Twilight Sparkle rubbed her sleepy eyes, blinking into the brightness of the sunny day. She yawned and climbed out of bed, heading over to the mirror to brush her hair. As it soon returned to its normal, straight state, the purple unicorn made her way down the stairs, her hooves clapping against the wooden floor of the library. Upon seeing Spike, she greeted him with a friendly, "Good morning! What time is it?"
The little dragon looked at her uncertainly. "Twilight, it's 10:30! What time did you go to sleep last night?"
Twilight blinked in shock. This would explain why it's so bright out, but how did I sleep so late? "I went to sleep at the same time as you did, Spike. I don't know what happened." The bookworm of a pony was always up bright and early, so she could get outside and some fresh air before she got down to her studies and whatever else she had to do. She slowly opened the door with one hoof and continued out the door, and right away she could sense that something was wrong. There was nopony in sight, all shutters drawn and lights whisked away, while tumbleweed rolled past in the wind. The she noticed a cloaked figure walking toward her, looking mysterious, though she noticed its shoulders were rather slumped.
"Again, these muddled up pony folk, think I'm the fire that leads to smoke!" came a rhythmic voice from beneath the dark cloak.
"Zecora! Do you know what's going on?" Twilight exclaimed, trotting nervously up to the unhappy zebra. "For starters, I just woke up, and now I walk outside to find myself in a ghost-town! The skies look like Rainbow Dash's worst nightmare, and-"
"Psst! Twilight! In here!" She turned around to find Pinkie Pie waving wildly at her from inside Sugarcube Corner.
"Not this again," the purple pony muttered, but began to walk toward the party pony, Zecora following behind her. Before she knew what was going on, hooves reached out and grabbed her up, and then her zebra friend, and pulled them inside the dark room. Twilight sighed. "Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here all-"
"I'm not alone in the dark," Pinkie cut her off, grinning broadly as she turned on the light, revealing everypony in Ponyville crammed into the small building. Twilight Sparkle stared in surprise. "What in Celestia's name is going on?" she cried out. Nothing was making sense this morning!
"Twilight, we've got a major problem," Rarity began, looking worried.
"The chickens were trying to escape this morning, and the bunnies were in a panic. Angel kept stamping on my hooves, and... all the animals were out of place. I had no idea why, until..." Fluttershy trailed off.
Applejack picked up from there. "I walked out of the barn this mornin' and found the apple trees a-shakin'. Tried to stop 'em, but they bucked me off like they'd got a mind of their own! I ran outside to get help, when-"
"She bumped into me!" Pinkie Pie cut her off, smiling. "Actually, everypony bumped into me this morning; it was so strange. I told them all to come to Sugarcube Corner with me, and, well, surprisingly, everyone did."
"She promised me muffins," came a goofy voice from the back.
"Oh, right! Sorry, Derpy, coming right up," Pinkie said, quickly coming up with a tray of the gray pony's favorite muffins. The cross-eyed pegasus tried to look straight at Pinkie, gave up, and gratefully accepted the muffins.
"Anyway, something bad was happening. We could all feel it,” the pink pony continued. “Suddenly, an ominous black cloud came floating over the town, and then it opened up and started making a weird sucking noise, and then we saw a rainbow shoot up into it, and then it closed up and floated away!"
"It was so..." Fluttershy began, in her quiet way.
"Strange!"
"Scary."
"Unearthly."
"Crazy!"
"Quiet, everypony!" Twilight exclaimed. "I need to think this through." She then turned around and raced home to the library, flinging open the door. "Spike! Spike!" She cried out.
"Y-yes, Twilight?" Came a voice from the ground.
"Oh, there you are. I need the book titled Strange Happenings, and hurry up!"
"Alright," he muttered, getting to his feet and yanking it off the shelf labelled "S". "Here you go, Twili-"
"Okay, great. Now, 'C', cloud, cloud, ah! There it is. Okay..." She trailed off as she began to read.
It has been said that once every 2,000 years, a dark, terrifying cloud will come and hang over a town. It will suck one pony up into it and then it will move away, not to be seen again for another long, happy 2,000 years. The ponies that are taken in are never seen again, and have never returned to tell the tale; nopony knows what happens to them inside that black cloud.
Twilight broke off, horrified, realizing with a jolt who'd been missing from the bakery. "What they saw wasn't a rainbow," she cried out. "It was Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow Dash woke up on her fluffy cloud bed with a smile, remembering the dreams of soaring through skies cloudless but for the obstacle course with the Wonderbolts on her tail. She hopped out of bed, landing lightly on the white, bouncy substance beneath her hooves. Stretching her wings, she leapt out of the castle in the sky and mounted the wind, flipping and spinning, going through her daily exercises. She noticed the sun was high enough in the sky to be on its way to 10:00 AM.
As she listened to the chatter of the ponyfolk beneath her and all around her, she trotted forward in mid air, wings spread wide, until she noticed a sudden change of weather. She glanced upwards, following the gazes of her peers, until she spotted a large, dark cloud moving in. That shouldn’t be here! It’s supposed to be sunny today. “Come on, weatherponies! Let’s get this thing out of he-”
Suddenly a loud, sucking noise filled her ears, surrounded her, became her world. Everything was getting blurry. She knew it must have something to do with that cloud! Was this happening to everypony? She had to stop it! Clenching her teeth, eyes narrowed, she dove down to the town. Inches from hitting the ground, she spread her wings, letting herself float upwards. Then, gathering her speed, she sped forward like a bullet. She could feel the air pushing against her, but she went against it. Forward, forward, and then-
BOOM! As she broke the time barrier in a Sonic Rainboom, a rainbow trailing behind her, all eyes turned to stare. She continued to shoot upward at top speed until she hit the cloud- but she was shocked with an unnerving surprise. Instead of shooting through it and pushing a hole in the dreadful object, as soon as the blue pegasus touched it, she was suddenly hit with a wave of cold, and her vision became foggy. Her wings slowed and stopped beating. She felt panic gripping her from all sides, but before she had time to react, a terrible pain took her over, and everything went black.
* * *
Rainbow woke to the sound of machines whirring. She slowly opened one pink-lavender eye, then the other, taking in her new surroundings. She seemed to be on the inside of the giant cloud, and, as she looked, she saw many other ponies standing around, working strange metal objects, all looking rather gray and discolored. She slowly got to her hooves and made her way closer to one of the others. The colorful pony had a quick glance down at herself; but, to her great relief, she was still the striking blue pegasus she’d always been, her mane and tail of rainbow colors as vibrant as ever.
“Er, hello,” she began uncomfortably.
“Hi.”
“Um, I’m Rainbow Dash.”
“Not for long.”
Now Dash just stared at the pony, head cocked. “Er, what do you mean? What is this place? Why are we here?”
“Every 2,000 years, this cloud comes. Takes a pony from Equestria; keeps them in here. In here we work. All day. All night. Barely talk, and now we look like this.”
Rainbow stared at her. “But- I don’t- I’m-” she glanced around. “I can’t do that! I- I have responsibilities! I’m head of the weatherponies! What if we need to harness the Elements of Harmony again? I need to be down there!” She slammed her front hooves down on the cloud.
“Well, you can’t be,” the worker pony answered flatly. As Rainbow Dash looked at her, she noticed that she had been a unicorn; and from her cutie mark of a zipline, probably a very lively one. Her stomach turned over. How was she going to get out of here?
“What’s your name?” the blue pegasus asked hopefully.
“I used to be Zippy. Now I’m nothing,” she answered, a sad twinkle entering her eyes for a moment before they returned to their unmoving state of no emotion.
Rainbow Dash paced back and forth, unsure what to do. Of course, she must get out; she couldn’t imagine staying in here for more than a day, much less 2,000 years. If she dug a hole in the cloud, she could just fly out! She began digging at the gray cloud. But as soon as she got through the first layer, a new one grew in, making it even thicker than before. Rainbow watched it in dismay. “Uh oh...” she muttered, starting to feel really scared now. She wondered what the other ponies were thinking. Had her friends on the ground even noticed her absence? Had any of the watching pegasi followed her?
Just then, a huge, pitch black pony walked out into the space from some kind of dark hole in the wall of the cloud. He glared down at the newcomer, his eyes menacing, glowing red with rage. “What are you thinking, worthless pony?” he boomed, looming over Rainbow Dash.
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m thinking,” she began furiously, “That I’d like to get out of here!”
The giant pony stared at her, shocked. Nopony went against what he had to say! “Take this feisty little one to the Deep Dungeons! And after that, stay down there and make her understand what this place is about!” he roared.
Rainbow Dash looked around for somewhere to run to as two more ponies, slightly smaller than the first, stormed in and grabbed her. “Aw, come on! Let me go! I just want to-” her protests were silenced as one of them tied a cloth around her head, covering her mouth, and the other on grabbed her arm.
“Look kid, it’s a long way to where you’re going. We can’t have you squirming like this the whole time,” and with that, he took out a pointy needle, which upon seeing, Rainbow Dash’s eyes got huge and her pupils dilated. The large pony pushed it into her arm, injecting something which Rainbow didn’t even want to start guessing at, and, within moments of the pain of the needle, she was out cold.
Her captors heaved her onto their backs and carried the unconscious Pegasus down the long, winding stone steps leading to a dimly lit dungeon. The opened one of the doors, and then slowly let her down. “When did we sign up for this?” one of them murmured, watching the little blue pony sadly. “We’re gonna have to do this horrible work, all the time, for the next 2,000 years!”
His friend sighed. “Well, the best thing we can do is put on a tough act for that evil... thing, but stay our true selves whenever we’re alone. That way we won’t forget ourselves.”
“I guess. Well, he said after this we were to stay down here and... ‘make her understand what this place is about’”, he muttered.
“Well, we’ll see about that. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to make her understand what this pony’s about!”
“Me too!”
* * *
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes blearily, staring around. Everything looked fuzzy for a couple of moments, before a few things became clear to her: she was in a cold, stone chamber, there was little light, the ponies who’d brought her here were still here, and she didn’t have anything covering her mouth anymore. She slowly got to her hooves and turned to the oversized ponies. “What am I doing here?” she exclaimed, unable to keep it in anymore. “Why are you- what is- why- how-” she broke off, her eyes expressing her confused anxiety.
“You’re awake! Now we can explain everything to you. I’m Skyline and this here’s Jumbo Shrimp. We’re regular ponies, but when... he sent us papers saying we’d have to come here and work for 2,000 years, we suddenly got all big like this and we were forced to come here.”
“We’re really sorry about earlier. It took all my willpower not to throw up and start crying when I had to give you that shot. Do you want a bandage, or something? I’m not even sure what was in that thing. Here, are your wings okay? Try to fly. I don’t know why, but I’ve heard this place can affect a Pegasus’s ability to fly, and a Unicorn's magic.”
Looking frightened, Rainbow Dash spread her trusty wings and jumped up; there wasn’t much room in the cramped cell, but she stayed above ground, her wings beating to keep her hovering. She sighed with relief. “Flying is my special talent!” she pointed out, hoping to conceal her doubts. “Of course I can still fly. Oh and... yes, I’d appreciate a bandage,” she added, looking slightly abashed.
“So, after that,” Skyline continued. “There was this red and black flash through the entire room, and then we just... appeared here. He told us a lot about this place, gave us a summary of what we’d be doing for the next 2,000 years. We didn’t understand but, in our confusion, just went with it, and now we’re stuck like this.”
“We decided we’ll be mean in front of him, but when he’s not watching, we’ll act like ourselves. And since you’re new and you haven’t been spoiled yet, we can still save you from getting gray like those ponies! Only remember, never give up. That’s what ruined them!” Jumbo put in.
Rainbow nodded. “Do the ponies here get food?” she asked. For the first time, she realized just how hungry she was; the day had gone by without her eating a speck of food!
“Food? Oh, yeah, he talked about that,” Skyline replied. “I’ll go ask him. Stay here, Shrimpy.” Then he set out along the tall staircase once more.
Rainbow Dash sighed. She paced around in circles, her thoughts on her friends. There was a strange ringing in her ears, a sound that brought faces to mind. All of a sudden, the walls around her looked like they were melting away, and it seemed she was standing in Twilight’s library. For all she knew, she’d teleported here! Then there was Fluttershy, standing in front of her. “Um, Rainbow, if you’re hearing this, well, we’re here, and we’re trying to find you.”
“Oooh, this is so cool! Can you hear me, Dashie? It’s me, Pinkie! See? See?” Pinkie Pie was dancing wildly in front of her. The blue pegasus felt like she was watching a video of her five best friends, but in real time. Then Twilight Sparkle shoved her out of the way and looked seriously at the captive pony. “Rainbow Dash, I’ve used my magic to create a connection between us, so that you can see us as if you were here, though we can’t see you. I’ll warn you, this is hard magic to conjure, and it only lasts for a few minutes, so I’ll need a rest before I try it again. I’ve found out all about the cloud you’re stuck in; yes, I know what happened, because as soon as I heard the news, I started researching everything about supernatural clouds that I could find in my library. We don’t know exactly where you are, and I’m sure you don’t either, but we have a vague idea, and we’re coming!”
“Don’t you worry, now, sugarcube. I promise we’re going to find you!” Applejack added, her eyes set with determination at keeping the promise.
Then Rarity appeared in front, looking worriedly at Rainbow Dash. “Now, I hope they’re treating you well. What’s it like there? I fear it’s dreadfully dirty. From what Twilight’s told us, they don’t treat the ponies nicely at all! Are you okay? Don’t worry dear, it’s as the others say; we’re going to find you.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and said, “Can you hear me?” If they couldn’t, she figured it wouldn’t make a difference.
“Yes, we can hear you,” the purple unicorn answered.
“Oh, this is so great, you guys! Thank you so much! I wish I was at home. But anyway...” she looked around at the five of them, all staring at her excitedly, as though they really could see her. “Well, they stuck me in this dungeon that’s down tons and tons of steps, and the cell’s so small I can hardly fly. It’s great to see all you guys, and know that you’re coming! You better hurry up. Some of the ponies here have turned gray because they stayed so long, and these ponies aren’t the nicest- I mean, the guards are great, but who knows what their boss might do to me. He’s h-”
“I’ve told them all about that, too,” Twilight cut in. “How ponies get big when they're sent there, and how the evil pony they work for is twice even that size. Did they hurt you?”
“Well...” Rainbow looked down. “They gave me some shot to make me fall asleep. But other than that, no.”
“Oh, that sounds horrible,” Fluttershy whispered, staring nervously at the strange ball of light which was the way they were seeing each other. “Did they give you a Band-Aid, at least?”
“Yeah, one of the guards gave me something. They’re funny- Skyline and Jumbo Shrimp, that’s their names. Oh, and...” The sound of her voice was drown out as hoofsteps pounded on the stairs, cutting into the sound of the library, and Jumbo frantically tried to warn Dash without speaking. “I’ve got to go!” she exclaimed quickly. “Get me out of here!”
In a flash, Twilight lowered her horn, her eyes closed, and the library walls seemed to melt around her. Rainbow was all too soon back in the dank cellar where she’d been since she’d woken up. She sighed and turned around to see Skyline descending the stairs, looking nervous, with the large pony from earlier behind him. He shot his brother a warning look, and Jumbo Shrimp quickly stood up straighter, looking angry. All of a sudden, the lights all went out, turning the room completely dark. She heard a menacing laugh, and then loud banging coming from the impact of the black creature’s hooves on stone. Rainbow Dash could feel his hot breath in her face. “Listen, little pony. I trust my minions have taught you not to contradict any of us, but just in case they haven’t, I warn you. Things get worse than just a ride to the dungeon. You needn’t try and ask a anypony else; they never live to tell the tale.”
The colorful pony stared up at his shadow, which was even darker than the rest of the room, trembling with fear. “Take your food,” he hissed, shoving a plate at her, before stalking away up the stairs. Rainbow Dash was left with a faceful of stale, green pie. She quickly lapped it up, cleaning her face with one swipe of her tongue. As the lights slowly came back on, Jumbo and Skyline glanced at her pityingly, and then followed their master.
