am so sorry you became wrapped up in all this."
Miles away, on the edge of the horizon, in the far off megapolis of Pegalysium. A cold, merciless congregation was about to decide the fate of young interloper. A meek pegasi in over her head was about to become lost in a strange environment, a group of revenge consumed rebels were planning the literal downfall of all those around them, and a yet un-introduced third party had concerns involving not only Pegalysium, but the entire world.