//------------------------------// // What A Wonderful Wedding // Story: Not a Cloud In the Sky // by OutOfTheBlue //------------------------------// Cloud sighed as he continued his patrol. With the big wedding going on, he had the auspicious duty of guarding the reception area. He slowly walked down another hallway and noticed something unusual. "Why the heck are they screaming? The bride's not that ugly, is she?" To be honest, he had yet to see the bride. As he returned to the large ballroom that was serving as the receptacle for the food, he heard crashes, shouts and other such noises. "Are you kidding me! JUST WAIT FOR THE BRIDE AND GROOM BEFORE GETTING FOOD YOU NUMBSKULLS!" He shouted as he ran into the room. He stopped when he saw three changelings destroying everything. A number of guards were unconscious on the floor and secured with resin. The changelings turned and lunged at him. He jumped back before ducking under a flying tackle. As the unfortunate changeling sped by, Cloud latched onto its leg and threw it into a second one that was trying to get close. The final changeling paused and snarled at him. "Surrender pony! Your city is ours!" Cloud cocked an eyebrow. "Why the hell are changelings running around out of disguise? I kinda thought you tried to be stealthy." The changeling looked surprised. "What do you know of us pony!" Cloud tapped his chin in thought. "Well... you feed off of positive emotions, can shapeshift, oh! And changeling venom is no joke! I mean, sheesh, that stuff is the worst! It makes you act all crazy and... yeah." The changeling's jaw dropped. Cloud used this moment to examine it. It looked much like Pandora, except was probably male. It also had some weird blue shell thing on his back. It lowered into a fighting stance. "Those who know our secrets must die!" The changeling screeched. Cloud facehoofed. "If you wanted to remain unknown, why attack Canterlot? It'll draw attention, breed negative emotions, and make ponies incredibly suspicious. I mean, what even was your plan?" But rather than answer, he charged at Cloud. Cloud simply sidestepped which caused the enraged changeling to have a very close up view of the wall he ran into. As the changeling crumpled to the ground, Cloud sped off in search of any remaining guards. "Where the hell are you guys!" ------------------------------------ High Keep kept his laser focus trained on his targets. He had three sets of two pictures each layed out in front of him. Two pictures of a stallion and a mare, two of a male and female gryphon, and two of a male and female zebra. His mission was clear. "Why is this so hard!?!" He groaned. He'd been trying to rate them all but was too indecisive. Little did he know, a female changeling was slowly creeping up behind him, ready to pounce. She readied herself to sink her fangs into his neck, but instead her curiosity got the better of her. "Umm... what are you doing?" She asked. High Keep started at the sudden voice, and turned to face the speaker. He was a bit startled by the stranger's, well, strange appearance, but was not overly surprised. He blinked at the newcomer before saying, "Well, I was trying to rate these ponies based on how attractive I find them, but I can't decide. Hey, do you want to help?" He asked with a hopeful smile. Now it was the changeling's turn to be surprised. She slowly moved beside him and sat where she could see the pictures too. Keep held a hoof out. "My name's High Keep by the way." The changeling shook it apprehensively. "Umm... my named Scyllia. Umm... you're not bothered by, you know, how I look?" She quietly asked. Keep turned to look at her before shaking his head. As they turned back to the pictures, Scyllia asked, "Umm... why are we doing this? If you don't mind me asking." Keep sighed. "I've been trying to find out if I'm gay or not, but then I found out you can like not only both genders, but other species to! So now I just need to find out which one." Scyllia shrugged before turning to the first photo. "Umm... this one is of some pony called Soarin. Umm... why did you choose these pictures?" "Well," Keep began," I looked through different magazines until I found the highest ranked pony for either gender and species so I can see which is my favorite. Now this one was tough, cause there were alot of magazines about ponies." Scyllia nodded before both began examining the photo. "Well... he has nice muscles, I guess. And he has a nice manecut." High Keep hummed to himself before continuing where Scyllia left off. "Yeah, and the skin tight suit really accents his hunky chest. I guess he's pretty hot." He moved the next picture over. It was of a green and orange earth pony mare wearing some... questionable clothes. "Wow, that underwear looks good on her." Keep said. "Yeah, it makes her butt looks so soft and round. I want to hug it! I bet it'd be so comfy, like a warm pillow or something." Scyllia added before blushing at her rather odd statement. Keep chuckled before wincing. "Gah! Stupid armor, keeps pinching my hooves. Just a second." He quickly removed his armor revealing his brown coat and orange mane. He looked at the picture again before reading the article. "Nectarine was voted to have the hottest plot of the year. Huh, well good for her!" They moved onto the next picture of a male zebra. "Hmmmm... he's got a nice face and a really nice mane." Scyllia said. "Yeah, and he's got one of those smiles that's both warm and attractive." Keep said with a short nod. He slid the picture of the zebra mare over. He whistled, "Wow, she looks fit! I bet she could crush a watermelon between her legs or something like that." Scyllia laughed. "Yeah, she looks like a belly dancer! All lithe and smooth and stuff." She scooted the picture of the female gryphon over. Both their mouths dropped. "Holy... damn! She looks like she's about to pounce on me and pleasantly maul me!" Keep remarked. Scyllia shook her head to clear it. "The Gryphon Kingdom must have a lot less censorship than Equestria because, I mean... wow!" They then moved onto the last photo. Keeps eyes widened. "This guys like a mountain of muscles and testosterone!" Scyllia picked the photo up to further examine it. "Yeah, this dude is beefy! I'm pretty sure he could accidentally break me in half while hugging me!" Keep sighed. "This didn't help at all." Scyllia thought before saying to Keep, "Well, maybe you should find someone you have fun talking with and find pleasant to be around." Keep thought about it before nodding. "Thanks for the advice! So when are you free?" "Well, I'm free whenever-wait WHAT!" Scyllia looked in surprise at Keep. Keep just nodded. "Well, your nice and are fun to talk to, so why not?" Scyllia just opened and closed her mouth like a fish. She shrugged before saying. "Umm... I guess two days from now we could meet in the park?" Keep nodded. "It's a date then, bye Scyllia, see you then!" Keep then donned his armor before trotting off. Scyllia sat dumbfounded. "What just happened?" ------------------------------------- Cloud raced through the castle corridors, so far he'd encountered lots of rampaging changelings and unconscious guards. He stopped when he heard whimpering coming from underneath a nearby table. He peeked under and saw a strange sight. Curled up under the table was a small changeling foal. As soon as it saw him it scooted away and in a wavery voice said, "S-stay away! I-I'm warning you I-I'll bite you!" Cloud crouched down to appear non threatening before saying in a calm voice. "Are you hurt?" The changeling blinked before tilting its head in confusion. Cloud removed his helmet before asking again. "Are you hurt? Do you need help?" The changeling shook his head and asked, "Y-you're not going to hurt me? Are you?" Cloud shook his head before scooting away, making room for the changeling to come out from under the table. The foal slowly crawled out, looking around cautiously before standing a short ways away from Cloud. Upon noticing his frightened shivering, Cloud carefully walked over and pulled it into a gentle hug. The foal cowered slightly, but when he realized he wasn't being hurt he slowly relaxed into the hug. As Cloud tried to soothe him he asked, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with an adult?" He felt the changeling slowly start pressing up against him before saying, "Um, I kinda snuck along with the swarm since I wanted to see the ponies cause I've always thought ponies were really cool. But then everyone was screaming and running and, and then I got scared so I hid." Cloud sighed before realizing the only real option he had. "Well I can't just leave you in the middle of a battlefield, and I can't just carry you the entire time because you could get hurt, so how about I take you to my house and you stay with my fiancé. Does that sound good?" The little colt nodded enthusiastically, obviously excited to meet and talk to a real live pony. Cloud placed him on his back and began planning his escape route. He opened a window and was about to jump out when he felt an uncomfortable tickling sensation between his wings. Looking back, he saw his passenger was smiling happily while snuggling his cheek into Cloud's back, right into the sensitive spot between his wings. After carefully placing the changeling's head ob his withers rather than his wings, Cloud took off. ----------------------- Pandora paced worriedly. What was going on? Why was there so much noise coming from Canterlot. She looked back at her sleeping brother who was passed out on the couch. Just as she was about to go check on the situation in town, the door opened and soon shut. A very frazzled looking Cloud came stumbling in and slumped down onto the floor. A small changeling slid off his back before looking at Pandora in confusion. Pandora returned the look. "Um, Cloud? Why did you bring a nymph home?" Pandora asked while grabbing her exhausted fiancé a drink. Cloud wheezed, "Changeling *pant* invasion *wheeze* kid all alone, couldn't leave him, flew really fast." Before slumping over. He quickly gulped down the glass of water given to him before the nymph walked over to Pandora. "I didn't know Mr. Cloud's f-eye-ants-e was a changeling. Um, Mrs Feyeancy? Where's your shell?" Pandora blinked in confusion before Beat groaned, "We were both banished. No hive equals no shell." Before rolling over. Pandora started when Cloud stood back up and staggered to the door. "Were are you going?" She asked nervously. Cloud paused. "To help ponies in trouble. This is literally my only job to do and I'm going to do it." With that, he left. But immediately poked his head back in and looked at the nymph. "Behave for my fiancé ok?" And then flew off. ----------------------------------- To say the battle went poorly was an understatement. Despite his efforts, Cloud eventually got taken down and tied up with the rest of the guards. As the others struggled to pull the resin apart, Cloud immediately set work. One guard looked over and gagged, "Oh gross! Are you actually eating this stuff?" This got the attention of the other guards who had similar reactions until Cloud successfully gnawed his way to freedom. Cloud simply raised his eyebrows at them. "Well? What are waiting for? It's really not that tough a choice." After the guards were free, they resumed the fight. Only for it to end two minutes later when a massive pink bubble of doom swept the changelings away. Cheers erupted from everyone present, except a certain guard. "Scyllia? Scyllia! SCYLLIAAAAAAAAAAA!"