Rainbow Dash scanned Ponyville intently as she flew over, circling like a kite, taking in as much information as she could. She had seen Ponyville from up above many times, from her regularly scheduled cloud clearings, and she had an excellent mental map of the town – she could easily pick out every nook and cranny, back alley and hotspot. She could even recognise some ponies who walked the same familiar routes every day. Looking over all of this information was neither a great effort nor a present concern for Rainbow – she was quickly scanning each spot for where one particular pony would be. The one that she knew that she could count on and lend a hoof, for the complicated operation to save Sky Weaver from being whisked away to who knows where by an errant breeze as she slept on her cloud.

After a minute or two passed, Rainbow Dash stopped her patrol and brought her wings to a steady hover. Trying to focus her efforts to spot the particular pony, she glared down into the centre of Ponyville with intensity, as if she could somehow will the pony in question into view. Rainbow grumbled as her efforts proved, unsurprisingly, utterly useless.

“I could have sworn I could find her around here… selling apples or something!” Rainbow groaned. “I guess I’ll have to check the whole Apple orchard then. I don’t have time for this...” And with that, she hastily zoomed over towards Sweet Apple Acres.

As she soared, Rainbow Dash took notice of the wind. With each swell of the breeze, she cast her mind back to Sky Weaver on the cloud, being pushed further away from Ponyville towards the flat meadows further on the outskirts. There were no trees around there, which at a pinch, a Pegasus that lost control of their wings could use for a softer and overall less painful landing than hitting the ground. Rainbow gulped at the image her mind had just conjured up, but swiftly shifted her focus to flying to her destination. Sure enough, in less than a minute, she had arrived at Sweet Apple Acres. Dash quickly spotted Applejack heading from the barn towards the orchard; however, Rainbow didn’t take comfort in this - rather, frustration took hold, as her searching Ponyville had proved to be nothing but a waste of time. And time was critical.

Applejack heard a familiar swooping and a rush of air and she looked up to see a disgruntled Rainbow Dash flying into view. Applejack took note of her slumped posture and groggy expression. Applejack assumed that she had just woken up from a nap, so some grumpiness from her was to be expected. Applejack opted to be polite.

“Howdy Rainbow,” Applejack smiled up at her. “Thought you’d be taking a nap. What brings ya ‘round these parts?”

“Sorry Applejack!” Rainbow asserted. “Don’t have time to make conversation right now. I need your help. Well… Sky needs your help.”

“The sky?” Applejack asked. “Ah… kinda thought the sky was your duty. Looks pretty clear to me.”

“No! I talked to that new pony who arrived today! The one that Royal Blue introduced us to!” Rainbow Dash explained hastily.

“Ohhhh… Skah Weaver, was it? Well she seemed like a real sweetheart. How was she?” Applejack asked.

“She’s stuck on a cloud!” Rainbow shouted impatiently, not wanting to delay the news any further. “I need your help getting her down!”

“Okay…” Applejack nodded, uneasily. “Would ya… care to explain exactly how you plan fer me ta do that?”

Rainbow Dash gave an exasperated groan. ”Look Applejack, I just so happened to take a rookie flier on her first flight, introduced her to her first cloud, and she FELL ASLEEP on it before I could teach her how to get down! Now she’s stuck up there and the wind is picking up! And I really would have preferred to take a nap rather than have to deal with all this today, but I also don’t like the idea of having to explain to Royal Blue that his little pony was carried away on the wind, or that something even worse happened! So why don’t you stop with the Twenty Questions and pull one of your lassos out of your—“

“Okay, Rainbow,” Applejack replied sternly, stopping Rainbow in her tirade. Rainbow gave pause to see that the workhorse had lifted her Stetson to reveal a neatly coiled length of rope sitting on her head.

“…hat… and… come with me so you can tie the cloud down before it drifts away,” Dash’s voice trailed off, somewhat sobered.

“Sure, Rainbow. All ya had to do was say so,” Applejack stated firmly.

Rainbow gave pause. “You… always keep a piece of rope with you?” she felt the need to ask.

“Sure do,” Applejack said proudly.

“Under your hat. All the time.”

“Eeyup.”

There was a pause between the two mares.

“…Why?” Rainbow blurted out.

“Practical reasons, Dash,” Applejack replied simply.

“Right…” Rainbow Dash replied. She looked over her shoulder, to quickly regain her bearings and retraced her steps, of the whereabouts of the cloud when this all started, and where the wind would have taken it since then. She did some quick calculations in her head.

“Okay. I know where we need to go. Let’s hurry!” she pointed a hoof in the direction that she had come from, and zipped away, with Applejack sprinting close behind.

Sky Weaver giggled with glee as she glided effortlessly through a vast expanse of clouds, gentle winds blowing through her, calming and soothing her while her wings flapped in a natural rhythm. She had finally done it. Her wings were the key to her freedom, and with Rainbow Dash’s teaching, she had finally broken the lock. She could go wherever she pleased. She was so looking forward to telling Royal Blue all about her adventures when she got home. Then again, she promised those nice ponies that she’d make time to spend with all of them. At least, that was what she thought the agreement was. She didn’t want to disappoint any of them. She sighed. She would have to come down.

Down.

She looked below her and her heart lurched in shock as she saw what looked like a bottomless chasm beneath her. There was no ground to be seen. No place to land. And how even would she land?

Sky forcefully jerked her head upward into the sky, and looked for the Sun, and it was strangely absent. Furthermore, the big, puffy clouds had all seemed to have evaporated – what was once a bright and beautiful sky was now an endless deep blue void.

She felt her wings begin to slow, and she began to drop, almost as if some invisible forces were pulling her towards the black depths below.

Sky almost cried out in terror, but her voice had been stolen. She flailed her hooves but they were seized up, like she was wading through cement.

The blackness swelled beneath her, swallowing what light remained.

She squinted to find some kind of escape, then she began to see shadows moving past her. She felt their presence as they swam past and her blood froze in fright.

She felt a particularly strong current behind her, and with no other option, dared to turn her head to see the source of the disturbance.

From the blackness came a great, gaping maw, with rows of teeth like long steel spikes. The enormous beast seemed to consume whatever light remained as its mouth was as black as the coldest, cruellest night.

Then from the mouth shot two ghastly tendrils as quick as lighting, which latched onto Sky, stealing her last breath.

It was then that Sky screamed awake. Sitting up on her haunches and gasping for breath, the afternoon light filled her eyes, disorienting her further. Not wanting to close her eyes to make the blackness return, she put her hooves up over her face and lowered her head, staring downward at the cloud. Her heart was pounding, and her mind still racing with afterimages of that awful, shadowy all-devouring beast. Steeling herself, she slowly lowered her hooves and peered outward, her eyes squinting at the brightness of the afternoon sky. She was no longer in that frightful place. She was on her cloud, still. Sky sighed, and slowly lowered herself until she was lying flat on her cloud. Reacquainting herself with the soft, pillowy surface of the cloud, she nuzzled its surface and it soothed her greatly. Then she tilted her head upward and gave another, exasperated sigh.

Another nightmare, she thought. Why did her imagination have to run wild? Why did it have to be so ambiguous about what was real and what wasn’t? Why couldn’t she control it, so that it wouldn’t conjure up such awful, spine-chillingly horrifying images? And did she have to have a nightmare now, of all times, when things were going so well? Why couldn’t she just stop being so afraid?

“I’m not going to let that spoil today,” Sky murmured to herself. “No way. I’m in a good place now. I have this lovely, comfy cloud,” she grinned as she rubbed her head against it.

Eventually Sky felt the need to get up and stretch. She slowly and carefully clambered onto her hooves and stood up as straight as she could, arching her back, gave a grunt, relaxed, then stretched out her forelegs and her wings. Her eyes drifted open and she immediately recoiled at how the ground was so far beneath her. Her wings snapped shut and she instinctively curled up into a ball, then she lay back down on the cloud. The thought occurred to her that she had no idea how she was going to get airborne, or how to get safely down on the ground. Her previous jubilation to be nestled on the cloud turned to a wave of despair. It was now her prison. She was stuck there, without any other options. What if the cloud suddenly gave out, and she’d fall right through it? Did that happen with clouds? Did they just evaporate into thin air as suddenly and unexpectedly as they did in her horrible nightmare? Sky curled in tighter and gave a whimper, trying to quell the worrying pangs of thought. She decided to calmly wait for Rainbow Dash to come back. Surely she would. She was one of the most dependable ponies around. Just as devoted to her friends as she was to herself. Sky sat silently, and waited.

“Looks like she’s still asleep. Boy, is she a heavy sleeper.” Rainbow Dash commented, swooping down to meet with Applejack.

“Y’all sure about that? Did ya actually check to see if she was asleep?” Applejack inquired.

“Pfft! What’s it matter? We’ve gotta act quickly before the wind picks up and carries her off!” Rainbow instructed.

“Well Ah’d sure hate to toss up the rope and hogtie the poor thing,” Applejack protested.

“Just throw it so that it latches onto the cloud! Then we can drag it to a tree or something and tie the rope to it. No problem. She won’t even have to wake up,” Rainbow said.

“Y’all sure are intent on not disturbin’ her. Funny. Ah thought you’d be upset that she’d taken a prime nappin’ spot from ya,” Applejack quipped.

“It was her first time flying, AND her first time on a cloud. She gets a free pass this time,” Rainbow stated.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Sure. Well Ah reckon we’ve dilly-dallied for long enough,” she said. She took the piece of rope in her mouth and stared up at the cloud.

“Not sure if ah can reach it from here, but ah’ll try mah darndest.” Applejack craned her neck backwards, and began twirling the lasso in the air.

“Remember! Try to only hit the cloud!” Rainbow felt the need to repeat herself.

Applejack was somewhat irked by this comment, and with a little more aggression than was needed, she launched her head in an arc, tossing the lasso high up into the air, straight towards the centre of the cloud.

Sky Weaver violently jolted awake for the second time that afternoon as she suddenly felt something constricting around her waist. She tried to sit up but couldn’t. For a moment she was confused, her eyes fearfully drifted down towards the offending object, and her pupils shrank to pinheads. Her worst fear was confirmed. She was tied to the cloud. Unable to move. Unable to free herself. Trapped.

The next few moments dragged on into a cold eternity. Sky lay frozen in shock and awe, unable to move, her breath short and frantic, only giving out tiny, silent pants of breath. Her eyes darted this way and that, hoping that one of her limbs had enough room to wriggle out. But even if she had, it was no use. She was paralysed just from the shock. The mere thought of escape seemed unimaginable. She was left to struggle in vain for ever. She could swear she could feel the rope slowly tightening, maliciously. Then at last the fear inside her exploded, and she released the panic.

A shrill, piercing shriek penetrated the afternoon air. Applejack lost grip of the rope and Rainbow Dash practically froze in mid-air.

“Land sakes!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Applejack! You were supposed to lasso the cloud! You just gave her the fright of her life!” Rainbow shouted. Her eyes darted up towards the commotion on the cloud. “Uh oh… looks like she’s in a bad way…”

Sky was violently thrashing in order to dislodge herself from the rope’s grip. Now that Applejack was no longer holding onto it, it was starting to give way, but nowhere near as quickly or easily as Sky would have liked.

“GET IT OFF!!!” She screamed helplessly. “GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF, I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT!!!!” Her hooves flailed madly and her wings flapped erratically. Eventually one of her hooves punched clean through the cloud, and the air currents that her wings had kicked up started to twist the cloud apart, and it started to evaporate. Sky watched the hole in the cloud expand until she could see the ground beneath her again. Her heart lurched once again and her wings snapped shut. Then she felt herself quickly losing her footing as the cloud disappeared beneath her, sending her screaming towards the ground.

“Holy Celestia!” Rainbow Dash sputtered. Her eyes flashed to the end of the rope. She grabbed it in her mouth and started bunching it up as she darted upward, looping it around her hooves to making sure that they could take the strain, and the rope wouldn’t pull too violently on Sky. Sure enough, with a mighty tug, Rainbow halted Sky’s descent. Rainbow kept a strong grip on the rope, holding Sky aloft and letting her sway just a few meters of the ground, relatively unharmed. However, she was still having a severe panic attack.

Applejack approached the struggling young mare. “Now, don’t you worry none, she’s got ya,” Applejack assured her. “Ah’m mighty sorry if ah caused ya a scare, but--”

“GET IT OFF!!!” Sky screamed, continuing to battle with the rope. “LET ME GO! LET ME GO!!!”

Applejack gave pause to this, but didn’t let up. “Now, hold on there! Easy! You’ll cause yerself a mischief! Now you just gotta hold still for me and I’ll let ya out of there,” Applejack called out over her frantic crying.

But Sky would not hold still. She couldn’t remain calm while she was ensnared, dangling in the air, without her bearings, and having to co-operate with some weird-talking pony who had apparently tied her up in the first place. She couldn’t trust a pony like that.

However, she did stop her hectic thrashing. Instead, another instinct took over, and she let loose a frenzied growl, grabbed hold of the rope above her and started viciously biting and gnawing at it like a rabid Timber Wolf. Seeing this little pony’s beastly display had even Applejack backing off. Rainbow, who was holding onto the rope above her was especially freaked out. Finally, Sky ripped the rope in two and fell ungraciously to the ground.

Applejack gasped and went over to check her over for injuries. She was glad to see that nothing looked broken, except her left wing was looking bruised and its feathers somewhat dishevelled. Applejack went to raise a hoof to help her up when Sky briefly resumed her flailing to remove the remains of the rope that was still clinging to her. Applejack jumped back in surprise.

“Skah Weaver! Come on now, Ah just wanna help. What’s got ya all up in a tizzy like this?” Applejack asked Sky just as she had freed herself from the last bit of rope.

Sky clambered to her hooves, still shaky from the struggling and slightly bruised from her fall. Her eyes angrily flashed up to meet with the monster who thoughtlessly bound her up. She was surprised to see that it was just another pony - one that she had seen earlier that day. Applejack. Not even with a stern look in her eyes, but one of gentle concern. Sky's defensiveness doubled back on itself and she was immediately filled with shame as she realised the trouble her actions had caused this good and honest pony, and how much of an embarrassment she had just made of herself. However, she still wasn’t over the initial shock of the incident, and her emotional defences gave out before she could apologise, and she burst into tears on the spot. Rainbow Dash descended, hovering next to Applejack with the remainder of the rope, still somewhat shaken up by the current sequence of events. Rainbow craned her neck towards Applejack’s ear.

“Uh… she okay?” Rainbow whispered.

While Applejack searched for an answer, Sky’s eyes drifted to the two mares. Suddenly things looked more confrontational. She saw the length of rope that Rainbow Dash was still holding, and gave out a cry of pain, then she quickly turned on her hooves and ran as fast as she could.

“Hey… Skah, wait!” Applejack called out. But the young Pegasus was sprinting away from them, still crying.

Rainbow Dash landed next to Applejack and dropped the rope. The two mares exchanged worried and concerned looks.

Author's Note

I make a triumphant return! I have been meaning to do this chapter for WELL OVER A YEAR, and it's been holding up Chapter 4 which I started ages ago.

Oddly enough, I was inspired to write this after watching reviews of several bad animated cartoons and movies, which filled me with the desire to prove myself to not be so awful as some of the poorly-written skits I had seen peeled apart, every inch of its awfulness for everyone to see.

Anyway, things take more of a dark and tragic direction for Sky, but I wanted to make her more than just a thing that exists to be cute, and there's yet more to be revealed about her. Also don't worry, she'll have an easier time in the next chapter. Sort of, anyway.

-Ben