The Factory's Remnants

Inside the cottage in the late afternoon, Thundercloud stoked the oven to prepare dinner. “I don’t have much to offer. Just some ramen and a few hay bricks. Let’s just say I took a pay cut.”

Sunny Blaze snickered and said, “So that was the last thing they cut when they couldn’t get another kid?”

Thundercloud gave him a disgusted look.

“Hey, look” Sunny Blaze continued, “I was there too. I’m allowed a little bit of dark humor.”

Thundercloud glowered as he poured the noodles.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t have that stuff with what you did,” Sunny Blaze said.

Thundercloud finished pouring the ramen in the bowls and stared at his hooves, “It becomes numbing when you do it all the time. You just want it to stop. You just want to get some sleep. I saw what I saw. It doesn’t work.”

Sunny Blaze remained silent with the only sound of Thundercloud testing the stove. He then said, “You either live in fear or dismiss it through humor. I’ve studied it through my recovery. It’s something time honored in the military, firefighting, and, you know, stuff like that place. Ponies like us who’ve lived horrifying situations.”

Thundercloud moved closer to the stove to watch the simmering pot. “Yeah, well, it was one day for you. It was years for me. Just how many…”

They both sat in silence, not speaking, while watching the boiling pot.

Sunny Blaze removed the bedding from his back and made a bed, He begand reading from a book. (THIS IS STUOID)

Thundercloud broke the silence. “You seem too cheerful for somepony who was almost stuffed into the machine.”

“I was stuffed into the machine. By you. I escaped through some miracle. The way I see it, I’m living my second life.”

“I escaped it too many times,” Thundercloud replied, his gaze fixed forward.

“Hmm?” Sunny Blaze turned to look at the pony who was seated next to him.

“I don’t know how many times I wanted to throw myself in.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you think?” Thundercloud spat. “Some of us knew we could toss ourselves into the device.”

Sunny Blaze sat still. “How do you know?”

“We knew.”

The pot on the stove started foaming and the lid popped from the pot.

“Oh no, no, NO!” Thundercloud hopped to his hooves, grabbed an oven mitt with his mouth, and shoved the pot to the cooling sheet. He pulled the lid off, set it to the side, and eyed the pot.

“I guess unwatched pots boil pretty fast,” Sunny Blaze said.

“I don’t think anything leaked,” Thundercloud said, inspecting the pot. “I usually just eat out of the pot when it cools, but I’ll get some bowls.”

Thundercloud pulled two bowls from a cupboard and used a spooned even portions into bowls for each of them.

“To Cloudsdale,” Sunny Blaze offered.

“What?”

“Cloudsdale. It’s still a good place.”

“Um, sure,” Thundercloud said, “To Cloudsdale?”

They clacked the bowls together and began eating.

Thundercloud slurped his noodles while Sunny Blaze lapped his. The bowls were dry in minutes.

“Thanks for the meal,” Sunny Blaze said, “It was still better than the hostel food I was going to eat tonight. Speaking of which, I should get going. We’re going to Cloudsdale tomorrow, and…”

“Tomorrow? You’re planning my life?”

“I mean, I just assumed that…”

“I’m not going.”

“But…”

“I said no.”

“Then why’d you let me come here?”

“You’re the first… company I’ve had in years.”

“Okay. Whatever you want.”

“When can I expect you in the morning?”

“I’m guessing nine is when your stupor will have ended. I’ll have more of the remedy with me.” Sunny Blaze exited and closed the door behind him. Thundercloud sat at the door, waiting several hours before leaving. He returned to the cottage after sunset with four half gallon jugs of cider.

Thundercloud jumped from his blackout out of his cot, startled by the whirring of gears that he realized was his front door. He saw Sunny Blaze standing at the threshold and blurted, “You’ve known me two days and you think you can just let yourself in?”

Sunny Blaze was holding two canvas bags in his teeth. With a flick of his head, he tossed the bags toward Thundercloud. “I’ve known you a lot longer than two days. Do I have to remind you?”

Thundercloud shrank back amid his stupor. He sagged to the ground to bite on one of the bags and felt the same cooling sensation course across his face.

“We’re going to Cloudsdale today.’ Sunny Blaze commanded.

Thundercloud raised his head from the bag and glowered at Sunny Blaze. “I already told you no!”

“What?” Sunny Blaze backed away in surprise.

“Just because I open up to you the slightest, you think you can just push me around? Do you really think I want to see that place again?”

“But this is part of the therapy and…”

Thundercloud stood and shouted, “I never asked you to heal me!”

“I, I just wanted to help,” Sunny Blaze squeaked. “I wanted to know the factory workers weren’t all bad.”

“Well, sorry. I did what I did. Get outta here.”

Thundercloud pressed his face to Sunny Blaze’s. Without saying anything, Sunny Blaze turned and fled with Thundercloud slamming the door behind him.

Thundercloud snorted, walked toward his cot, dropped into it, and fell asleep. Without the help of cider, his dreams were a whir of the sounds of grinding metal, streaming colors, endless shouting, and finally, the faces.

He shot awake, wanting to scream, but his throat was dry. By looking out the window, he could see it was roughly noon. He lay in his cot staring at the wall for hours and trying not to fall asleep again.

When the sun had lowered enough to cast long shadows, he arose from the cot, donned his cloak, and headed out. The path was darkening. Some of the strange sounds of the Everfree were already appearing. Knowing he might be returning home after dark, he raised his pace, trotting for a while, slowing to wheeze as he caught his breath, and trotted again.

He reached Ponyville and started looking for buildings. “only thing I know is the cider guy,” he grumbled.

A light flickered on in the town square. He could see the unicorn lighting it with a torch held aloft by magic. He approached the stallion, being cautious. “Excuse me, sir,” he said, as measured as possible in a gravelly voice, but keeping his hood on over his eyes.

The pony jumped back. “Um, yes, can I help you?”

“Can you tell me where the hostel is?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I just need to visit somepony.”

“It’s, It’s that way,” the unicorn replied, pointing a shaking hoof toward a small, elongated building.

“Thank you,” he muttered. Thundercloud turned and headed toward the building. He tightened his cloak over his head and body.

The building was smaller than it appeared. He entered and saw a bell at the front desk. With nopony attending the desk, he rang it. A pony rounded from a back room.

“How can I help…” the earth pony mare paused and stared at him, shocked. “I don’t know if you should be here.”

With his face hidden, Thundercloud grumbled, “Am I not allowed?”

“Well, ponies talk, and…”

“Have I done anything wrong?”

”N.,No.” she stammered.

“I’m just looking for somepony. Can you help me?”

She gulped. “Well, I guess. Who is it?’

“There’s been a pony staying here by the name of Sunny Blaze. Can you page him, or something?”

“No. He checked out hours ago. Sorry.” She shrank from the desk.

Thundercloud paused, and then continued, “Did he say where he was going?”

“No, he just checked out in the morning and left!” She looked worried.

Thundercloud remained silent for a moment. “Oh, thank you.” He turned and walked away.

He headed toward the west end of Ponyville and found a high point. While sitting on it, he watched the last of the twilight fade away. The colors faded as the sun set, not flowing as he was accustomed to seeing.

Whirring, buzzing, shouting, and grinding filled Thundercloud’s ears.

I heard he eats bugs.

I heard he steals food if you leave it out.

He buys my cider every day.

I’ve seen him go into the Everfree.

I’ve never seen him fly.

Thundercloud shot to his hooves, startling the crowd. A few ponies galloped away.

“What’s happening?” he asked to nopony in particular, his head filled with haze.

The pony he recognized as the cider merchant approached. “What are you doing out here?”

“What am I, some carnival attraction?” Thundercloud spat.

“Well, kind of,” the cider pony replied. “We’ve never seen you here.”

Somewhere, a foal started crying.

“No! Quiet the kid!” Thundercloud yelled. Trembling, he collapsed to the ground and pulled his hood under his chin. “No, no, no! Just shutup,” he whimpered under his hood. The cries of the foal disappeared.

As he shivered, he heard a set of hooves approach and stop in front of him.

“Sir, I have to ask you stand up,” a mare’s voice commanded.

He stayed on the ground, shivering.

“Stand up!”

Thundercloud remained still, shivering and whimpering. The cries faded as the foal was carried away by its parents.

With a firmer voice she commanded, “Sir, I said stand up!”

Thundercloud, trembling and holding his hooves over his head, said, “Is the kid gone?” Shaking, Thundercloud rose to his hooves.

“His mom took him home,” she answered.

His shoulders dropped in relief. With his front hoof quivering, he raised it to remove his hood. His unkempt mane fell out. In front of him was an earth pony mare with a gray mane.

“You’ve frightened a lot of ponies in this town just by being here. Now I know it’s perfectly legal for you to live in the Everfree, but you can’t sleep on our public property.”

Thundercloud squinted in the brightness of the day, the uneasiness from the foal’s cries still making his limbs weak, he squinted, “Am I in trouble?”

“Only if you want it. Technically, there’s a fine, but I can look the other way if you tell us why you came here and slept in public like a vagrant.”

“I don’t have a good answer for that.” He blinked. “I guess I just came out here to watch the sunset. I fell asleep. Sorry.”

The clerk from the hostel approached the mare facing him. “Mayor,” she started, “he came to the desk last night and asked for somepony.”

“He did?” She squinted at him. “Do you know somepony here?”

Thundercloud shook his head. “I think he’s gone. Can I, I just go home now?”

A white pegasus mare landed in front of him. “I think I…”

“Huh? I thought they liquidated you?”

“What?’ The pegasus tilted her head.

“No, never mind, I thought you looked like somepony I knew.”

“Um, okay. Anyway, I saw a pony heading east this morning during my morning flying exercises. All he had were some saddle bags. I thought it was weird a pegasus was just walking..”

“East?!” Thundercloud exclaimed.

“Uh, yeah.”

“What did he look like?” Thundercloud pressed his face closer.

“Um, green was all I could tell!” she quavered,

“Stop telling him things!” a voice shouted.

“But he hasn’t done anything wrong!” another voice countered.

Thundercloud spread his wings and lifted off. Working muscles that he hadn’t maintained for years.

He flew into the air, huffing and wheezing. “You can do this, you’re a pegasus!” he demanded of himself as he fought the air. Coughing and wheezing, he fluttered toward the ground.

Just as he was about to quit, he felt a thermal rise underneath him. He left his wings extended and let the rising warm air spin him around. He closed his eyes and allowed the vortex to carry him wherever it may.