The Cloud
The trees were swayed violently in the strong wind. Luckily all the loose branches were already torn off by the ponies of Ponyville, or there would have been downright dangerous to walk around outside. But perhaps it was anyway. The heavy rain has made the roads muddy and slippery. A careless pony could easily end up with her face in the dirt. Literally. And the thunderstorm could scare even the bravest of ponies.
The night has fallen over Equestria and most ponies had already gone to bed. But not everypony. There was at least one that was awake. She was not the bravest of ponies, no. The opposite seemed like a better explanation. The thunderstorm made it impossible for her to sleep. The bright light and loud noise the thunder made her feel very uncomfortable.
The yellow pegasus pony, better known as Fluttershy, were sitting straight up in her bed. She simply could not sleep, no matter how hard she tried. She sighed. There was no use trying. We stood up and carefully sneaked out of the bedroom, making sure not to wake up Angel, who was sleeping in the same room as her. Even since he was a little bunny rabbit he’d been afraid of the lighting. Letting him sleep in the same room with her made him calm down so he could actually sleep. Unfortunately, it didn’t help Fluttershy’s case very much.
When Fluttershy walked downstairs and into the kitchen she picked a bottle of milk and filled a glass. Supposedly it should make you tired if it was warm, but Fluttershy didn’t feel like dealing with heating up the milk, so she just drank it cold. Besides, she liked it better that way.
But just before she was about to finish her glass she heard how the chickens started panicking from the outside. She put the glass down and went out to the living room. She wondered could have scared them, but guessed it was the lightning. When she looked out of the window, she saw the chicken coop completely smashed. At least four chickens were lying frozen on the ground while the rest were running around in panic. Fluttershy looked with fear as the chickens on the ground didn’t seem to be moving at all. What could have happen to them?
Then she ran for the door. She’d rather not go out in the rainstorm, but it was necessary if she wanted to help those poor creatures. Just a few seconds later she reached the chicken coot. Before looking into the four chickens she presumed to be dead, she gathered all the chickens that were still alive to make them calm down. Making the chickens gathered in the same place wasn’t so hard for someone as experienced as Fluttershy. But she couldn’t for her life keep them quiet, so she stopped tying. She had to know what had happened to the four dead chickens and see if there was something she could do to keep the others from getting harmed.
Fluttershy walked up to the closest chicken and as she suspected, it was dead. She started to feel a bit sick, looking at the dead chicken, but she had to figure out what had happened. It was covered in mud because of the muddy ground, but other than that there were no physical damages. She checked the other ones as well, but nothing. No damages at all. That was strange considering whatever attacked them broke the coop, but that could just have been the storm. But what troubled her most was a very unusual and frightening sight. All the chickens had their faces frozen in fear. Had they been scared to death?
She backed away from the dead chickens. Hear heart started beating faster. What was this? The wind grabbed her wet mane and it got in the way of her eyes. She slowly swept her mane out of the way. But as she did that, she noticed something. The chickens that had constantly been making noises were suddenly quiet. She looked at them and they looked back at her. All had fear in their eyes. No, wait… they weren’t looking at her, but behind her. Fluttershy started to feel very uncomfortable. Something was standing right behind her. She could feel it. She slowly turned her head. There, right behind her, a giant, dark cloud was leaning over her. Fluttershy could not see a body, just this cloud. But there was something with that cloud. It had some kind of life source. Something dark, ancient and evil. It was like it created fear wherever it was going. And it was giving her a strange, cold feeling that seemed to reach her very soul. And it seemed like it was sucking away her source of life, and in the process, making it stronger. Whatever it was, it was not from this world.
Fluttershy’s mouth was wide open and her eyes stared at the cloud with fear. Her entire body was shaking and her head was pounding. Her instincts screamed at her to run away, but it was like her mussels were locked in place. She felt like she was getting weaker by the second.
The dark cloud was slowly getting closer and all she could do was to look and await her inevitable end. But just before the cloud would have touched her, the lighting struck, and the cloud disappeared into nothingness. The only thing that was left was two red glowing orbs, just like eyes, that were quickly fading away. Fluttershy just looked at where the cloud just had been. The feeling slowly started to come back to her as she noticed how every inch of her body was hurting. She screamed in fear and took the opportunity to run inside her house. She slammed the door shut and quickly barricaded it with an armchair. Then she quickly took a few steps backwards. She could feel her heart beat faster than ever. She took a quick look out of the widow at looked at the chickens. They were all dead now. Fluttershy screamed once again and quickly drew the curtains close. If she could just stay inside, everything would be all right. Everything would be… Then it began to beat. She could hear beating all over the house at the same time. This was too much for her. She screamed loudly in panic and ran up the stairs.
“I can’t stay here! I can’t stay here! I can’t stay here!” she repeated to herself.
When she ran into the bedroom, Angel was already awake. He didn’t know what was going on, but someone had woke him up. And since Fluttershy was the only living being he could see right now, she had to be held accountable. But then he saw the fear in her eyes and her clumsy actions that was telling him that she was in panic. Whatever was going on it wasn’t good. She could answer for her crimes later. Right now all he could do was follow her.
Fluttershy quickly grabbed only what was absolutely necessary and placed it in a pouch. Then she grabbed Angel, placed him on her back and ran down the stairs, to the front door. But the second she opened the door, a strange force flung her backwards into the wall on the other side of the room. The cloud whirled into the room and covered it with its shadow. The two red orbs inside the cloud were bright and seemed to be able to look straight through Fluttershy and into her very mind. It looked like this would be the end for both Fluttershy and Angel, but she had not given up just yet. She grabbed Angel in her arms and threw herself and Angel out of a window. She covered Angel from the glass fragments but as a result, she cut herself on several spots on her body. But she didn’t have the time to care about. She flew the fastest she could towards the centre of Ponyville, screaming for help. She could feel how her hunter was getting closer. Everything was getting colder in a very unnatural way. Her head started pounding again, but she would not give up that easily. Angel had already passed out in her hooves and she could feel how she was quickly getting weaker and weaker herself. Her legs were already numb and soon she would surely fall unconscious just like Angel. She dropped her pouch of necessaries which helped her to build up more speed. Speed which she needed if she were to escape the evil cloud that was chasing her.
It didn’t take long until she reached the town centre. The town hall was standing there, tall and proud, and many houses were surrounding it. If Fluttershy wanted to get away, she had to get into one of the houses. She screamed for help from the top of her lungs. No reaction at all. She expected as much. Everypony were probably sleeping by now, so they couldn’t hear her cries for help.
“Please! Somepony… anypony… help me!” Why wouldn’t anypony open? Wasn’t she screaming loud enough? Apparently not loud enough to wake anypony. Would this be the end? But then she noticed something in the corner of her eye. One of the widows to the upper floor of the Sugarcube Corner opened. She saw her friend Pinkie Pie lean out of the window, curiously looking from side to side until she noticed Fluttershy. Fluttershy flew as fast as she could, even though she was very much weakened by the strange cloud. Pinkie opened the window a bit more and stepped aside to let Fluttershy in. Fluttershy, who didn’t slow down one bit, flew straight into the room and hit the wall on the other side. Of course she was covering Angel so that he wouldn’t get hurt.
“Close the window!” Fluttershy screamed to Pinkie. She did as told without question. Fluttershy calmed herself down a bit when she realized she was safe now. At least for the moment. She slowly got warmer and the feeling in her legs returned. Her head was still pounding, though, but not as bad as just a few seconds earlier. Even though she had calmed herself down, her heart was still beating faster than ever before and she breathed heavy and irregularly. The fear in her eyes still remained.
She only just now realized Rainbow Dash was in the room as well. She was sitting on the floor, looking confused at Fluttershy. Before her there was a board game she and Pinkie probably were playing.
“What the hay is going on?” Rainbow asked surprised. Seeing Fluttershy fly through the open window must have been the least she expected.
“Yeah, Fluttershy? What’s happening out there?” Pinkie asked worried. Fluttershy looked at the two. The fear in her eyes was slowly disappearing as she felt safe with her friends. She took a few deep breaths before answering.
“There… there is… something… out there…” Fluttershy said and pointed with her hoof at the window. “It… it’s a dark…” But then she stopped. Her own temperature was as it should be, but there was something wrong. Angel was still cold, he hadn’t moved at all and not a single sound was heard from him. She slowly looked down at the white bunny in her hooves. Angel’s face was locked in the same position as the chickens from before. She couldn’t feel him breathe either.
“Angel…?” Fluttershy said while putting the cold, lifeless bunny on the floor. “Angel, wake up… please” She started shaking the little bunny gently, but she got no response. Just that terrified look on his face. “Angel? Angel! ANGEL!” Fluttershy shook the bunny violently, trying to get him back to life. But it was useless. She stopped and looked terrified at his body. Tears started to slowly flow down from her eyes as she saw the dead corpse of her friend. Angel was more than just a pet for her. He was her friend. He had been a part of her life for many, many years. And now he was just… gone. She couldn’t believe it. He was dead. Angel was dead. Her tears flowed more violent than before when she realized he would never come back. Fluttershy slowly bent down until her forehead hit the floor. She started shaking. Rainbow and Pinkie were fast to react, though. Soon they were there to comfort her. Both Rainbow and Pinkie held Fluttershy tight as they looked sadly at the dead bunny. After a while, Rainbow let go of Fluttershy and took a step forward to Angel. She bent down and carefully shut his eyes. As she did that, Fluttershy looked up at the dead Angel. Rainbow carefully picked him up and began walk out of the room. Fluttershy started shouting something unrecognizable and tried to reach for Angel, but failed and fell flat on the ground without even trying to stop her fall. Rainbow looked back at Fluttershy, before silently leaving the room with the corpse.
Rainbow Dash was now impatiently walking around in circles on the main floor of Sugarcube Corner. Fluttershy was curled into a ball on the counter, sobbing and moaning over the loss of little Angel. And last, but not least, Pinkie was desperately trying to look out of the window. But it was impossible to see anything. It was like a dark fog had covered entire Ponyville. Pinkie squeezed her face close to the widow as an attempt to see something. An attempt that for the most part was ineffective. But then Pinkie suddenly shouted of surplice. Rainbow Dash stopped and looked questioning at Pinkie. Fluttershy did the same.
“Did you see anything?” Rainbow asked.
“Yes, I did!” Pinkie nodded. “There were two red glowing things passing by”. Both Rainbow and Pinkie looked worried. They didn’t know exactly what that meant, but it couldn’t be good. They both looked at Fluttershy, wondering if she knew anything. She was, after all, the only one that had really faced… whatever’s out there. Fluttershy had told them about what had happened from the time she first noticed the dead chickens. But she must have forgotten to mention that part. Fluttershy looked terrified when she thought of the two red orbs. She swallowed and quickly crawled down from the counter and hid behind it.
“That’s… it. I think they are its eyes…or something” Fluttershy stammered. In just a second, both Pinkie and Rainbow were hiding behind the counter together with Fluttershy. They stared intently through the windows, but couldn’t see anything. All they could do now was to wait. Wait and listen. Because nopony currently had the courage to go out there. For a long time, nothing happened. But the tree ponies were as tense as ever.
After at least half an hour they heard a window break. It was coming from the house next to the confectionery. They were all hugging each other, shaking and listened closely to see if they could hear something from the other house. Just a minute later a scream was heard. It was the scream of a young mare, perhaps in their age. It was filled with terror and fright. The scream seemed to echo through the building. It lasted for a few seconds before everything suddenly became quiet. The three ponies were breathing heavily. Their heads were pounding and their hooves were shaking. They could feel how the adrenaline was pumping through the body. They wanted to run. Flee. Get out of here. But somehow, they didn’t ever dare to move in fear of that the cloud would notice them.
After a few minutes, Rainbow Dash flew up. She was screaming from the top of her lungs and then started fly around in circles.
“I can’t take it, anymore!” she screamed. “I’m getting out of here! I need to find help!” Rainbow headed for the front door. But right before she reached it, Pinkie stopped her by grabbing her hind legs.
“You can’t go out there, Dashie!” She begged her to stay. “You don’t know what to expect!” Rainbow hesitated for a second. She looked down a Pinkie who had started crying. Rainbow turned around and gave her a hug. When she released her she looked from Pinkie to Fluttershy and back again.
“Well somepony has to go look for help”, Rainbow said slowly. A single tear ran down her chin and hit the floor. “And I’m the fastest of us all. If Fluttershy can escape it, so can I”.
“But didn’t you listen to Fluttershy when she was talking about the cloud?” Pinkie referred to when Fluttershy told them about what she knew. “It’s getting bigger, Dashie! At first it was double the size of Fluttershy and a few chickens later it covered her entire wall!”
Fluttershy flew up to Pinkie and Rainbow. She looked Rainbow in her eyes and gave her a hug. She whispered in her ear, asking her to stay. But Rainbow just let go of her.
“I’ll be back in twenty minutes…” She said slowly. Her mane covered her eyes, but you could hear on her voice that she was just as scared as they were. With those words, Rainbow gave both Pinkie and Fluttershy a last hug before opening the door, walk out, and quickly close it again.
Fluttershy and Pinkie had been waiting for two hours. Rainbow hasn’t come back. Fluttershy was as scared as one could possibly imagine. She was curled into a ball, rocking back and forth in a corner of the room and crying for this to stop. Pinkie’s mane was straight. She was depressed. There was no hope left and nothing else to do than wait. Wait for their inevitable end. She was crying as well, but wasn’t making any sounds. She was sitting close to Fluttershy, though, holding her tight. They just hoped all their friends were safe. That was the only think they wished for right now. It was too late for them.
During these two hours they had heard at least four terrified screams. It was just a matter of time until the cloud would go to Sugarcube Corner.
“Thank you, Fluttershy…” Pinkie said slowly. “Thanks for everything…” Fluttershy just looked at Pinkie with wet eyes and said nothing. Instead she started crying even more and returned Pinkies hug. Suddenly they could hear that something was beating from the outside of the house. It is here! The red orbs were circling around the building as you could see them pass the windows over and over again. Both Pinkie and Fluttershy could do nothing more than to scream of fear. Then the windows started breaking, small parts of the wall were torn apart and the door was flung open. The black cloud filled the entire room and the two red orbs were slowly getting closer to the two mares. The sound of the two ponies’ terrified screams slowly faded away. They weren’t unconscious yet, but they didn’t have the strength left to scream. They felt how their bodies started getting cold, how everything began to hurt and how their strength was leaving them. The cloud was sucking away their very soul and life source to support its own. The last thing that could be heard before the two mares fell unconscious was the quiet voice of Fluttershy.
“Thank you, Pinkie… Thank you, everypony… I’ll miss… you…”
