Rainbow Dash was tired.
No, that was an understatement. She was absolutely winded. A flight from Ponyville all the way to the city of Trotston to meet up with her old friend had left even her, an experienced flyer and athlete, drained of all energy. Even after a bunch of sandwiches and an energy drink to get her metabolism out of its coma, she was still in full-on sack-of-potatoes mode.
It was 2:00, and she was preparing to fly home. She stumbled out of her friend's house, waving goodbye in a very lethargic manner. "Thanks for the lunch, kid!"
She didn't really hear his response as she unfolded her wings and went airborne with a few lazy flaps. The cool wind blew back her prismatic hair, and she shook her head a little. The afternoon sun shone brightly in her eyes, making her squint and feel a little drowsy.
She realized how utterly drained she was from the exertion of flying from Ponyville to here. Trying to make the flight back home would be a Herculean feat, or at least she felt like it would be in her condition.
Dash was feeling very heavy and weak. She became afraid she might fall out of the sky if she became too tired to support her weight.
Looking up, the Pegasus took note of the clouds above her. She grinned through her fatigue and realized the obvious.
"If I just go up there..." She muttered, banking to the right and carefully pulling up to catch a draft. She ascended gently and peaked over the clouds, her ears popping a little from the change in air pressure.
Dash grinned even more as she looked out at the expanse of clouds before her. A sea of fluffy goodness on an oceanic blue background. It seemed to stretch on and on into infinity.
"Nap city!" She laughed and dived gently down onto one of the clouds. She spread her arms dexterously to land, and her innate cloudwalking magic quickly allowed her feet to sink into its pillowy surface.
Dash wasted no time in lying down, breathing heavily as the exertion of flying finally caught up with her. What a feeling! She nuzzled the cloud a little as she got comfortable. It was pleasantly warm and conforming, like a memory foam mattress in the sky. The sun beat down on her back. She felt like she was melting. A dumb smile settled on her sweat-damp face and she let her eyes slip shut.
That is, she almost did.
Something drifted up from under the cloud. Not a 'thing' really, but it wasn't human. It had the body of a teenage girl of about Rainbow's age, but its skin was a pearly light blue. It was completely naked, she noted with a light blush. Long, smooth magenta hair fell down its limber shoulders and far down its back. The bangs shadowed its eyes completely. It had curvy, young cheeks much like Rainbow's, and it wore an intelligent smile.
Dash jumped a little, panicking, sitting up and scrambling back a little. "GAH!"
Upon further examination of the creature hovering by her, the Pegasus felt very warm and safe. She felt oddly affectionate towards it all of a sudden, like she was okay with how near it was to her. That is until she realized that the cloud had bound her wrists to its surface with cufflike wrings of soft fluff.
Dash shook her head anxiously. Why were her wrists bound? Why was she thinking these things?! And what the heck was that freakin' thing?!
The creature's smile was patient and seemingly kind. It gently leaned in and brushed Rainbow's forehead, slipping its arm under her chin to gently cradle her head.
Its touch made Rainbow feel drowsy and soothed. Her eyelids fluttered a little. She began to forget her anxiety as she drifted back into the cloud, which had risen to form a small mountain of fluff. The cloud was just so soft and pillowy...pillow. There was a pillow behind her head. How did that get there?
Rainbow snapped to consciousness. She had been drifting off to sleep. Against her will.
She struggled against her restraints. They didn't yield.
"What the hell do you want, you freak?!" She shouted angrily at the creature.
The creature seemed hurt. It frowned and quietly continued lulling Dash to sleep. Its body lay on hers, and she was filled with the urge to just...sleep.
Sleep. That's a good idea. So warm and soft, Dash thought. Like bed at home.
The small part of Dash's rational mind that was still awake gathered up all of its remaining strength and bitch-slapped the other half into consciousness.
Dash woke with a start and began struggling against the cloudcuffs again, writhing in an attempt to throw off the creature.
"Get-off-me-you-stupid-piece-of-"
She cut her burst of profanity short. The creature had returned to its position of floating next to the cloud. It's arms were stiff at its sides and a blush ran on its cheeks. It seemed to be pouting.
Despite the situation, Dash felt sorry for lashing out at her captor. She sighed.
"Look...could you just let me go?" Dash looked at the creature from her spot on the cloud. Unfortunately, she realized with a roll of her eyes, it probably wasn't going to free her just because she asked nicely.
And indeed it wasn't. It just looked at her through its bangs (or at least it seemed like it was looking at her; Rainbow couldn't see its eyes) for a few silent seconds, and then shrugged melancholically as though it was sighing. It turned and sat lightly on the cloud next to her, back facing its captive. Its legs, or whatever was there instead, hung over the cloud's edge.
Rainbow groaned. "Really?! You scared me shitless and interrupted my nap, captured me, tried to put me back to sleep, and now you're just going to sit there and do nothing?"
The creature said nothing. Didn't even move.
Dash huffed.
"Hey..." She said to the creature. "Look, if you want to finish what you were doing, go ahead. Just...don't hurt me, okay? And please, let me go afterwards?"
It turned and looked at her, smiling a little. It nodded.
Dash sighed and worked her shoulders back into the cloud, feeling the warm sun on her body once again. "Okay...just please, get it over with quick."
The creature nodded again. It lay next to Dash, and the Pegasus shivered lightly as the cloud took on a surprisingly small amount of weight.
It cradled her head lovingly, and Dash smiled sleepily at the touch. Its fingers brought about feelings of inner warmth and well-being that seemed to fill her up. It felt so good.
Her eyelids drooped happily. Why was she fighting this earlier?
She couldn't remember, and she certainly didn't want to. She felt dazed and unfocused, and she let her jaw hang slack. The creature smiled and continued to gently caress her to sleep.
Dash stopped smiling. She couldn't bring her face to form one any more. Her eyelids felt like lead.
She felt two gentle, caring hands brush softly over her eyelids and succumbed to darkness.
The creature smiled at the now peacefully asleep Rainbow Dash. Of course it didn't intend to let her go. It needed to feed. It was just a matter of how long it kept her for. Keeping the girl in perpetual sleep wasn't a problem. It would simply fill her mind with euphoric dreams and let her relive treasured memories so that she wouldn't want to wake up.
The cloud succubus grinned cheekily. It was going to be quite a while before anyone saw the Pegasus again.
Author's Note
Hey. Hey, apple. Apple. Apple, suck my dick, apple. Hey, apple, suck my dick.
A Pegasus named Eight Bit was at his desk, plugging away at his homework, when there was a knock at the door.
He sighed and lay down his pencil. Probably best to take a break anyway. Algebra was frustrating as all getout, especially to a fourteen-year-old kid who still had to deal with his parents.
He looked through the window next to the door. He recognized the purple hair and the pink streak instantly. EB flipped his shit.
ALICORN PRINCESS ALICORN PRINCESS ALICORN PRINCESS. His heart thudded rampantly in his chest and his stomach did a nervous flip.
He ruffled his electric blue hair and white wings briefly and nervously, making sure he didn't look too plebian in the presence of the Alicorn Princess herself, and stood up from the chair. He walked quietly over to the door.
"Hello?" He said nervously, naturally assuming that he was about to be arrested or something.
"Hello. Twilight Sparkle speaking. May I come in?" Came the slightly androgynous voice from the other side of the door.
EB gulped nervously, his face white. "Ah, hehehe, of course, Princess!" He unlocked the wooden door and opened it, stepping back anxiously.
Twilight was dressed in a simple magenta t-shirt and jeans, her olive-tone skin shimmering faintly in the sunlight. EB could faintly see the edges of her wings, which were folded neatly behind her back.
He quickly noticed she was in awful shape. Bags were under her eyes. Her hair was stringy and unkempt, like it hadn't been combed for weeks. She carried herself heavily, as though it were difficult to stand.
She smiled weakly at him.
"Hello. Are you Eight Bit?" She asked with a surprisingly non-malicious tone. EB sighed a little, letting his wings relax.
"Yeah. Are you all right, Princess?" He asked, then, as his nerves ate at him, he pried, "Am I in trouble?"
Twilight shook her head. "No. I just need you to answer a few questions."
EB nodded. Phew. He stepped out to the side and gestured for her to enter. She did, her shoes hitting the floor with uneven thuds.
"When was the last time you saw Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked, shakily sitting down on the living room couch.
EB swallowed nervously. Why would they be looking for Dash? "Uh...three weeks ago."
Twilight sighed weakly. "Where...?"
"Here. She flew over here, and we went and got lunch." He was a little pale now. "And last I saw her, she was leaving. Flying back, I mean." He looked at Twilight. His heart was racing. Was Dash missing? Had she gotten hurt?
Twilight sensed his anxiety and answered, tiredly rubbing her eyes. "She didn't come back to Ponyville. I've got everyone in town looking for her. We can't find her on the ground, or in the Everfree, or anywhere else. Even outside town we've left nopony unquestioned, no rock unturned...and yet we cant even get a lead on what happened."
Her eyes were a little red. From where he was sitting, EB could hear her voice crack at the end of each sentence.
EB stood frozen for a while. Twilight did the same, sitting unmoving on the couch, head in her rapidly paling hands. The air seemed to become stale as a sickening burning feeling manifested itself behind the colt's temples. His stomach felt empty and cold.
Twilight spoke, blankness dripping from her voice. "I don't suppose you know which way she went."
EB wiped a tear of his own, gagging back a rising feeling of angry tightness in his throat. "She flew north."
Twilight lifted her head suddenly from her hands.
"North."
EB looked at Twilight, caught between horror and confusion. "Yeah....?"
Twilight looked back at him quickly. Her eyes gleamed with sudden hope, though her cheeks were still damp. When she spoke, it sounded like she had overdosed on adrenaline.
"North?! You're absolutely sure?!"
EB waved his arms, jerking like a marionette. "Yes! North! What the heck is so special about-"
Twilight cut him off. Her shoes squealed as she half-grabbed, half-tackled him, taking his arm and pulling him frantically out the door. EB spluttered and stumbled after her, trying to regain his balance as they sprinted.
Twilight charged down the dirt road adjacent to his house. The afternoon sun glinted off her mane and highlighted her near-breathless expression. EB heaved, taking shallow breaths and stumbling after her. His arm ached where she had bashed it on the doorway.
"T-Twilight!" EB panted as he caught up with her. Sweat from physical exertion and nervousness stained his t-shirt. "I mean...Princess Twilight! Why are we-"
"No time!" Twilight breathed, her bedraggled hair trailing wildly behind her. "If my memory serves me correctly, and it always does, because I have a photographic memory, then there's a good chance I know what happened to Dash!"
"What?" EB squinted at her.
Twilight shook her head. "Just fly! We're going to Ponyville!"
She spread her strong, lavender wings, and giving a push, took off. EB shook his head, blurry with anxiety and confusion, and flapped his own white wings.
Whatever was going on in Twilight's head, he had a sneaky feeling that it sure as Tartarus wouldn't be a good idea to try and figure it out.
"What the heck is a cloud succubus?"
The five girls and two boys (The Elements minus Dash, with EB [who had quickly overcome the initial shock of the situation in order to help find Dash] and Spike) were sitting at a table in Sugarcube corner, where the princess planned to fill EB in on the current situation. Twilight, against the better judgement of her friends, was neurotically clutching a cup of espresso.
"Good question, Eight Bit." The princess said, jittery. "And you're probably wondering how it relates to the..." She sniffed a little. "disappearance of our friend Rainbow Dash."
There was a loud POP that resulted in collective flinching and Spike toppling out of his chair. Twilight had materialized a hefty book, bound in leather. She took a swig from the cup before continuing. Lifting the book, she gestured to the cover, and read its title aloud.
"Star Swirl the Bearded's Grimoire of Magical Creatures." She read. She flipped the book open and flicked through the pages at an impressive speed, her fingers twitching with sleeplessness. Rarity and Applejack exchanged a concerned glance while Spike sat back at the table, wincing and rubbing his haunch.
Twilight leaned over the table, placing the book on its surface. It was opened to a page that, while written in the old tongue, still contained legible images of what looked like a young girl in a gown standing next to a bed.
Pinkie rolled her eyes before looking up at Twilight and tapping the page a couple of times. "Twiley, I can't read this gobbledygook!"
"You don't need to read it." Twilight rolled her eyes. "I've already explained the contents of what I'm about to read to you guys. EB doesn't know yet."
She pointed at the page and slid her finger along the words as she read. "Cloud succubus. A monster that poses an extreme threat to those who come into contact with it. When it spies somepony, it will float up to them and attempt to stuff them into the bed-like part of its body."
EB narrowed his eyes, hands clasping his chin. "That it?"
Twilight shushed him. "The Cloud Succubus will then use its strong magical hypnosis to lull the victim into a deep sleep. It will keep them in that state by using its dream control abilities, filling their minds with pleasant dreams and making them simply not want to escape. When the victim is in this state, it can feed on them in much the same way as a normal succubus, any time it becomes hungry. It can also control and interact with clouds in much the same way as pegasi."
Spike shrugged skeptically. "What does this have to do with-"
EB gave him a gentle knock on the shoulder before addressing Twilight. "So...you think Rainbow's been abducted by one of these creatures?" And were you able to figure it out?"
Twilight nodded and materialized a newspaper shakily. She opened it and read aloud once more.
"This is an excerpt from the Ponyville Gazette on the day she was last seen...Potential dangerous creature spotted in cloud formation south of Ponyville. Described by eyewitness as a floating girl with pink hair and light blue skin, and a gown of matching color. Species currently unidentified." She gave a troubled smile and shakily set down the book. "Heh...guess the press needs to read up on ancient magical beings."
"You mentioned that you had a photographic memory." EB had been carefully piecing the whole thing together. He gestured to Twilight with his hand. "You'd seen the article in the paper, but passed it off as nothing." He raised an eyebrow. "So, since Trotston is south of here, why didn't you think that Dash would fly north to get back?"
Twilight sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Cloud Kicker informed me that there was going to be a nasty storm rolling into Dash's flight path. Long after the succubus had been sighted, mind you, so I figured the storm was the main issue, and forgot totally about the succubus. I dismissed it, thinking Dash would already know about it and avoid it." She hung her head. "That was really foolish of me in any case, but it turns out Cloud Kicker had been misinformed, and I had in turn."
"And so Dash was going through anyway, and stopped to rest." Rarity sighed dramatically, wiping her eyes with a lacy handkerchief. "And it would seem that she picked the worst cloud possible."
"It's so awful. We've all been so worried." Fluttershy said somberly.
EB sighed. "Look, I'm really sorry, and I'm glad I was able to do anything at all to help, but," he looked around at the table of morally crushed girls and one morally crushed dragon. "Why d'you need me?"
"Ponyville's been on constant watch, as I mentioned," Twilight said, setting down her cup after a deep swig. "Everyone is, really. Celestia is trying to find her, but this monster is really good at hiding. And there's no spell that we can find that just locates Dash." She gestured energetically with her hand on the word 'locate'. "Don't be offended, but you're really late to this search."
Rarity sighed melancholically, rubbing her face. "Rainbow herself has informed us that you and her have known each other since childhood. We were hoping you could join two of her other close friends, Thunderlane and Bulk Biceps, in searching for her in a section of the clouds that haven't been looked through yet. Please, darling, we need all the help we can get."
"And ah apologize on behalf of Twilight for not contacting ya earlier." Applejack added somberly. "It must have been terrible news for ya to hear so late, but she's been so wrapped up in trying to organize searches that she forgot all about who Rainbow was going to visit."
EB spoke quietly, his voice laden with sadness. "Honestly? I'm kind of sickened that I didn't get wind of this before now. I can't believe the people of Trotston aren't paying attention to this."
Fluttershy patted him on the back gently, and he felt a little better. "Hey...don't blame yourself. You know now."
EB rose from his seat, fists clenched.
"I don't know what that monster thinks is its place to do this to me, and my friends, and everybody else who's losing sleep over this, but I swear on Celestia's morning sun that I will find it. And when I do..."
Twilight stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "EB...meet me, Thunderlane and Bulk in Cloudsdale at 7:00 tonight."
Her voice was raspy and tired. EB bit his lip.
"I know you feel awful." She said, rubbing her forehead. "We all do. Trust me. I've barely slept since her disappearance...and I don't think I will until we've found her and she's safe at home. Just know that you're doing is helping us all. Okay?"
EB was silent.
"Seven it is." He managed before shuffling out the door, his breath growing heavier with each step.
He muttered one last thing before leaving Sugarcube Corner.
"When we get there, I'll tell you all what I know about hypnosis."
Author's Note
I was tired when I finished writing this. Please don't hesitate to point out any errors of any sort, plot- or grammar-wise.
