The Grey Cloud

The Everfree had been empty for a long time. There was nothing left in this forest, except for the remnants of what had once been a dark and dangerous place. The trees, covered in the thick volcanic ash were dying, and what was left of the plant life was being smothered ash. The world was like a candle, that some great god had taken their finger and had snuffed the burning wick out. All that was left was the smoke, leftover from the smoldering wick. The smoke was like the ash, and it suffocated those who lived in it.

A large timberwolf had been heading towards them. The stallion had noticed the beast, and had instructed everyone to quietly hide behind the trees. As it passed, the grey mare could feel her daughter trembling and rubbing against her chest. Holding her breath, she stroked the child to comfort her. The filly was quiet, but her small defenseless body shook with fear. The grey mare watched as the timberwolf rose its nose in the air. It attempted to smell something, but with the ash, its sense of smell was rendered useless. Its bark looked to be charred, and its glowing eyes had dimmed.

The timberwolf did not attempt to try to search. It raised its head up high into the air and howled mournfully. The child trembled even more as the creature let out its cry. The grey mare watched it as it left, and then she looked towards the stallion and white mare. When she was sure that the beast was completely gone, she waited a few minutes, and then nodded to them. The stallion nodded back, and they wordlessly began to trot again.

“What was that mommy?” The small filly asked beside her.

“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

“Is it going to die?”

“Yes. It will die.”

They wandered for a bit in the forest. The grey mare looked up, and she could see that the cloud was somewhat darker today. Surely enough, later a gentle rainfall began to drizzle upon them, making the ash beneath their hooves muddy and moist. As it began to fall harder, the wet ash and mud clung to their hooves like the desperate souls of the Styx. Eventually, they stopped, and took shelter in a large, hollow tree. The wind was cold, and the grey mare removed their blanket from her saddlebags and draped it over her daughter. Nearby, the stallion and his wife had done the same, with their own thick blanket. The pregnant mare had fallen asleep.

As the grey mare looked outside at the hopeless rain, she felt a hoof draping some of the blanket onto her. She looked down, and found herself underneath the tiny blanket. “Here mommy, you take some of the blanket too.”

“I’m fine muffin. I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

“I don’t want you to catch one either.”

The grey mare finally nodded. She reached down and nuzzled the child, hoping to edge some warmth onto her. The child pressed against her, nuzzled against her side and fell asleep. When she was sure that she was truly asleep, the grey mare took some of the blanket and spread more onto her. She kept some of it, but most of the blanket was covering the child now.

“You think this rain will stop today?”

The stallion had spoken to her. She looked back at him. “Why do you think I should know?”

“I don’t know. Because you’re a Pegasus.”

The sentence sounded more like a statement than a question. The grey mare had an intuition, but it never seemed to be right. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“How what works?”

“How should I know when the rain stops falling? I didn’t create it.”

“I guess so. I just figured that you would know.”

“Well, if I follow my intuition, then I think that the rain will stop falling today. I don’t know what time specifically though.”

“Well, when it stops, we’ll continue heading east.”

“East? We’re heading east? How can you even tell?”

A small sigh echoed in the shelter. The stallion looked down at his wife, and nuzzled her gently. She shifted in her sleep for a bit, and then settled against him again. The grey mare watched them both. She looked down at the child, and could feel her small warm body press against her. When she looked back up at the stallion sitting across from her, he was rummaging through his saddlebags. He pulled out a small silvery object, and held it up in his hooves.

“I have a compass. That’s how I can tell.”

“Why east then? What is there in the east?”

“I don’t really know. All I do know is that there is a railroad outside of the Everfree, and that railroad will lead to a city. There has got to be more food in the city than there is here.”

“There will also be more ponies you know.”

The stallion was silent, but the grey mare could tell by the hardened look on his face that he did not care if other ponies were there. Considering what he had been capable of with the group of strangers she had met previously in the forest, she knew that he was more than capable of defending himself and others.

“Where did you plan on going anyway?”

The grey mare shook her head. “There isn’t anywhere to go.”

“I suppose your right. There isn’t anywhere to go and there isn’t anything to do. You just do what you can to make it each day.”

“You don’t even know what to do when you have to do something. You want to hope, but you can’t really hope because you have to do something, but you never know what to do either.”

“You don’t do what you want to do; you do what you have to do. Everypony in this world does what they have to do, even if it means doing something terrible.”

“Even if it means eating others.”

“Not just that. There are much worse things than eating others.”

The grey mare didn’t want to think about it, so she didn’t reply anymore. She was desperate, and her daughter was desperate. She could have chosen to consume others, but she wouldn’t. She was adamant. The stallion seemed to be watching her instead of the rain. “What did you do previously anyway?”

The grey mare thought about it for a moment. “I was a mailmare.”

“You delivered letters?”

“Yes.” The grey mare pointed her hoof at the stallion. “What did you do?”

“I used to work on the rail ways.”

“You were an engineer?”

“Yes. I pulled the trains along the track.”

Considering the stallion’s size and figure, that did not come as a surprise to her. “That’s very impressive. But wouldn’t your special talent have to do with boxing instead?”

The stallion looked out into the rain. He watched it for a bit. At first, she had thought that she had insulted him, but he turned back to her. “I suppose. But that was never my job. My job was always pulling the trains.”

“Did you ever use your talent though?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean?”

“My talent didn’t matter. In that world, there wasn’t any use for my talent. I did what I needed to do, and that was that. There wasn’t any destiny to it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I don’t think that there is such a thing as destiny.”

“You don’t believe in destiny?”

The stallion shook his head. His wife beside him shifted a bit. “No. I don’t think that I ever did. There wasn’t any point to it if it did exist. Destiny is like when something is already planned out. Did anyone plan for any of this? This isn’t a world for ponies or monsters or princesses or gods or goddesses. This world is dead, and we will eventually join it. And that will be that.

The grey mare listened to what he had to say. In the end, she only had six words for him. “Is that what you really think?”

The stallion was resolute. “Yes. I always have. The entire point of our lives isn’t destiny or our talents or anything. The points of our lives are the other ponies in them. The only point to my life now is my wife and our child. That is what matters most now. The point of your life is your daughter, and that is what is most important to you.”

There was not anything to say anymore. The two of them looked out into the dead world, and watched the rain fall. It finished around the mid-afternoon.

***

When they came to a fork in the road, the white mare vomited. The stallion turned to look at her, and he rushed to her side. The grey mare watched them, and her child stood by her side. She watched the stallion lift his wife’s mane away from her face, and she continued to vomit. It was not much, and when she finished, she held her swollen stomach.

The stallion was frantic. “How are you feeling? What did you eat?”

The mare lifted herself and looked at him. She wiped her muzzle and tried to smile but couldn’t. “I’m fine. I’m just nauseated. I am pregnant after all.”

Regardless, the stallion did not leave her side. He helped her to the base of the tree, where she placed herself down. “I’m fine. I’m sorry, I just need to sit for a bit.”

The grey mare felt something at her side stir. The child poked her in the side. When she turned to look at her, the child looked worried.

“Is she sick mommy?”

“No muffin. When you’re pregnant, you throw up sometimes.”

“But she’s not sick?”

“No. She’s not sick.”

“That’s good.”

The stallion had removed a blanket and had draped it over the white mare. Walking back over to them, the stallion looked down the split road. Each side was overgrown with trees on either side, and the roads themselves were thick with brush. The forest had grown so thick now, that the grey cloud couldn’t even be seen anymore. It was dark and dim, but all of their eyes had adjusted. The stallion looked back at the grey mare.

“I know that we are heading east. Soon, we’ll be out of the forest.”

The mare looked down the roads. The stallion walked forward a bit on the left road, and he stood, watching down the path. The forest was quiet, and nothing but their breathing and the rustling of leaves could be heard.

“I think that we should look a little ahead, and see what’s out there.”

The grey mare shook her head. “We should wait. Let’s look down them later, when everyone is ready to go.”

“No. We don’t have to go down them very far. Just enough to see what’s out there.”

“So we should just leave her behind?”

The stallion’s eyes hardened. He began to approach her, but a voice called out from behind them. “Don’t worry about me. If you want to look ahead, then go look ahead. I’ll be fine here.”

The grey mare looked back at her. “I’ll look down them then. You both can wait here.”

The stallion trotted past her and laid beside his wife. “Fine then.” As the grey mare turned to leave, the child at her side poked her again.

“Can I come with you?”

“You don’t want to stay here?”

“No. I want to look with you.”

“You’re not tired?”

“No. Can I please come with you?”

The grey mare didn’t want to look very far. It had just been her daughter and herself before, but she had also had a functioning wing. Her wing would still throb on occasion, but that was nothing compared to the agony it had been before. She could now unfurl it, but she didn’t want to risk using it, lest she reopen the sealed wounds. The child’s bruises had faded from her body completely, but the mare still felt a silent fury within her as she remembered that she had even let her child be touched by another. The Pegasus smiled. “Of course you can. I had just thought that you were tired.”

Leaving the duo behind, the grey mare felt confident that when the white mare had rested a while, she would be ready to move again. She knew that the stallion would not dare to leave her side. The grey mare decided on the right path, and the mother and child walked a little ways down the path. The natural smells of the forest had all died out now, and the choking smell of ash lay prominent through the area. The trees above them were covered in ash, and as they moved forward, the mare attempted to stifle her coughing as to not disturb the child. She found, as she watched the child however, that the face cloth was beginning to wear, and the child seemed to be adjusting it more often. We’ll need to make new ones soon, the mare thought.

The path was straight, and it lead them to the edge of a cliff. The mare was surprised, and she almost did not see it coming. The child wanted to look off its edge, but the mare held her back. “You don’t know if the side may crumble.” Instead, the child opted to throw a small rock over its side. The trees at the edge seemed to grow out over the abyss, and the grey cloud was visible. From their vantage point, the mare could see that the forest continued on for a few miles, and then stopped abruptly, leading to a thin line that wove through the open land. Past that, there was nothing but mountains and hills.

“Mommy, can I get a boost?”

The grey mare hoisted her daughter onto her back, and the small filly stood and looked out over the view.

“What’s that line out there?”

“I think that it’s a rail way.”

“What’s a rail way?”

“Well, ponies used to use it to travel on trains. They would ride them, and it helped them get to places faster than walking.”

“Do you think that there are other ponies down there?”

“I don’t know.”

The child hoped eagerly down from the mare’s back. The mare knew that they would be leaving the forest soon, but it wouldn’t matter whether or not they knew the way if they could not make it down the cliff. They had been gone for a little while longer than she had planned, but they had found something good and she wanted to look a little more. The both of them walked along the cliff. When the child grew tired, the mare lifted her onto her back. Her wing was beginning to feel sore, but she couldn’t help that.

“Mommy, what is having friends like?”

The question came out of nowhere, and it caught the mare slightly off. She had always remembered her own friends, but the child had never really asked about friendship itself. The mare was honest.

“Having friends… It’s a wonderful feeling.”

The child shifted on her back slightly. She was interested. “Like how?”

“Well, friends are nice because they can tell when you’re hurting. Even though nopony else might. And you can tell the same for them. You care about one another. You enjoy being together.”

“Did you have lots of friends?” The mare had known this question was coming.

“Yes.”

“Was everyone your friend?”

“Maybe not everyone.”

“Who wasn’t?”

“I don’t know. Some ponies just weren’t.”

“Did you like them?”

The mare stopped to look out over the view again. She peered ahead for a minute, and then she spoke. “I don’t know. Sometimes I just didn’t know them.”

“Did they like you?”

“Sometimes you just never know.”

“What do you mean?”

The mare felt her wing throb. The child was moving around a lot, and she would occasionally hit the mare’s wing. The mare wanted to tell her to stop fidgeting, but she didn’t. The child didn’t know any better.

The mare grimaced, and she stopped for a minute. “Well, sometimes you don’t know if they actually like you or not.”

“Did you like your friends?”

The mare remembered her friends, and how utterly happy they had made her. “Oh yes. I liked them a lot.”

“What about them?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you…” The child paused. When the mare realized what she was asking, she stopped and peered back at her daughter. The child’s eyes looked from side to side, as if she was guilty from asking the question.

“Do you think they liked you back?”

The mare was silent.

“I’m sorry.”

The mare realized something. In her whole short life, the child had never once had any friend. She had never had any contact of any sort with anypony for long. The broken stallion had died before she could have even talked to him. The mare herself knew what friendship was, but her child had not. She didn’t have any idea about it.

“No.” The mare spoke softly. “Don’t be sorry. You’re just curious. I think that they did.”

“I bet they did.” Those words made the mare feel warm inside. “But how do you know?” The child pressed on.

“How do you know what?”

“How do you know if your friends like you back?”

In the far, almost forgotten past, the mare had struggled with that feeling for a time. It had taken years for her to feel confident. She had been lonely, and even somewhat bitter at times, thinking that everypony was just out for themselves, and that true friendship and even love was something that only existed in the imagination of an innocent and unknowing child. Her friends, the ponies that she loved, had shown her otherwise. In spite of this, the mare answered as honestly as she could.

“I guess you just don’t know. You just hope that they care about you as much as you care about them.”

“Is that the rule?”

“Is what the rule?”

“Is that the rule that they have to like you back if you like them? If you’re nice to somepony, do they have to be nice back?”

The mare shook her head. “Not necessarily.”

“Why not?”

“I guess sometimes that’s just how ponies are.”

“Oh.” The child seemed disappointed.

The mare had been walking along the cliff for a while now. The trees had grown thicker and the mare had been forced to make her way through the trees, as they had grown practically off of the sides of the cliff. There was no sign of the cliff ending, and although the mare knew the way back, she felt herself growing tired. She felt the child’s stomach rumble against her back. Neither her nor the child had eaten today. When they returned soon, the mare decided, they would eat.

“Is the stallion our friend?”

The mare had just been thinking about the stallion. Surely by now the white mare had been feeling better, and she knew that she would head back soon. “Yes. I think he is.”

“What about the mare?”

“Yes. They both helped us even though they didn’t have to. I think that we’re all friends.”

This seemed to reassure the child, as she shifted on the mare’s back again. “That’s good. I really like them. I’m glad we’re friends.”

The mare looked back at her child. She was smiling. The sight made her smile as well. “I know. I am too muffin.”

The child shifted on her back to look at her. “What about your other friends?”

“What about them?”

“What happened to them?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think that they died?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I don’t think that they did.”

***

The mare had not kept a clock in years, but she figured that they had been gone for a little more than half an hour. The cliff had just pressed on and on. The forest had not lightened up, and only seemed to become thicker as they pressed on. The grey cloud lingered over them, and as the wing at her side throbbed, the mare remembered the strength of the cloud and pressed on. She decided that she would stop soon, and as she passed another tree, she saw that a large tree had fallen on its side, blocking their path. The branches and limbs lay scattered, and some of them dangled off of the edge of the cliff into the open air. The roots were covered in dirt, and like everything else in the world, a layer of ashes and dust smothered them.

She decided that she would have a look around the side of the log. If there was nothing but cliff on the other side, she would turn around and go back. She felt as if they had ventured down this path too long and too far. The path had ended long ago, and they had found nothing. The mare approached the roots of the dead tree, and stopped for a second.
She felt her ears jolt upward. Hoovesteps were approaching from somewhere. Grabbing her daughter, she threw herself onto the ground, and lay curled with her daughter. They lay among the tall ferns and weeds, and she hoped that the stirred dust and ashes would be ignored.

As they approached, the mare listened carefully and found that they were approaching from the other side of the log. Reaching into her saddlebags, she drew her knife and held it in her mouth. She could feel the child trembling as she lifted warily up, and her own heart beat quickened in her chest. As the hoovesteps began to fade away, she lifted herself and peered around the side, keeping most of her body hidden by the thick roots and earth clinging to them.

A lone, yellow stallion was approaching the cliff, and he held in his mouth a shriveled, colorless apple. The stem clenched between his teeth, the stranger seemed frantic, and he kept looking from side to side, as if he was being chased. He was skinny, and his red mane and tail were longer than the mare’s. She could hear his panicked breaths, and when he stood still, he seemed to dance around, as if too scared to stand completely still. He didn’t see the mare, and the mare realized that even if he could, he was no threat at all. The stranger didn’t have any saddlebags, and his only possession seemed to be the apple.

The knife clenched in her teeth, she watched as the stallion approached the cliff, and looked off the side of it. He didn’t say anything, but he looked from side to side one last time, before he leapt off of it. The mare felt her heart stop for a moment as she watched.
He had just committed suicide. He had been so frantic and panicked to get away from whatever was chasing him that he had simply jumped to his death. She backed away from the roots, and she laid upon the ground again, her daughter still in her hooves. Thankfully, the child had not seen the stranger.

The mare waited, trying to keep herself as still as she could. The ash had settled around them, and she stifled her cough as she listened. The child let out a soft whimper, and the mare shushed her. They laid and listened for a while, both of their hearts beating so hard and fast that they felt as if they would pop any second. There was nothing but the usual silence of the forest.

At ten minutes, the mare didn’t feel as if anyone was coming. She was sure that the stranger had been pursued by something, but she didn’t hear anything else. She felt slightly more calm than she previously had, and when she felt sure, she stood up and walked to the roots of the tree. She looked around. There was nothing at the other side of the log. She walked around it, and kept her frightened daughter close.

“Mommy, who was that?” The child’s voice was squeaky and wispy.

“I don’t know. Here, take the knife and stand here while I look.”

“Mommy, please…”

“Take it.”

The child finally accepted the knife, and held it in her mouth. She stood there, trembling. The mare didn’t want her child to see the sight. She walked to the edge of the cliff where the stallion had jumped, and braced herself. Right along the edge of the cliff, there were a series of ledges, leading downward. They were covered in ash, but the mare could see the markings of hooveprints along them. There was no body at the bottom or along the side. There was no blood. The stallion had not jumped to his death. He had known about the cliff, and had made his way down safely.

When she walked back to the child, the child seemed relieved to give the knife back. The mare stored it away, and lifted the child onto her back again. “What were you looking at mommy?” The child was calmer now, but she still shook.

“I found a way down. There’s a safe way down the cliff.”

***

When they made their way back to the path, the day had grown darker. The mare felt that they had been gone for far too long. Exhaustion was smothering her like the ash, but she was relieved and excited that they had found a way down. But what then? She thought.

What would they do when they were out of the forest?

The forest was neither better nor worse than the rest of the world.

As these thoughts buzzed in her head, she jumped slightly when the child spoke in her ear. “Mommy, do you want me to use my magic? I can’t see very well.”

The mare was about to decline the offer, but then she remembered the stallion and the white mare. She didn’t want to creep up on them, and she didn’t want to scare the stallion especially. If he didn’t know who they were, she didn’t want to think of what he might do. She thought for a minute, and then she finally declined.

“No. Don’t worry. We’ll be back soon, and then we’ll rest and eat okay?”

When the grey mare recognized the area she was in, she knew that the stallion and mare were nearby. She decided to call out instead. She knew that they knew what she sounded like. “We’re back!” She shouted a little louder than she intended, but she was excited.

She did not hear any reply. “Okay muffin. Do you think that you can use your magic? Just a little so that we can see.”

“Okay.” The mare felt the area around her light up as the young unicorn used her magic. From where the child was on her back, she could hear the steady hum of the magic making its way into the physical world. As they approached closer, the mare smelled something. It was strong, and she felt as though it might be the vomit from before.

The grey mare could see them. The white mare was curled on the ground, sideways, and the stallion was laying beside her, his body draped over her. A puddle of crimson blood was beneath her, and she was completely still. The stallion was shaking, and as the mare approached, she could hear a soft sobbing.

She felt herself jump as the stallion’s head suddenly jolted upward and stared straight at her. Tears were streaming down his face, and his expression was that of utter, hopeless despair. The mare’s beautiful white coat was stained with blood, and a large gaping hole was cut into her abdomen, blood pooling from the wound. Her eyes did not sparkle, and instead were glazed with the look of death. The stallion’s hooves were covered in blood. Nearby him, lay the bodies of a blue mare and a green stallion, and a large puddle of blood seeped from their destroyed heads. Near where the greens stallion’s mouth should’ve been was a red carving knife.

“Mommy… the mare… she’s…”