Chapter 3
Fluttershy snapped awake when a loud explosion rocked the house. A vase that had been placed next to the couch came crashing to the ground, shattering into pieces.
"What was that?!" She asked, moving quickly to get off of the couch.
She instantly regretted the fast movement, twisting her body in a way it didn't approve as her chest roared at her in pain. She collapsed on the floor, panting as her chest throbbed. For the moment she had forgotten about her injuries. She groaned as she carefully sat up, making sure not to offend her wound. She inspected her dressing carefully.
Her injuries hadn't bled any more than expected during her sleep and the recovery was about where she would've expected it for a bit of sleep. She carefully got to her hooves and took a few steps. She then stretched her wings before wincing slightly and shutting them back closed. She could move, she could walk, she could fly with a bit of pain, but she still wasn't about to go flying around.
"...How long was I asleep?" Fluttershy asked aloud. She hadn't meant to fall asleep; her body had done it almost on its own, as if on instinct. "I...I got separated from Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie...I should've been looking for them, not sleeping." Fluttershy felt awful for having left her friends alone, even though it was against her will. They were probably worried about her; they must've gone to look for her...
"Oh, I hope you two are alright." Fluttershy tried to not let her worries hold her back, before moving to the front door of the house she was in. The door was locked; she stared at the door in shock. The door was locked from the inside. Above the handle to the door there was a doll shaped symbol hovering over the lock.
"...W-Why is the door locked?" Fluttershy frowned, staring at the door. She had to get back outside and see what was going on. She turned back around to look at the house in closer detail.
It was a small, quaint little house, but it didn't look like a house that would normally be built in Ponyville. She hadn't noticed till just now, but the building material was the kind you would find in a cloud city, material that was made specifically for sitting on clouds.
"Huh? This is...a cloud house?" Fluttershy looked around baffled, "But...the only cloud house in Ponyville is Rainbow Dash's house..." Fluttershy was confused. She didn't know whose house this was, as it certainly wasn't Rainbow Dash's.
She looked at the vase that lay broken on the floor, noticing something unusual about one of the broken pieces. Getting closer, she could see that it wasn't really a piece of the vase at all, but something that must've been inside of the vase when it broke. She carefully picked it up examining the item.
It was a white coin with the shape of a cloud on it, with tiny writing engraved on the edges that read 'The Floating Cloud'.
She had never been one to take things from other ponies, but something told her that she was supposed to take this with her. Maybe it was Pinkie's words about what was going on in this place, maybe it was a gut instinct, or maybe it was just something about the coin looking valuable. She carefully placed the coin in her bag before looking back up at the house.
Her eyes drew to movement she hadn't noticed before. Outside of a door in a hallway in the house there were several moths flying outside the door. This seemed odd to her, the moths seemed to have no reason to be gathering by the door, unless perhaps there was some kind of food behind the door they couldn't reach. She walked up to the door and carefully pushed it open.
The door gave way, opening up to what appeared to be someone's study. The moths didn't seem to move still, confusing her, but she slowly entered the study regardless. The walls were lined with books on various subjects; she could recognize several different topics. Most of them were about cloud building, some were poetry books while others looked like business books. They all shared the same markings though, they were books from Cloudsdale.
