I don´t know how, but they haven’t caught me yet, only she´s caught me. Let me elaborate on that.
I´m stuck in some sort of cloud city called Cloudsdale. I´ve been here for more than a month and it´s been some of the worst days of my life and the best. I´ve had to steal random fruit and vegetables so I don´t starve, because these ponies are incredibly xenophobic, but I don´t want to leave this city.
I woke up with a splitting headache and a throat that could rival the Gobi desert. I was cold and hungry but whatever I was laying on was so perfectly soft I didn´t want to leave, in fact, if I didn´t feel like I was dying I might have fallen asleep again.
When I tried to stand I could feel every bone and muscle in my body begging me to stop, but my stomach told me to get up and find food as quickly as possible. My balance was a bit off and I had this really weird feeling in my fingers, at least I thought it was my fingers, but otherwise I just needed food and some more rest.
I looked around, noticing that I was in an alley with some trashcans, a single door leading into the building on the right and light, very bright light.
It took me a moment to get used to the light but when I did I saw that this was the way out onto the street. I walked towards the light, no faster than a snail. I didn´t look out onto the street before I stepped out, a big mistake.
When I was out of the alley it was like everything stopped, the talking, the walking and even the sound of flapping wings. I was hunched over when I exited and I was still hunched over as I started walking to the right. As soon as I started walking I heard a scream right in front of me. When I looked up, trying to see what the fuss was about I saw something that looked a bit like a pony, except it was light blue and its mane was pink, I almost screamed myself.
Temporarily rejuvenated by an adrenaline rush, I took a hasty step backwards, righted my stance and looked around. What greeted me was a sight I will never forget. A giant mob of pony like things with wings, all staring at me like I was about to eat them.
I opened my mouth to say something but some pony beat me to it. “It´s going to gobble us up!” I was a bit unnerved by that weird statement but the pony´s choice of words actually made it a bit cute, until it and every other pony started running around, back and forth as if they were trying to make the biggest scene possible, all the while screaming as loud as their vocal cords would allow them.
I held my hands out in front of me, trying to not seem threatening (ironic) and said; “Look, I don´t know where I am, but I would appreciate it if you just let me have some food so I can be on my way.” They misunderstood that completely.
One pony stopped running and pointed at me with one of its hoofs and said; “It said it won´t leave until it´s eaten somepony!” The pony joined the others in running and screaming again.
I figured I wasn´t going to get anywhere like this so I ran up to a stall that sold fruits and took a few apples. I was going to put a few in my pockets but realized that I was naked, so I put one in my mouth, two in each hand and ran back into the alley.
I took one look behind me, but didn´t see any of the ponies follow me so I hid behind the trashcans and started eating.
After three apples I heard a voice above me; “THERE IT IS!” I looked up and saw about a dozen ponies, flying in the air on wings that should be way too small to carry them. Before I knew it they dive-bombed me. I leapt out of the way and dodged the first one. I looked back and expected to see a grievously wounded flying pony, but instead I saw a hole in the ground.
I was so preoccupied pondering what the hell just happened, I didn´t even notice the next one. He crashed into me and pushed me through the ground. It hurt a bit, but that could be ignored in favor of almost pissing myself. There, thousands of feet beneath me, was the ground, above me were nothing but clouds.
The rest of the ponies darted through the clouds and watched, just watched, as the pony pushing me down stopped and let me fall. I screamed and yelled and hollered as loud as I could and begged them to help me but they didn’t. Instead I felt myself gaining speed and losing altitude fast, but for some reason, I didn´t actually feel scared, just disorientated, like I´d done this before but couldn´t remember it.
I was calm. Collected, and felt like I could do this, what “this” was I had no idea, but I felt like I could do it. I felt something pull on my back, right on my shoulder blades, and I felt free. I felt like I was finally free from some curse. I could only really describe is as being born crippled and stuck in a wheelchair when all of a sudden you can feel your legs and you start walking for no other reason than to walk, because you´ve been denied this simple pleasure for as long as you can remember. It felt like that.
I looked over my shoulder and saw what I would soon value above even my fingers, my wings. They were beautiful, darker than a moonless night and about two and a half meters long each.
After a few instinctive flaps with my new appendages I wasn´t falling anymore. I flapped harder and was rewarded with a feeling not unlike the one you get in a fast elevator as it start rising. After a few minutes I was back above the clouds, in the alley I started in. My apples were still there.
I ate the remaining apples and decided to rest. It was probably going to be night soon. Before I laid down I thought of why the pony just let me go if I could fly. Wasn´t he trying to kill me? Was it just a warning?
I decided to just call it luck and leave it at that. I closed my eyes, fully intent on going to sleep, when I realized I was laying on my back and couldn´t feel my wings. I sat up and felt my shoulder blades, nothing. I was a bit scared of losing my wings and thought about how it had felt to fly. It was amazing.
The tingling in my fingers returned and I saw my wings on both sides of me. I felt whole again. Being without my wings felt like a part of me was missing and the rest was rotting.
At least I knew why the pony didn´t follow up.
I sat up against the wall and wrapped my wings around myself to keep me warm. I fell asleep within seconds.
I woke up when I heard someone come walking into the alley. I was hidden from the street by the trashcans so they didn´t see me. I peered over the trashcans and saw that it wasn´t one pony, but five. They didn´t look very nice.
One pony was pushing another one ahead of himself, the other three kept looking back like they were expecting someone to follow them. The pony being pushed had something around his wings, like cuffs, wing cuffs, to keep him from flapping and a gag.
The gagged pony was trying to scream through the gag, he sounded like a she, but the lead pony just smirked and shoved her so she fell on the trashcans and knocked them over. For some reason they didn´t see me and continued.
The lead pony said to the gagged pony; “Well Sunflower, how about it? Are you going to service me and my friends now?” He removed the gag and the female pony(mare?) screamed so loud I felt like my eardrums were going to burst. The lead pony immediately put the gag back in her mouth and slapped her.
“You stupid cunt, there´s nopony here. This is the market, nopony comes here at night. Nopony´s going to help you, so just do as you´re told and you won´t get hurt.”
I had had enough, I can´t just sit here and let someone be raped. I slowly stood up, making sure they all saw me as I stood in front of them, right above the mare. They looked scared, but not enough. It only took me a moment to come up with an idea.
I started laughing like I was crazy, baring my teeth in the process. The mare immediately ran, the other ponies didn´t dare take their eyes of me and let her run past and onto the street. I wanted to get some sleep so I figured I should finish this.
I let my wings appear on my back and shot them upwards, the alley to narrow for my for five meter wingspan. The effect was instant. They ran for the street, screaming and hollering like they had just seen the devil himself. It felt weird, both good and bad.
That was the first time I did it, I´ve only gotten better since. On almost every wall is a poster with a picture of a winged, long haired human kneeling on the ground. On the top of the poster it says; “Wanted Beast” and directly beneath that is the nickname they gave me;”The Shadow´s Shade” Because they can see the shadows I hide in, but I´m invisible until I want to be seen. It also said that whoever catches me and “brings me to justice” will be rewarded. Underneath that: 5.000.000 Bits
Right now I´m looking at my next victims, six ponies in a dark alley, just waiting for the scare of their life.
I creep into the shadows and get as close as I dare so I can hear what they´re saying, it doesn´t disappoint me.
“Why are we doing this? Haven’t you heard of The Shadow´s Shade? He stalks the streets of Cloudsdale at night and in only a month’s time has become one of the most wanted beasts in Equestria!”
“Relax Twilight, if he tries anything here I´ll just have to claim that reward.”
I throw a rock behind them, simple but effective. They all turned towards the sound. The brash mare said; “Who´s there? Show yourself!” The yellow pony seemed scared out of her mind and tried to hide behind her mane while the pink mare tried to calm her. Oh, and I now know the difference between mares and stallions.
I stood in a shadow about 10 meters away from them at this point. I flapped my wings once to create a bit of a gust. The clanking of cans and bottles was almost too much for the yellow mare and she starts shaking, “G-g-girls, I don´t think this is a good idea, let´s just go,” Yellow said.
The brash mare called out again;”Show yourself right now or you´ll regret it!” I grinned, my teeth somehow visible through the shadows and, barely above a whisper, I said;”Come and get me, little pony.”
She seemed a bit discouraged at first that I could talk but shook it off and walked to where she saw my grin, except I wasn´t there. I was behind her pink friend already, breathing on her neck. She turned around so fast she almost saw me. I stood in the shadows beside them and let the tip of a primary feather caress her spine. She turned around and looked at her friends, all of them watching the brash mare disappear into the shadows of the alley.
She didn´t really seem scared though, just intent on catching me. I would have to cross a line to get to her. I lifted her tail a bit, not enough to actually see or do anything, but it freaked her out. She stood behind all of the other mares so she was an obvious target.
I went in front of her this time, letting the shadows shelter me from all light, and grabbed her muzzle with one hand and used the other to stroke the top of it. She whimpered. I grinned and made sure she saw it, the shadows deforming my teeth to make them look like fangs while keeping the rest of me visible only as a black fog clouding her vision.
I stopped stroking her and put a finger in front of my wicked grin and shushed her. Then I stood up and walked behind her. She looked around for a bit until opening her mouth to speak. That´s when I let both of my wings stroke her sides.
She shook with an open mouth and her eyes widened. I let a finger touch the skin right above her tail and she jumped into the air. While in midair she decided that she wasn´t going to catch me by following the laws of physics. She stopped midair, no wings and no levitation to keep her suspended like that, and turned around. If I hadn´t been so freaked out I jumped into the shadows the moment she stopped, she would have caught me.
She stared every which way and glared into the shadows, but she was still shaking. I jumped over her and brushed her back with a wing. Immediately she turns to where I stand, but doesn´t see me. She´s staring into the shadows and I´m staring right back. I reveal my eyes and stare into her big blue orbs. She´s given up trying to talk and instead tries to scream, but I extend my wings and drown out the sound before it even reaches her own ears. A black feather falls on the ground next to her.
I wrap my wings around her and throw her into absolute darkness as well as drowning out all sounds from outside my embrace. I let the shadows and the silence do my work for me until she seems to be calming down. I wrap my wings tighter around her and press her to my chest until she can barely breathe. When she´s about to lose consciousness I let her go and move on to the next in line.
She´s yellow and lean, her mane and tail are pink and longer than any other I´ve seen, but her wings, her wings look so fragile, like all it takes is a touch and their gone. I initiate by extending my wings and wrapping them around her. I then… She fainted. Next.
White as snow, with a mane of the most magnificent purple fashioned into fashionable curls. These curls looked like a prime target if she proofs difficult. I moved to her side and noticed a horn. A unicorn, I thought. This might be interesting.
I hold one hand in front of her muzzle without letting her see it. She smells it like I figured she would and moves her head forward. As I bring my hand lower, letting her follow it, I put my other one on the top of her head and whisper sweet nonsense in her ear. I wrap one wing around her and extend the other one to stroke Pink. White doesn´t doesn´t dare move as I continue to whisper in her ear.
I use the wing wrapped around her as a conduit so she hears my voice from everywhere at once, not just from where I am. Pink is trying to rouse Yellow when I stroke her and she freezes up. I keep whispering for a few more seconds until I turn back to Pink and stroke her so she turns away from White.
When I finally stop whispering she´s shaking. She didn´t hear a word I said, she only heard the whispers. She didn´t feel anything other than the hand on top of her head and my palm was the only thing she could smell.
Before pink turns around I grab White´s horn, just to see what it does. Her eyes roll to the back of her head and she starts drooling and mumbling. I start whispering again. This time I make sure she can hear every word as I tell her how worthless, ugly and useless she is. Tears stream down her face and she starts sobbing, but can´t do anything beside that as I keep an iron grip on her horn.
When I let her go, she can´t even fall, she´s frozen, so frigid was I as I frightened her. I look at the pink mare. She´s looking at her friend, her head cocked to the side, she looks so CUTE!! I almost feel bad about what I´m doing to them. I probably would feel bad if it wasn´t so much fun.
I walk in front of her for a brief moment. She sees me and tries to jump at me but I´m long gone when she hits the air where I was standing just a moment ago. She ends up crashing into her white coated friend who lets out a yelp. The other ponies turn to Pink and White. I walk forward, pulling pink´s tail up over her back as I go and stroke her leg from her hoof up while breathing on her neck.
I stand to the side, shielded by shadows, and see the face Pink makes. She gets red and looks very embarrassed and on edge as she pushes her tail back to cover her private areas. White looks at her and then at their friends. She´s about to say something when I interrupt with a crazed laugh. They look around, at Yellow, and in Blue´s direction.
“I think we sh-“ White starts to say but I interrupt her again by flapping my wings right at their side. They´re almost blown away and look towards where I flapped, but I´m already on the other side of them. I lightly caress White´s side, making her jump and turn in my direction, the others turning as well.
I make my way towards Yellow and pick her up and put in another alley not far away. I come back and make it just in time to see their reaction to their friend´s disappearance. Pink seems very nervous. White is shaking and can´t hold back her tears while Purple and Orange look spooked.
I stick to the shadow I´m in and whisper loud enough for them to hear;”She´s mine, like you will soon be.” White starts sobbing and Pink doesn’t dare stay still. Pink starts running in circles, trying to keep her privates private and unknowingly making the others even more terrified.
I go behind Orange, she looks strong, making her feel physically weak while her friends are scared out of their minds might do something. I stand over her and let myself drop on top of her. She puts up a good fight but falls eventually. I sit on her and hold her muzzle closed while White and Purple are busy trying to calm Pink.
Orange tries as much as she can, but I´m eventually to heavy for her. She tries to make herself heard by the others by hitting the ground with her hoofs, but Pink is making too much noise for her to be heard. I use one hand to keep her muzzle closed and stroke her mane with the other.
I bend over and whisper to her; “Shhhh. Don´t worry, soon you won´t feel anything.” She shakes, but otherwise seems fine and she tries to roll over. “Not below your neck at least.” I can almost hear her eyes open wide and she starts struggling with renewed vigor. I knew I hit a weak spot there, more so than the others.
“Just think about it, other ponies catering you, holding up your glass of water so you can take a sip. Feeding you like a foal. Rolling you around because you can´t do it yourself.” I let that sink in for a moment before continuing. “And just think of how easy it would be to get that luxury.” I grin. “Falling from the sky.” I rustle my wings. “Something heavy breaking your spine.” I stop stroking her mane and lean on her neck.
She´s already crying but I decide I need to finish this. I raise my voice and deepen it. “Something so much stronger than you breaking your neck.” I let go of her muzzle and move my hand under it. With my other hand still on her neck I lift her head but prevent her neck from rising with it, bending it at a very uncomfortable angle. Her choked sobs stop her from making her friends aware of her predicament but as the first crack echoes through her mind, she screams.
Her friends turn around and I disappear. They run to her, forgetting their own fears for a split second. Orange doesn´t make a move to stand.
Orange doesn´t stop crying so I use the distraction and step behind White and Pink and lightly caress their backs with the tips of my wings. Pink turns around with tears in her eyes and screams;”LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO APPLEJACK!! JUST LEAVE US ALONE!!” I move into the shadows before she sees me and go after Blue.
I walk for a while, until I see her at a dead end, one of many. I move behind her and can´t help but notice her wings, they´re well cared for obviously and look very powerful. I flap my wings once, twice and I´m on the roof above her. She hears my flaps and turns around.”I know you´re there. Show yourself.” She keeps looking around, biting her lower lip.
I leap into a shadow behind her without making a sound and sneak up behind her. She´s still looking around in front of her, not thinking I might come out of the dead end. I whisper in her ear;”Am I more important than your friends?” I grin like the Cheshire cat as she looks at me, seeing only my fading smile in the shadows.
“My friends?” She asked. While she figured my question out, I stood behind her at my full height, wings spread as far as they would go, no shadows to hide me. “My friends!” She yelled and galloped back to where I left the other mares.
I arrive just after she does. Orange is sitting now and has stopped crying, but the wet marks in her fur can´t be ignored.
Blue asked the obvious question;”What happened?” She asked Purple.
Purple answered as best she could. “I-I´m not sure. All I know right now is that Pinkie jumped on Rarity and then started running in circles. Rarity can´t stop shaking and crying. Applejack was overpowered, forced to the floor, threatened, and Fluttershy´s gone!”
“Overpowered Applejack? How? I´ve been trying to do that for yea-Fluttershy´s gone?! HOW?!” Blue yelled.
Purple was a bit startled when Blue yelled, so Pink explained. “We turned to a sound and when we looked back she was gone.”
Blue stared wide eyed at Pink but soon the ground just seemed more interesting. “It´s my fault. I shouldn´t have ran after it, or what I thought was it.”She spoke barely above a whisper. “I left when my friends needed me…”
Purple moved to Blue´s side and nuzzled her. “Rainbow Dash, it´s not your fault. You didn´t bring Applejack to tears. You didn´t make Pinkie- Actually, I don´t know what´s wrong with Pinkie. But you aren´t the reason Rarity is (traumatized for life) mumbling.
I stepped into the shadows right in front of them, so close I could smell them. I made one run between them and stroked the top of all of their muzzles. They tensed up and I made my way back in front of them and hunched to make myself look smaller, then I let the shadows fall of off me, one by one.
They saw me and I grinned, showing them the grin that started this. My eyes were closed and I listened to their breathing. Two were near hyperventilating, one was slowly getting quicker and quicker while the fourth remained more or less even. The fifth was already backing away.
I opened my eyes and two breaths caught in their respective throats. The third was still getting quicker, but the forth was the same as before. The fifth wasn´t present anymore.
I straightened my posture and rose to my full height. Tall beside other humans, huge beside ponies. Pink and White started to back away and Purple seemed to be considering it, but Blue didn´t seem fazed.
I looked her in the eyes and almost immediately flared my wings, took a step forward and “roared” at them. Pink and White ran as soon as I flared my wings and Purple ran at my roar.
Blue was still here. She flared her wings soon after I flared mine. They were beautiful, much more so than mine. I still couldn´t preen myself properly.
She stood there stock still. I thought that maybe she had frozen from fright like some before her, but that one word, that one word that could have been just a breath, was the start.
“Wow…” My grin faltered for a second, but regained its rightful place, plastered on my face, within moments. I advanced on her but she didn´t back away. I could see red on her cheeks and her forelegs were shaking, but she didn´t back away from me or faint. My wings were still extended as far as they would go.
I was about to jump on her when Purple called out; “RAINBOW! DUCK!” Both of us looked to her but Rainbow beat me to it, since I for some reason had a hard time looking away from her, and ducked in time while I was pushed back by something small crashing into my chest.
I didn´t go very far, it was more likely a distraction than something capable of harming me. I looked up to see Rainbow´s rainbow tail round a corner and disappear. So much for claiming my bounty. I smirked.
I flew up above the alley and caught sight of Purple and Rainbow running towards the center of the city. By chance I noticed Pink walking into a building ahead of them, carrying Yellow on her back. “They found her. Good, then I don´t have to tie her to a lamppost. So hard to maintain my image when they don´t run.” I said out loud.
I decide to engrave the image of a fallen angel into their minds just as they´re about to get inside and swoop down on top of them. Rainbow looks up just in time to warn Purple and they make a break for the door. They´ve almost made it to the door when I land behind them and retract my wings before letting them pop out to the sides not a second later. Purple runs inside, but Rainbow tries to scare me of by flaring her wings. The effect is somewhat ruined by how adorable she looks, all red in the face and wide eyed like she is.
I flap my wings to propel myself forward. Purple grabs Rainbow and pulls her inside before closing the door. Before they get the chance to look outside I fly up onto the roof and take a look around to see if someone´s watching. When I see no one, I fly to a nearby alley and sit down with my back to the wall. I wrap myself in the embrace of my precious wings and see if I can haunt the princess of the night while she does her duty.
Rainbow and Twilight were the last to get inside. While Everypony caught their breath, a few glances were passed between ponies and Rarity excused herself to “go to the bathroom and cry.” Her own words.
Finally Twilight spoke; “Are you alright Rainbow? You were a bit distracted back there.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight before answering.”Yeah, just, those wings…” Rainbow looked from Twilight and at the floor.
Twilight snickers. “Yeah, they were scary.”
Rainbow doesn´t answer until Twilight pokes her. “Huh? Scary? Yeah, scary. That´s what I meant.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow but let it go, since they had all had a traumatizing night. “Oh, and you can fold your wings now, there´s no one here you need to scare.”
Rainbow blushed, but it went unnoticed by Twilight who went to help Pinkie revive Fluttershy who was thankfully unconscious. Only she and Rarity, with her steamy “romance” novels, could have identified her pose as something other than a threatening one.
Author's Note
31/12/13 This is experimental. Also, I couldn´t sleep until I finished this. This could be really bad, this could be a masterpiece, but I´m to tired to care right now. Happy new year
04/01/14 Fixed it. Finally
What, where and why? With who?
“…er here! … saw it fly … this al…” Ugh. Damn bounty hunters. Just when I thought I might be getting a decent night´s sleep. I stayed on the ground, hoping that maybe they would look into the wrong alley. A pegasus walked into my field of vision. Damn it all. I stood up and stretched, keeping the shadows wrapped around me so he wouldn´t see me.
After a minute or so of stretches the pony was getting a little spooked. With all the grunting and moaning I was doing so close to him, I really couldn´t blame him.
“Umm… Guys. I think we should get out of here.” The one I could see said.
Another one, this one also a pegasus, with a sailor hat and a blue and white striped shirt, said with a smirk as he also walked into my field of vision, “Good.”
“Good? Does that mean we´re getting out of here? Oh, thank Celestia. This place is freaking me o-”
The sailor interrupted him. “No, you imbecile. It means it´s here somewhere after all.” He smirked again. “5 mil. Think of what I… I mean, we could do with that. I could get a new boat. The harpoons will be well worth it.”
‘Harpoons?! What the hell?! That´s brutal! Where the hell is this pony from?!’ I´ll admit, that was scary. I looked at his flank and saw a whale with a harpoon entering his mouth and exiting his… rear, let´s just say. That gave me an idea.
I let the shadow cover myself as I took to the air. The ponies heard my flaps and turned to where I had been. “It´s definitely here.” The whaler said as he looked around. “Bring the harpoons!” He called to someone behind him and the scared one.
To my surprise, and slight fear, five more ponies walked into the alley with harpoons and a harpoon gun each, all loaded. I took one look at the group and swooped down before they could get into position.
I brought my feet beneath me as I got closer to the ground and stomped on the whaler´s back. He wheezed and fell to his knees from the sudden tremendous weight on his back. I didn´t fly away, but instead jumped to the side and flapped my wings once, creating the illusion that I flew away.
The furthest back of the seven harpooners, a young, yellow maned, brown pegasus stallion with a hook cutie mark, shot his harpoon up into the air, hoping to get lucky. He of course didn´t, and was now defenseless, being in the back.
I crawled up to him while he was reloading and grabbed the harpoon he had been trying to jam into the harpoon gun. He stopped moving all together and slowly turned his head to where I was. He didn´t see anything of course, not even my hand, he just saw the shadows around my hand that lead to me. These bounty hunters should really think about getting some day time shifts.
I pulled the meter long harpoon out of the gun slowly, the brown stallion didn´t dare look away from me or make a sound. After pulling the harpoon out of the gun, I simply vanished back into the shadows again and in a hushed whisper, told the brown stallion that I would save him for last, that he would end up either begging me to stop, or begging me for more.
After leaving the brown stallion to think about my words, I kept the harpoon and stepped over to the closest pony. It was another pegasus stallion, this one a dark blue with a grey mane and a ship and hammer cutie mark. A shipwright, how fun. I look at the others to make sure no one is looking this way. When I see that no one is, I quickly clamp his muzzle together with one hand and wrap my other arm around his midsection while still holding the harpoon.
I flap once, they turn their heads towards us. I flap twice, they´re trying to turn their rather large guns around to fire at me. I flap a third time, this time while on my back so the flap flips me around so I´m upside down and start descending. I flap a fourth time, they´re still turning their guns as I crash into the ground with both pony and harpoon in my hands.
After a second or two I fall through the cloud cover. I let go of the stallion, but stomp on his stomach before he can even think of flying. I knock the air out of his lungs and with the speed he rapidly gains he can barely breathe.
Three ponies burst through the clouds. I just grin and let go of the harpoon, pointy end down. The ponies’ eyes follow the harpoon for a second but that´s all they had to do. Their eyes lock on their companion, falling stomach up and a harpoon, rapidly gaining on him, going straight for him. The three ponies gasp and dart toward their breathless friend, trying their best to get there before the harpoon.
While they dealt with that I flew back up above cloud cover to deal with the last three, the whaler, the hooker, a light orange stallion with a dog paw print for a cutie mark and some mare.
“Wait… that´s four. Let´s go over this again. Stomp, insinuate rape, stomp, fool’s errand times three and one extra. That makes seven, so why is there an eighth?” After wracking my mind for all of half a second I decide to just go with it.
I fly up onto a nearby rooftop and look at the extra and the newcomer. The newcomer looks familiar. A cyan coat, magenta eyes, strong and well preened wings and a rainbow mane. Rainbow mane… Rainbow… Rainbow! From earlier! Why would she come here?
I´m about to go down and get this over with when Rainbow looks in my direction, I freeze when her eyes look at where I´m perched on the edge of the rooftop and stay there. Two of the others are busy tending to the whaler as he has trouble walking.
After a few seconds of her staring at me, I start thinking she can see me, but how could she? I´m just a shadow in the night… Unless she´s not looking at me, but something behind me.
I slowly turn my head, but there´s nothing there. I turn back to the mare and she´s still looking at me. I grab the edge of the roof and jump but extend my wings so that they´re exactly where I was. I look at her again and see her eyes on my wings which she thinks are me.
Looking at the other three reveals that they are trying to get out of the alley, the whaler being carried by the other two as they try to flee. We can´t have that, not without a good, scary and scarring last moments with me so they never want to come near me again.
I extend my wings as high up as I can so what Rainbow thinks is me is now roughly two and a half meters tall and another meter and a half in width. Her eyes widen and I jump of the ledge just as she takes her first step backwards. I open my wings wide and glide towards the other three.
I land hard on my feet so as to make them notice me. They turn around and gape at my fake form.
They start to shiver as they notice the five centimeter long claws on my hands, whimper as they notice my draconic feet. They shake their heads as they see the large horns on my head, twisted and bent beyond believe. They finally realize they can move again and back away as my fangs snap together and my mouth curls up in a sick imitation of a smile, made all the more repulsive by the absence of lips.
The two who can move scream and run, leaving the whaler so he doesn´t slow them down. I leap at the hooker and grab the end of his tail. He falls on his rump but tries to stand up again, screaming all the while.
I smile and say, “Wasn´t I going to do something with you?” I only smile wider as he starts to flail his hooves, trying to run and kick me at the same time. In the end he, in a last ditch effort, manages to twist his body so he can bite his tail. I act like I don´t know what he´s doing until he´s almost through the last hairs on his tail, and then I yank as hard as I can. That scream could have been music for all I care, not like I´ve heard any good music since coming here.
“That´s one way to get it out of the way.” I say with as sultry a voice as I can manage.
Now royally freaked out, he gets up and gallops out of the alley with his wings flapping for extra speed.
With him taken care of I turn to the whaler. He´s trying his utmost to crawl out of the alley, his wings limp by his sides and just the smallest of movement in his back legs. I don´t really see any way for him to escape on his own in a believable fashion if I where to turn my attention to him, so I instead wrap myself up in shadows again and look for Rainbow. I look around the alley, but I don´t see her, until I look up.
She´s sitting on the ledge above me, looking down at me. I don´t like it.
I expand my shadows so they cover her as well as me, along with every part of the alley and exits out of said alley as well. I fly up beside her and watch her as she backs away from the ledge and looks around. I´m about to jump on her when she grabs something from her side.
I´m momentarily blinded as a bright light shines on me, making it harder to maintain my appearance and dispelling every shadow I wasn´t actively holding together. I bring my wings up to protect my sensitive eyes and a second later I cover myself with shadows. I slowly lower my wings and glare at the shining monstrosity in the mare´s mouth, a flashlight.
I´m truly glad I have the ability to just snuff it out. The flashlight starts flickering and Rainbow shakes it until it stops working completely. She looks to where she remembers me being, but I´m gone, or am I? It´s so nice to always have the element of surprise.
I stand behind her as she has her little panic attack, these ponies are hilarious. When she spreads her wings to fly away I grab the right one. She stiffens and turns her head so fast she winces, but I´m faster still and get on her blind side before she sees I´m not where I´m supposed to be.
I grab her muzzle with one hand and her exposed neck with the other. She reaches a whole new level of stiff when I start rubbing her neck. “An exposed neck is a sign of submission. Is that what you want, to submit to me? To let me do what I want to you without caring for your health, mental or physical?” I smile as she shakes from her hooves to the tip of her wings.
My smile disappears when she speaks, not to call for help, but to me. “Why? You don´t actually ever do anything but scare ponies.” I let her go.
She straightens her head and looks at me, or what she thinks is me. She opens her mouth but nothing comes out as her whole body shakes violently. When she stops shaking she speaks to my illusion, “This is what I mean, you aren´t doing anything, just scaring ponies away. Why do you want ponies to stay away from you, why?” Her rapid breathing and how her eyes darting all over me is a clear sign of how scared she is, but she isn´t running, why?
“Why, you ask.” Her head turns to her right and she sees another illusion just like the one in front of her.
“Why is the question.” She looks at the third illusion, this one on her left.
“Yes, why is most certainly the question.” She looks behind her at the fourth illusion.
“But if why is the question, what would the answer be?” She looks at the original illusion, the one in front of her.
“Would the answer be a what or a where or a who or a why?” At this point she´s thoroughly confused as she looks behind herself.
“Why would the answer be a why if the question is too?” She can´t help but look to her right at the illusion who spoke.
“Because why is what happened in the past, an action or reaction.”
Rainbow starts turning in circles and looking at all of the illusions, trying to find something different about any one of them.
“But can the answer still be a why if it´s also a what or a where or a who?”
Rainbow looks very confused, to the point of fear.
“If it was a what or a where or a who wouldn´t it also be a why if it´s the answer to the question of why?”
Rainbow seems to decide this is a not healthy for her sanity and tries to leave, but the illusions lock her in with their wings but don´t react to her in any other way.
“If why wasn´t also a what and a where and a who wouldn´t that mean that the past is a lie?”
Seeing she can´t escape she tries to cover her ears with her hooves. The left and right illusions grab her hooves and hold them above her head.
“It would seem that right now we have a who doing a what in a where but the question is why?”
Rainbow´s eyes widen as the illusions’ eyes fall on her.
“Why is the question why? Does the why change with the what and the where and the who or is it always the same?”
Rainbow opens her mouth to say something, but an illusion beats her to it.
“Why not ask the who the why of what the who was doing were?”
Rainbow still looks the same, wide eyed, confused and a bit frustrated.
“But what if we´re asking the what the who at where was doing it why?”
Rainbows eye twitches in annoyance.
“I thought the question was a why not a what. Why is the why a what now and when did it change?”
Another twitch.
“The why is a what since the who is a what and if the who is a what then what the what and the who do where and why is what the who would want but why?”
The illusions all look at Rainbow and she looks back confused. “What?” She asks.
“No, the question is not a what nor a where nor a who but a why. Has the why of the who doing what and where lost its meaning this who?”
Rainbow has to take a few seconds to understand the question and when she does she doesn´t understand the question. ”Huh?”
“The who is trying to lie to us the meaning of the what, where and why and with whom, we should do the what with the who in this where but why wouldn´t we not do the what in the where over there?”
Rainbow seems to be getting a bit frustrated. Why? Heh. “Hey, I don´t understand all these whos and whats or the wheres or whys, but I´m no liar!”
The illusions stay quiet for what feels like an eternity after all the whats and wheres and whys and whos before.
When none of the illusions seem to be about to speak Rainbow tries to say something but an illusions starts talking as soon as she opens her mouth. “Why not is both the question and the answer. But why?”
Rainbow does something between a loud groan and a scream before her head slumps forwards.
“Why not?”
The illusions disappear and she falls down onto the roof. I stand up and withdraw my wings from around her. Then I disappear before she regains her bearings.
As Rainbow walked into the alley where her friends had been scared she sees a big, black feather lying on the ground and knows it´s from him. Without really thinking much about it she picks it up and stores it in one of her wings, then walks back to the hotel where she and her friends were staying.
“Why not? Why why not? AGGHHH! NOW I´M DOING IT TOO!!”
As soon as Rainbow walks through the front door Twilight is in front of her.
“AHH! TWILIGHT! Don´t just suddenly appear like that!”
Twilight had the decency to look a bit ashamed of herself. “Sorry. Where were you? What were you doing outside again? Why-“ She never got to finish.
“NO! NO! NO WHATS OR WHERES OR WHOS OR WHYS UNTIL I´VE HAD A GOOD NIGHT´S SLEEP!” She then proceeded to walk past Twilight, up the stairs and through the door to her room, leaving Twilight stammering in the lobby.
“What? Why? Where has she been and who did this too her?” Twilight was already planning what to put on her list of questions.
When she entered her room, Rainbow pulled the feather out of her wing and put it on her nightstand.
“What are you hiding?” She whispered to the air before getting into bed, thoroughly exhausted after all of the night´s weirdness. “And why?” She whispered, this time to her pillow, just before sleep took over.
Author's Note
I made a thing. Going to sleep now. Tell me if it lives up to your expectations or not. I can´t stop thinking what, where, who and why.
