Thresh sipped her porridge slowly as she gazed into the belly of her forge. Her body still ached from falling asleep in a meadow after trying to find Hibiscus- she must have wafted into slumber when she had sat down for a quick rest. The anxiety of her meeting had been taxing, and it left her feeling nauseous just thinking about it. She started to wonder just what she was doing, if all this was really necessary, but knew that it was too late. She was committed- the accusations were potentially devastating, and her own levels of melodrama would make her look stupid trying to back out of it. She tilted the bowl and downed the last dregs. She decided to distract herself before she got into ethics or even more needless worry. Instead, she thought, the question is...where did Hibiscus go? A drunk old Earth Pony can't grow wings, nor could he have gone too far. Well, if he hadn't fallen down a well, she'd see him again at the meeting- she planned to establish herself as a running member, yes, that was most important. In the meantime, she got up and went back to work on fixing the teeth of that seed drill. Back in the workshop, with various parts scattered all around, waiting for assembly. At the forge, hammering the metal into the perfect arrangement, with the fumes in the air and the heat of fiery coal. Perhaps even in the backroom, fiddling on one or two of her pet designs. If only she had the wealth to simply work on those all day, laboring away on dynamic, new inventions, instead of producing seed drills and fiddling around with plows. Perhaps with the finest materials, with no sense of urgency, with a retirement to luxury in a grand estate after a long days work of doing what she loved. That'd be the life. That WILL be the life.
Snow nodded, "Thanks Ashes, now, I have to harvest some White Hopes for tonight's dinner, you wanna help?"
Ice turns over onto his back and looks up at the sky as he sings to himself "In the night blew a storm chasing shadows to the shore lighting filled sky thunder rolled and cried go around go around dance,as heaven crashes down singing to the song of storms". The song relaxed him and put his mind even more at ease as he drifted along on top of the little cloud roaming over the land.
It seems like it has been ages since that horrible day. The day where everything I knew fell apart, the day I became a wanderer. It was roughly a month ago now. The Griffons invaded our small camp and took us in the dead of night. I was coming home from my post and Maelstrom took over; in only a few seconds it all went bad. I heard Maelstrom call out in distress so I flew over as quickly as possible. The griffons had already surrounded him and the damage was large. I was able to fight most of them off, that is until Maelstrom could get a few yards away. I dashed towards the group of now three griffons and pulled up sharply, somehow i managed to lose them. When I finally got to Maelstrom he told me what had happened. Apparently the griffons split into groups of five and took on the guards on the ramparts. The entire village was being attacked, and if something wasn't done, we would all fall. Maelstrom had used the last of his strength to tell me this, the last of his strength was a final request. To get away and someday spread his legacy. Maelstrom had always been a friend to me. Since i was a colt. In a way he had trained me to become to warrior I am today. I will continue his legacy. I will pass on this style. I will avenge my teacher.
After Snow and Ashes had picked the White Hope, they took the harvest to the storage area. After loading most of it into storage area, Snow grabbed some food and some Hopes and put them in a saddlebag, "I have a pony to thanks, so I need to go." Snow said before disappearing in a teleport spell.
After Snow teleported, Ashes looked around him. Now that he knew the real situation of the Unicorns, he didn't knew what to do. He first went to the Laboratory. He opened the door, to discover a new scientist. "Hey. Where's the other pony who used to develop the synthetic food?" "He's off. He dropped out the project." "Hum. And i supposed you took the lead and continue his researches?" "Yes. I think i discovered how to-" "Sorry to interrupt you, but let this project down, like him. I just received orders to put this insanity to his term. We had found something else. Confidential, but it'll still bring food on the tables, and pouches of grains in the storage. Stop worrying about this, and find something else to work on. Thank you." Ashes exited the lab, leaving the new scientist confused. He headed to the kitchens, wondering if the cooks knew what they were serving to the unicorns.
Snow appeared in front of the road leading to Hibiscus's house. She walked up the path and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer.
Hibiscus awoke to yet another rapping upon his door. 'I seem to be getting popular...' he thought. As he got to his hooves, he noticed the poison joke had progressed worse than he predicted. He couldn't seem to focus either eye now. He wobbled around for nearly a minute until he found the door. Panting he opened it and said "Hello...I'm sorta out of commission right now, so you'll have to find some other pony for your tithes. As you have probably noticed, I really can't see much for the moment."
Snow looked at Hibiscus worriedly but decided to continue what she came to do. "Uh, acually, I'm not here for food. And also, you might want to get that checked out. Acually, scratch that, I have a remedy right here." she floated a White Hope flower from her bag and stuffed it inside Hibiscus' mouth, "Sorry for this but it's for your good. What did you do? Roll about in poison joke?"
Startled, and unable to comprehend how he should act in the situation, Hibiscus simply swallowed the flower and looked around a moment. His eyes quickly returned to normal and he was able to focus on Snow. 'This unicorn again?' he thought. 'Thanks a lot, there goes my week's vacation...' Hibiscus cleared his throat and said "No, for your information I wandered into a patch of it by accident. Rolling around in poison joke is such a stupid idea!." He looked off past her to try and hide the fact that he was a really terrible liar. She didn't seem to convinced, so he changed the subject. "So anyways..." he inquired. "What are you doing here? I delivered your letter, like you wanted. Come for me to deliver something else? The pegasi have a post office, you know."
"No. I simply wanted to give you this." she took off her saddlebag and placed it in front of Hibiscus, "It's my thanks. Oh, and if you really want to look sick, try a green and pink flower I call Ill's Beauty. Its anywhere where flowers grow." and Snow dissappeared.
Slowly Ice got back on his hooves and looked around then at the ground and saw he was over the earth ponies territory. "Wow I was really out of it wasn't I." he said to himself as he rubbed the back of his head with his right front hoof. "Guess I should get back to the cloud city soon." Ice grabbed the cloud and starts to fly back to where he started to float around. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a unicorn and upon further inspection sees its the unicorn representative and he is talking to the on drunk earth pony he saw last night. "Thats weird. Why are they speaking to one another." Ice thinks but then shrugs and continues back to the city in the clouds.
Hibiscus stepped out of the doorway, confused. "What is-" he didn't finish his sentence, as Snow had already teleported away. Curious, he picked up the saddlebag and went back inside. He lay the bag on a table and opened it. Inside was various articles of food. It looked delicious! Where did a unicorn get a hold of THIS? He closed the bag and was about to place it in his stores when he realized that somepony would just take it if he were to do that. He turned and went back into his room, where he placed the bag next to his hay bed. "How odd that any unicorn could be so kind..." he wondered aloud. "They're all stuck up snobs! But this one is...different..."
"i really need to stop staying in my house for so long it's not good for me i guess." "alright so whats on my to do list before nightfall"
After a couple of more days Moonbeam finally finds an old hermit living near some woods. "Well hello there young Pegasus. Whats someone like you doing outside the marvelous cloud city." Moonbeam, intrigued at a chance to reenter a society quickly inquired as to the location of the supposed city. After finding the location, and making a promise to the old stallion about helping him if the two ever met again, Moonbeam headed to the City in the Clouds. Apparently there were some strong guards there. "perhaps," he thought, "just mabye i can make a living as a guard. Mabye even teach a new mind in Maelstrom's style, The Raging Wind." With the city far off in the distance Moonbeam's heart finally felt elated after such a long time of isolation and disparity.
On his way back to the cloud city Ice sees a strange new Pegasus he had not seen before and thinks its one of the Pegasi that keeps trampling the crops of the earth ponies so he flys stealthy so as not to be noticed by this fellow Pegasi.
