Prologue // The Nightmare Stallion
It was… beautiful.
She was free.
She could reach out with an outstretched hoof and pretend all of Equestria was hers. Floating aimlessly on the breeze, wings outstretched to either side… The feeling was indescribable.
A shift in the wind ruffled through her mane and she drifted idly to the side along with it, basking in the glorious mid-morning sunlight. She dropped down to meet a patch of cloud underneath her, keeping the momentum of her flight in her stride as her hooves struck cloud and she began to sprint across the surface underneath her.
She kept her wings pumping as she ran; the feeling of her flight muscles rhythmically flexing and extending was a humble joy she didn’t get the chance to experience very often. As she leapt from cloud to cloud like they were stepping stones, the exhilaration of her simple freedom was enough to bubble up a chorus of gleeful laughter from within her.
Another gust of wind prevailed, and the pegasus swayed in the air, the sudden gust knocking her off balance. She tumbled dizzily for a brief moment before righting herself.
The air had seemingly lost its pleasant quality almost in an instant. The wind had begun to howl haphazardly – almost angrily – under her wings. A bad omen was on the rise.
Promptly, she folded her wings and returned to the clouds below. Cantering nervously, it was impossible not to spy the dark clouds beginning to swirl about in her peripheral vision. They grew together, coalescing and lumping into a single form until a fully-realised thunderhead was towering behind her menacingly.
And that was when he appeared.
From out of the thickening storm clouds he ran. Full pelt and towards her with a staggering speed. The dark pegasus, immense and intimidating in size, thundered across the sky towards her.
She pelted, taking to the sky in the buffeting winds, her breath hitching in her throat as the strange stallion closed in on her. There was not a pony in sight; even down below only the wild woodlands of Equestria was visible. There would be no help. She was alone.
The stallion closed the gap between them with ease. The storm clouds trailed and swarmed behind him in his wake, until they had swallowed them both, encasing them in darkness. No matter how frantically she ran or how wildly she drove her wings, he was always faster.
He drew up beside her, his enormous wings flared in an aggressive display. She could see the terrifying gleam of bright, piercing yellow eyes from underneath his dark coat, the same colour as the deepening storm clouds. She could hear the sound of his wheezing breath as he powered along beside her.
She bounced off a nearby cloud, using it for leverage to propel herself into the air. Furiously, she beat her wings to try and increase what measly gap she could, but they did not seem to respond. It was almost as if her wings were suddenly paralysed. Horrified, she craned her neck about to see what was holding them back, but when she saw it her blood ran cold.
They were gone.
Her wings had simply turned into a puff of smoke and were spiralling away into the murk of the thunder clouds surrounding her. And as the arc of her leap continued, there was only one way to go. Down.
She fell.
She plummeted screaming straight through the clouds, her momentum not slowed in the slightest as she barrelled through each layer. The wind screamed at her face, buffeting her body and roaring in her ears, overpowering even the sound of her own blood pounding in her eyes.
The ground raced upwards to meet her, her descent rapid and unrelenting.
She closed her eyes, bracing for impact.
Suddenly, Sleet Song jolted upwards, eyes open and awake. She hadn't even realised that she'd fallen asleep. After running errands across the floor all morning, she'd simply trotted into the tea room for a quick break... and as it turned out, she'd been more tired than she had thought.
The mare yawned, rubbed her eyes, and bent over to pick up the papers she’d knocked off the table in her startled panic.
As one of the clerks in the Technical Division of Cloudsdale's Weather Factory, she was often on her hooves all day. Bustling about taking messages to and fro, ordering parts, and organising mountains of paperwork -- this all in a day's work for Sleet. It wasn't all bad, though -- the engineers she worked with made up partly for it. For even though she lacked the intricate technical knowledge that was second nature to them, they made rather good company, and the idle conversations she had while they worked were engaging and pleasant.
With a sigh, she turned to inspect the tiny, cramped tea room. The wooden table she'd been slumped over took up most of the space, with its worn edges and chipped powder-blue paint. Either side, there was barely enough room for a single pony to squeeze. The white cupboards that hung over the minimal sink were in a similar condition. Definitely no room for any mysterious nightmare stallions lurking here – Sleet doubted he’d even fit in the room without trouble.
Suddenly, a movement at the doorway caught her attention. A yellow pegasus leaned up against the frame, grinning brightly. Obviously coming straight from the underside of one of the machines, errant grease stains marked his bright coat and his trademark protective goggles bounced lazily around his neck as he repositioned himself.
“Good to see somepony’s back in the land of the living!” He greeted. Sunny, as he was known to most ponies, was a rather apt name for the pegasus. He was the sort of pony who, no matter what you said to him, would be able to find the positive in it. Some found his constant cheeriness annoying, but Sleet had known him for far too long for it to actually affect her.
Sleet sighed. “Yeah, yeah…” She rubbed an eye sluggishly. Suddenly remembering something, she bolted upright. “Weren’t we supposed to have a work meeting or something?” Her eyes snapped to the clock on the wall.
“Oh…” His face fell, guilty. “Only... about fifteen minutes ago,”
“What?” Her eyes rounded and her mouth ran dry. “And you let me keep sleeping?!”
Sunny flustered. “I'm so sorry! Really! You--you just looked so tired! I couldn't bring myself to wake you up!” He cringed.
Her head slumped forward. “Yes, but now… now…”
The stallion gave sheepish smile. He draped a sling-bag across the table.
“It’s all good, though! No worries!" He beamed. "You just got stuck with the food run for this afternoon. That’s all!”
Sleet just groaned.
“No no!" Sunny waggled a hoof. "No groaning! Come on! You get to go for a nice walk out into that beautiful sunshine we spend all day toiling away to make, while we're stuck with our heads in the snowflake trap all day. Go and enjoy it!” He forced his trademark bright smile to his face, knowing full well how infectious his chipper personality could be to those who were susceptible to it.
Sleet sighed. “You're not going to stop until I go, are you?”
“Maybe..."
She pulled a face at him and grinned. "Fine, fine -- off I go for more drudgery and slavework!" She moaned melodramatically, putting a hoof to her forehead, and slipped out of the tea room beside him.
"You're such a slavedriver!" She teased, slipping the bag over her neck, before taking off at a run.
“H-hey!” Sunny made an attempt to flitter after her, but soon realised it was a fruitless attempt and simply slumped himself back to the ground.
“Well, I’ve got something I want to show you after work today, okay? You better be there!”
Unfortunately, his request fell on deaf ears as Sleet Song disappeared out of view.
