Fallen

It all started as my friends and I were having a picnic atop a pleasant grassy hill overlooking a lake on the outskirts of Ponyville. I was ecstatic, telling my friends about an exciting new cave I had found in the forest. I was pretty sure no one had ever seen it, and I was excited at the prospect of us being the first to explore it.
My friends, however, were having none of it.
“Pffff. No. I refuse to drag your butt out of another pit of danger like yesterday. After having to drag you out of the mud and carrying you for miles with a ravenous hydra hot on our tails, I think I’ve had enough of your shenanigans for a week.” Adamant said gruffly.
Adamant is an intimidating sorrel earth pony, with white stockings and a white star on his forehead. His cutie mark is a mountain, symbolizing his perseverance. Or, that’s what he says. I say that it means that he’s stubborn as a rock.
“But GUYYYYYYYYS… I just know that this cave must have something interesting inside, like a rare magical artifact, eh, Green?” I pouted.
Green Sigil looked at me and shrugged, then took a bite out of her sandwich. Green is a, well, green unicorn mare, with a blue mane with white highlights. But don’t say that to her face. She always corrects us by saying that her coat is forest green and her mane is cyan. Whatever.
“Sky,” Adamant told me sternly, “all we’ve ever done is get our hooves dirty traipsing around the most backwater places for the darndest reasons. Like last week, when you led us into a Diamond Dog lair to go steal gems. What were you planning to do with those gems, if we had gotten our hooves on them?”
I thought for a bit, then shrugged. “Sell them?”
Adamant face-hoofed and then grumbled, “Who in Equestria¬–”
Then all was silent.
Every bird ceased their song, then flew off in a frenzy of frantic flapping. The other animals fled in a similar way, with horrified expressions on their faces. A wildcat with a brace on its foot limped frantically into the forest from the direction of a cottage on the edge of the forest. A delicate yellow pegasus mare with a pink mane fluttered in pursuit after the cat, looking very harried, until catching sight of us. Then she hid behind her mane shyly, and the frustrated look melted away.
“Oh, I’m sorry for intruding…” Fluttershy mumbled as she flew into the tree line.
“What do you suppose…” Green started, but was interrupted by a black vortex forming near the shore of the lake, looking like a hole in the air had ripped itself open. An ugly scaly claw reached through, followed by a serpentine green body. The creature emerging turned back towards the rend, held up a claw, and it resealed itself.
It looked like one of those dragons that fly above Ponyville during their migration, only it had no wings, and its body resembled more of a snake than a dragon’s. Nonetheless, it floated about a meter above the ground, then rose further into the air. The creature’s scaly maw twisted itself into a mischievous grin, and it folded in its limbs and began propelling itself towards the town.
“Oh no you don’t!” I exclaimed and shot off after it. I didn’t like the look of that grin, and I was sure that this newcomer was up to no good. I’ve seen that look before. I’ve worn it plenty of times, when I tricked Adamant into accompanying me on an adventure he refused to go on. I’ve pulled it off often at first, but unfortunately he’d learned to see right through me as of late.
So I streaked after the creature, ignoring my friend’s receding cries to stop before I do something drastic. I momentarily wondered if I’m being to hasty, but I still had to get to Ponyville before the creature does something drastic, if only to warn everypony.
I caught up with the scaly beast, shouting “Stop! What are you doing?” It merely smirked as its entire body rippled, shifting into the form of a gray pegasus stallion. I gulped as it pointed a hoof at me and the world twisted itself. Disoriented, I lost my balance and toppled onto the ground, which appeared two feet below me. I looked up at the startled faces of my friends, who skidded to a stop to avoid running right into me.
“YIKES!!” I screamed.
“What happened?” Adamant huffed.
“This shady thing seems to have teleported Sky back to us.” Green noted.
“Yes, I see that. I mean, what is this guy up to? He don’t look like he’s up to no good to me.” Adamant said as he looked in the direction of Ponyville. “Well, we’re wasting time talking here. We need to get to the town and keep things from going to hell again.”
We hustled to Ponyville, but… everything was normal, as far as we could see. We saw ponies cantering around, chatting to each other. Salesponies hawked their wares to the shifting crowd, pegasi soared lazily overhead, and everything seemed as it should.
We split up, asking if anypony had seen a strange gray pegasus, and nopony remembered seeing a character like that. Eventually Green found Adamant and I, accompanied by a buckskin pegasus mare with a cutie mark of two black horseshoes lined up to look like two C’s. I remembered her from flight school, but I rarely ever see her around. She told us, “Green Sigil here says you’ve been looking for a strange newcomer. A grey pegasus? Well, I’ve seen one. He’s been wandering around town, mostly looking around.”
Her name was Speed of Heat, and she always tended to be aloof, preferring to soar high above the clouds than to socialize. This was evident in her ability to see details most ponies never see. She, of all ponies, would have seen the gray pegasus, even if nopony else had.
“So how has nopony else seen him?” Adamant wondered.
“I guess he’s got one of those faces that is so average that nopony ever can distinguish him from any other pony, and, as such, nopony actually notices him.” Green Sigil mused.
“That’s right. He’s got this kind of blandness that makes other ponies see his face but not think much of it, so nopony else remembers him. Still, he’s been avoiding Pinkie Pie like the plague.”
At this, the pink pony herself leapt to her feet from behind me, and fumed. “This sneaky-head has the nerve of coming to this town and avoiding me? ME, Pinkie Pie? Oh, that does it. He’s getting a funsy-wunsy welcome party whether he likes it or not!”
She streaked off, leaving Green, Adamant, Speed, and I behind. I turned to Speed.
“Thanks for your help,” I told her. “Do you think you could keep watch from the skies? I know it’s a bother…”
“Oh, no bother. I just like to help.” She took off into the sky.
“She’s a strange one.” Adamant told me in a low voice.
“Yeah, she’s always been aloof like that. No, I don’t know why, either. I think it’s because of her coloration. Don’t you think her darker muzzle kind of looks like… five o’ clock shadow?” I whispered.
“Sky, Adamant! Leave the poor mare alone! She’s obviously had enough of snide remarks like that in her life! No wonder she prefers to be alone. My goodness! You stallions and your callousness.” Green scolded us. We hung our heads in shame. She was right. Speed had just helped us out, and how did we repay her?
“Well, we’re not gonna find this shady shapeshifter by sitting here, will we?” I asked, and we separate again. The entire day passed with neither hide nor hair of the gray pegasus. We met at Sugarcube Corner at sundown and decided that it wouldn’t be worth it to continue searching, so we part ways for the night.
Flying up to my house, I ate a quick dinner, then dropped right off into sleep. I had one heck of a day, and I thought I would be up all night with wonderings and buzzing thoughts about the shape-shifter who had so mysteriously arrived and disappeared so swiftly today. But no longer had I thought of this than I dropped off.
I normally don’t have dreams that I can remember the next day, so I was surprised when I began a dream so vivid I felt as if it were real.
I was flying through a clear blue sky. I closed my eyes in simple bliss as the wind gently caressed my mane and feathers. Pumping my wings in a power stroke, I surged up, up, into the blue world. I rolled over and folded my wings, feeling the exhilaration of a dive.
When suddenly a cloud appeared below me where none had been before. I flared my wings and swerved to avoid it just in time. Circling around, I beheld it from the side, wondering where it had sprung up from. Clouds don’t just move on their own… maybe another pegasus, pulling a prank, pushed it in front of me as I was diving. Probably that rainbow-maned showoff, Rainbow Dash again. But no, there was nopony anywhere near this cloud.
I turned away from the cloud, weirded out, when a strange voice whispered inside my head. It said, “I see you there. It’s alright. I know who you are, and what you always wanted more than anything. I can give it to you, if you come to me. Just come to me…”
I awoke in a cold sweat. I jolted out of bed and shuffled to the window. I gazed at Luna’s beautiful sky. Not many ponies realize this, but the night sky is one of the most wonderful sights in all of Equestria. The brightness of the stars contrast most wonderfully with the velvet black of the sky. But most ponies never get to see it, shunning the darkness for the day. Even after Princess Luna returned, and the threat of Nightmare Moon was abolished, nighttime was the time for cozying up inside your house to go to sleep. At least, for most ponies that is.
I’ve always found the sky calming, especially the night sky. So why did my heart race like I was being chased by dragons again? Man, that afternoon was a blast…
I couldn’t think of a single time I had been as riled up as I was at that moment… since…