Guardian

CHAPTER 2 - OMEN

“Twilight... Why are you up so late..?” A purple, wingless dragon wiped sleep from his eyes as he trudged up the steps to a lookout tower in a huge tree. There, a mulberry pony stood gazing through a telescope, pointed to the north. “Twilight?” Still receiving no response, the dragon tapped with irritation on the pony's shoulder.

“Huh? Wha-! Oh, hello, Spike.”

“Why are you looking at stars? It's 3 in the morning...”

“Not stars, Spike.” Twilight turned back to the telescope and gazed through it once again, setting her sights on the massive black cloud in the north. “There's a cloud that I've been watching for a few hours now ever since I woke up earlier. I had a pretty bad dream.”

“What was it?”

“Uh...” The mulberry pony lifted her head from the eyepiece of the telescope and stood paralyzed for a moment as a vision of a planet glowing green flashed through her mind briefly. She shook her head and feigned a smile. “Don't worry about it.”

“Anyway, why are you looking at a cloud? What's so special about it?”

“It hasn't moved in hours. Hasn't even changed shape at all. No lightning, no rain, no thunder; It doesn't even look like a storm cloud.”

“What?”

“Look,” Twilight pointed to a book that was laid open, a light shining on it from a lantern hung from the ceiling, “Storm clouds that resemble this one are cumulonimbus, thunderheads. They're very tall and have lightning in them all of the time.”

“So?”

“So this one doesn't look or act like one. There's usually wind with these because of the change in atmospheric pressure that would allow a cloud of this magnitude to form but-”

“Can you speak normal, please?”

“It's not tall. It's like... Like a blanket. Here, look for yourself.” Twilight moved out of the way and the purple dragon hopped up onto the stepping stool, looking through the eyepiece. “So,” Twilight began after a few moments of allowing Spike to study the cloud, “What do you think?”

“Well... In my expert opinion...”

“Yes?”

“You're loopy from a lack of sleep.”

“Spike! This could be serious! What if it's a magical storm, or maybe there was a problem in Cloudsdale creating a proper cloud, or-”

“Or it could just be a cloud.”

“It's not 'just a cloud!' It can't be 'just a cloud!' There's something more to this!”

“There is something more to this. You let that dream of yours go to your head.”

“I did not!”

“Whatever. I'm going back to bed. You should probably get some sleep too, you're getting a bit crazy.” Spike jumped down off of the stool and trotted back down the steps to his bed. Twilight mumbled under her breath as the purple dragon continued down the steps, then turned back to the telescope and gazed through it once more.

“Just what is that thing...”