[Cloudsdale] Our Heads In The Clouds (Open)

[FermataTheBasse]

Cloudsdale was an architectural marvel, a testament to the prowess of generations of pegasus who molded the clouds with their own two hands. She was a very labyrinthine city for those without the ability to fly, the clouds having been shaped into a maze of open air walkways that moved up and down the z-axis, twisting and turning onto one another and onto themselves until anypony trying to trot along them was hopelessly confused. But for those blessed with flight, the walkways were simply eyecandy or perhaps obstacles to test maneuvers around. Pegasus buzzed around the city, engaged in various delivery or weather jobs, or perhaps simply flying for the pure fun of it.

In the near heart of the city, where a large tower of particularly well sculpted cloud stretched into the air, a sign had been posted, inviting newcomers and returners to the city alike to stop off and meet old friends. Cloudsdale, being what it was, was not a center of tourism in Equestria by any means. However, plenty of pegasus who left the city to work and live in Equestria's other settlements made it a point to return on a regular basis.

Here, in this tourists center- for lack of a better word- ponies just arriving in Cloudsdale congregated. It was a tower with an open roof through which the sun shined at it's highest point in the sky. Underhoof, a patch of translucent clouds revealed that the tower was built atop a river of rainbow that fed into the factory in another part of the city. The river surged sluggishly, and anypony not already talking to another could well be mesmerized by the sight of the river's lazy bubbling.

In fact, that's exactly what one Dewdrop, known to most as Penumbra, was doing right now. Her eyes followed the lines of color that formed and dissolved in an instant, more wearily than excitedly. Penumbra had left from Canterlot earlier this afternoon, on a trip to Cloudsdale to meet her parents. However, they hadn't shown up yet. Penumbra should have been fast asleep by this point of the day, but she didn't have a place to stay anyways. Just keep waiting, she supposed... She yawned, then looked around. Did she know any of the ponies in here?

[TheInvisiblePony]

Oh, clouds were a marvelous thing! So very easy to work with, and none of the mess you'd get from clay, or the chips you'd get from stone. Just a simple puffy white mass waiting to be forged into something. Well, maybe not forged. More like molded, but that's besides the point.

A good distance away from the visitors tower, a specific yellow coated Pegasus was remarking on how fun cloud shaping was. The mare in question was a bit of a idealist named Silver Lining. Adequate enough of a name, given her silver hair and choice of hobby. Anyways, next to her was a cloud that was starting to look a little something like a manticore that she had seen trying to get some clouds over the Everfree (a bit of a mistake, but a story for a different time). Anyways, the unfinished cloud was being carefully attended to by the hooves of Silver as she patted down most of the imperfections. Pausing, she spoke aloud to nopony in particular

"I've run out of cloud for the tail."

And without so much as a second pause for thought, the pegasus flew off in search of more material. This proved to be surprisingly difficult in a city clouds, mainly because pretty much every other cloud was being used, either as part of a building, or just being used by another pegasus. After circling around for a few minutes, Silver decided perhaps she needed to rethink a way to get a cloud. Flapping down to a walkway, she sat down and looked around.

From what it looked like, she was at the tourist center. It was fairly interesting just watching everypony else fly about. Course, there was also another pony just sitting around watching the crowds as well. Silver wondered if she knew her. She blinked. Nope, didn't seem to ring any bells. Must be one of those faces.

Silver Lining sighed. Now what to do? She didn't see any vacant clouds (Why would she in one of the busiest parts of Cloudsdale?) and sitting around was only interesting for a short while. She stretched her hooves and gathered up a small pile of clouds. Within a few moments, she had shaped into a rough pegasus (simple hoof-sized things were rather easy to make) and she gave it a gentle push, if only to watch float away. If only she could find enough of those to finish her original sculpture...

[FermataTheBasse]

Penumbra turned a tired eye over toward a mare whose coat was a veritable eyesore, bright as daylight and not half as warming. She was doing something or another with a pile of clouds- wait, had she just turned them into a pony? Penumbra rubbed at her eyes obviously, too out of sorts to care if she was being blatant with her watching or not. No, her sleep deprived mind wasn't playing tricks on her. That mare had indeed built a pegasus out of clouds. Thankfully, Penumbra wasn't so out of it that she was hallucinating, or this might have been a significantly stranger scene for her to witness. As it was, the cloud pegasus was floating away. Penumbra lazily flew over.

"Uhh... hey there." Penumbra paused as her train of thought temporarily vanished. Stupid biological clock. "... Whu... Where'd you get those clouds from?" It was a stupid question to open with, but Penumbra was a weather mare in Canterlot. Since stray clouds were officially under her juristiction, it was the first question that popped to mind.

[RarityDash]

Hopesong had been in Cloudsdale for a number of months now, and still the cloud city never ceased to amaze and intimidate her. For a young filly used to living a fairly solitary life with just her mother in the mountains, a populous city of splendor sitting on countless cloud tops just wasn't something easy to adapt to. As daunting as it all was, she remained ever optimistic. Her mother had sent her to the city, allowing her to venture off on her own into Equestria for the first time, all so she may attend Cloudsdale flight camp and learn things that her mother, as an earth pony, could not teach her.

Flight camp was so far going well enough. She was learning a lot and had a lot more confidence in her wings. Flying high or fast still kind of scared her, but she was becoming less shaky under the careful watch of her instructors. She had even been able to make a few friends in the process. It was going well, and the young pony's confidence was going up. It really felt like she might get her cutie mark at any moment, though she really wasn't sure where.

The only thing that got her down sometimes was thoughts of her mother. Hopesong both missed her and worried for her. The mare relied on her child more than she would probably admit and Hopesong was well aware of it. Sometimes the young pegasus found herself feeling rather homesick, and she found the best way to put these feelings aside was to go out and explore more of the beautiful cloud city in front of her. That's how she found herself at the tower called the tourist's center that day. She didn't really have much reason to be there, it was just a new corner of the city she hadn't yet visited.

Signs told her that it was to be a gathering point for ponies from throughout Equestria to meet back up with old friends and family. Hopesong didn't know what to really think about this. Most pegasi she had met in her life she had only met in the last few months. As for family, her mother's side was all earth ponies, and she had never met her father and didn't know the first thing about his family. No, there was no one in particular she could hope to meet up with. Still, maybe she'd be able to meet some new pegasi who were nice? That thought sounded promising.

As the filly moved through the tourist center, something floated past a mare and over toward her. Hopesong recognized it eventually as a small cloud pegasus. Her eyes widened in wonder. Pegasi really could be amazing. She barely had a handle on flying; all the cloud shaping and weather making and other fancy tricks of her species might as well be from another world to her. Charmed by it, the filly reached out toward the cloud pegasus and tried to catch it, only to cause it to break up. Frowning, she looked in the direction from which it came to see a couple mares. She flew toward them gently, offering a smile.

"Hello! I think I broke your little cloud pony. Sorry!" the pink maned filly admitted meekly, with a blush and a giggle. "I think it's really neat that you can make things like that out of clouds though. I wouldn't even know where to begin..."

[hinata2000100]

Cotton Cloudy marveled at all the clouds up here in... well, Cloudsdale! She had never been up here, even though A. she's a pegasus, and B. it's been above her all the time! She looked around, smiling constantly at the feel of the clouds underneath her hooves. She felt sad for all the unicorns and earth ponies who would never be able to feel what it's like on the clouds, but she tried not to focus on that. She saw something that looked like a pony made out of clouds in the distance, only for a real pony to come and try to grab it, making it dissipate. Cotton laughed, and flew over to where she saw the cloud pony come from. She saw a couple mares conversing with each other, and Cotton watched from afar. "I wonder who made the cloud pony...?" Cotton said, which she meant to whisper, but said in a normal tone of voice, and quickly covered her mouth with her hoof, hoping nopony heard her.

[TheInvisiblePony]

Silver Lining blinked. What- what just happened? It wasn't exactly like she didn't make her cloud ponies often... but then again, she rarely came to this side of Cloudsdale. On top of that, it was fairly busy, so her clouds would be considered stray and handled accordingly fairly quickly. Or maybe she just didn't make anything in the middle of crowds often enough. Silver was considering this, when she realized that answering the ponies that approached her was probably a good idea.

Okay, first up was the strikingly dark blue pegasus. Gesturing towards the cloud she was standing on, she spoke "I gathered it from this, oh what would you call it? Walkway? Yes, I gathered some clouds from the walkway."

Silver still felt like she had forgotten to say something. Oh, right, a greeting! The blue pony said hello, that should be responded to. "Oh, and hello."

Silver then turned to the light green pony, who had apparently examined the cloud pegasus a little too closely. "Don't worry about it! Cloud art isn't really meant to stay put for very long anyways. Even the cloudiest skies are cleared eventually." Silver flashed a brief smile, hoping that would suffice as an apology accepted sentence.

At this point, Silver's ears perked up. Normally she missed out on background voices, but seeing as she was already trying to listen to two different pegasi, it wasn't difficult to hear a third voice, albeit a farther off one. Silver wasn't quite sure how to respond to the foal she assumed had spoken, so she decided to take an exercise in anonymity, by which she meant she wouldn't reply to the stray comment simply because it sounded more like a spoken thought than anything directed towards the group.

[FermataTheBasse]

Penumbra was surprised by the sudden appearance of the filly in her peripheral vision- her hearing was dull due to a lack of sleep- and she started back a step or two before her instincts stopped acting dumb. Smiling sheepishly, as if to apologize to the filly for thinking she had been a threat, Penumbra turned back just in time to hear Silver Lining.

"Uh... well, you kind of can't do that, really..." Penumbra was quick to smile reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm not on duty or anything. Just be careful, one of Cloudsdale's officials might get on your case if you do it again." Penumbra then stood there awkwardly for a few moments, not really sure what to say next. "So... uh... Hi? What's your name, Miss?" Penumbra figured she could stand to chat for a while, since she was still waiting for her parents and thus couldn't head off yet. "Uh..."Penumbra awkwardly gestured her head at Hopesong, inviting her to the conversation as well.

[RarityDash]

"Don't worry about it! Cloud art isn't really meant to stay put for very long anyways. Even the cloudiest skies are cleared eventually."

The mare with the yellow coat spoke, indicating she had made the little cloud pegasus and didn't mind that Hopesong had disrupted it. The young filly gave a nod. She guessed that did make sense. Cloud got cleared all the time, after all. Still, for something so magical to just vanish like that before her had still come as something of a sad surprise.

"I see. I'm glad you're not upset. I still think it's really cool that you can make things like that out of clouds. I can't do anything like that yet," the young pony said her voice becoming quiet.

"So... uh... Hi? What's your name, Miss?"

This other mare spoke somewhat awkwardly. She seemed to mostly be asking the yellow mare, but she nodded to Hopesong too, which indicated that she was being included. She smiled and gave a nod back to the mare.

"My name's Hopesong," she said cheerily. "I'm here by myself in Cloudsdale to participate in the Summer Flight Camp. I still don't know many ponies here, or the city very well, so it's really nice to meet you both."

[FermataTheBasse]

Penumbra nodded slowly, in recognition, as memories of her own time in flight camp came back to her... They had been less than ideal, as a consequence of her sleep rythyms going berserk around that same time period. Still, Penumbra at least knew the feeling of wonder most fillies and colts got when they first joined up, the excitement, the fun times with friends, the blood-boiling exhilaration of the first turns and dives... Penumbra was lost in her memories, good and bad, for an awkwardly silent moment or two. Then she remembered with a start that she was speaking with someponies.

"It's nice to meet you too, Hopesong, you can call me Penumbra. Flight camp, eh? I remember that well enough... You having fun so far?"

[TheInvisiblePony]

Silver watched the events with a bit of curiosity. So the green one was Hopesong, and the blue one was Penumbra. With any luck, she wouldn't forget their names. Silver had certainly been caught in situations that had played out badly because of simply slips of the mind like that. Anyways, she regarded Penumbra's comment regarding her cloud gathering somewhat solemnly before giving a light grin.

"If I had a bit for every time somepony tried to get on my case... Well, let's just say this wouldn't be the first time a weather pony wouldn't be quite fond of my work."

It was true, to a certain degree. In the absence of unaccounted clouds, Silver had on at least a few occasions been forced to gather a few clouds from a building here and there. Course, unless one of the patrol happened to be watching, few ever really noticed. She made sure never to take too much. Then Penumbra asked for a name. Silver blinked. Had she not introduced herself yet? Apparently not, as the greetings were skipped over somewhere along the lines.

"My name? I suppose that's reasonable enough. I'm Silver Lining, and I must say, it is nice too meet the two of you. Formally, that is."

After that transpired, she watched Penumbra ask about flight camp. Perhaps she would have interjected, but it seemed a bit rude to say anything before... Hopesong, was it? Before Hopesong got a chance to answer the question herself.

[RarityDash]

Hopesong gave a nod and a smile as both of the mares gave their introductions. So Penumbra and Silver Lining were their names? Those were nice, pretty names she thought. The mares who went along with them both seemed really nice so far too. She liked them.

"It's nice to meet you too, Ms. Silver," Hopesong said, grinning. "And you as well, Ms. Penumbra! I really like making new friends!"

The young filly gave another nod and then tilted her head, considering for a moment the question asked to her by Penumbra. Giving a slight gigged and one more nod, she spoke, still smiling, "Oh, and I'm having lots of fun at Flight camp, so far! Thanks for asking! I've been able to meet a lot of new friends my age, something that can be kinda hard back home... Oh, and I'm finally learning to fly much better too!" She gave a small sigh and looked down. "I do miss my mom a whole bunch though..." she said, her smiled falling momentarily.

[FermataTheBasse]

Penumbra felt the need to defend her actions, so with some hoof waving around and a nervous smile she turned back to Silver Lining. "No no, you don't get me," Penumbra insisted with some force. "It's not that I'm not fond of your work, it's awesome and all that." In her excitement to make her intentions clear Penumbra's voice was steadily increasing in volume, to the point where she was practically shouting at point blank range. "You see, It's just my job and all that I have to get on other ponies cases for messing with the weather- it's nothing personal!" Penumbra was definitely beginning to lose some togetherness, as her senses were all dulled and she didn't notice her own volume spiking. She turned back to Hopesong, the expression on her face cheerful even as she was shouting as though angry at something.

"Friends are good! When I was your age I didn't have a lot of them!" Penumbra milled over it for a moment. "Come to think of it I still don't have a lot of them!" Penumbra wasn't so far gone however that she failed to notice Hopesong's momentary sadness. Penumbra finally lowered her speaking voice from a dull roar to normal, tenderness and sympathy edging into her voice. "Where is your mom then, Hopesong?"