//------------------------------// // 07 // Story: Raising a Storm // by WonderboltWing //------------------------------// 07 The door to Hail Storm’s apartment shut quietly behind its resident, a soft sigh resounding through the room shortly after. Inside, it would have been pitch black if not for a pale beam of moonlight shining in through the window on the opposite side of the room. Hail softly walked in the direction of the sole hallway in her apartment, stopping with her muzzle half an inch from the wall. After a moment of thinking, she turned to her bedroom door and reached out a hoof to open said door. Instead of a door, her hoof collided with air. “Huh?” came the murmur. “I shut this before…” Taking a slow step in, she shifted her wings to pull the bundle on her back into a bit more of a secure position. The lights flicked on with the simple application of her right wingtip, causing her to blink and look away for a few moments. “Dusk, why are you in my room?” “...eh?” came the bleary answer. “I said, ‘Wh-’” “Yeah yeah yeah I heard,” he grumbled, shakily standing up from the floor. “Well?” She asked, trotting over to the bed, and placing Cloudburst down gently on it. He immediately stretched out on it, letting out a happy murmur. “I, uhh…” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking away to hide the redness of his cheeks. “I may have locked myself out of my apartment.” She gave him a deadpan look. “And how exactly did you get in here, then?” “Your spare key,” he said simply, shrugging. “...my key is on the roof,” she said, disbelief evident in both her tone of voice and her facial expression. “And?” he asked, grinning slightly. She sighed, shook her head, then turned and left to grab something to nibble on. “You raided my fridge!” “...maybe…?” She sighed and let her head fall into the freezer compartment door, impacting it with a thud. Meanwhile, Dusk laughed silently, glancing out the window behind him to guess the time. “It’s twenty past ten,” Hail’s voice said, right next to his ear. He yelped, stumbling over his own hooves in an attempt to get away, failing and falling flat on his face. She giggled. “How did you even do that?” he asked, rubbing his snout. “Sshhh, you'll wake Cloudburst up,” she said quietly. “And, uh, it's a trade secret.” He leveled his gaze at her. “Of course.” She nodded, a somewhat smug grin on her face. Then, she asked: “I'm guessing you're staying here for the night, Dusky?” “Eeyup.” he nodded after a moment of thought. “...Hungry?” She asked after a few seconds of silence. “Eehhh, only if you're cooking,” Dusk said with a shrug, stretching out one of his legs idly. “Cool, I'm going to bed then,” Hail said, promptly moving up onto the bed. “Turn off the light, yeah? Thanks.” Dusk blinked once, before chuckling softly. “Mind if I join you?” She froze for a moment. “...s-sure.” “Neat,” he said, flicking off the lights with a quick green glow of magic, before hopping into her bed, his back facing hers. A few minutes passed in a relative silence before Dusk spoke up, his words barely a whisper. “Hey Hail?” She groaned softly and turned to face him. “Mmm?” “I was just wondering...” he trailed off for a few moments. “...Nevermind.” She giggled tiredly. “Mmkay,” she said, before shivering. “...C’mere.” He blinked out of surprise but rolled over to face her and shuffled a bit closer to her. “...Yeah?” Her legs pulled him into an embrace, and she buried her face in his chest fluff, murmuring contently. “Better.” With uncertainty and hesitation, Dusk put a leg around her a few moments later; judging by the wriggle closer to him, he had done correctly. A gentle smile worked its way onto his face and he leaned down and nuzzled her between the ears, then rested his head there. Minutes later, he was asleep. With a loud yawn, Cloudburst sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily. Glancing around the room, he noted that Mother and Dusk were still sleeping, locked in an embrace. He stood up, his wing joints popping as he rolled them around a few times. Shaking his head, he made his way over to the window, jumping up onto the windowsill. Outside, the mid-day sun shone brightly through a massive pink dome of energy that looked like it was covering all of Canterlot. The dome made the buildings, the ground, pretty much everything slightly pink, including the foal himself. Cloudburst growled softly and fluttered his wings, jumping back onto the bed. The sudden weight on one side of the bed made the other side jump up, which happened to be the side the two adults were on. Unsurprisingly, it resulted in them jumping up as well. Hail let out a squawk, her eyes flying open and wings flapping in a state of mild panic. She hit the bed a moment later and turned to face Cloudburst, who was laughing his little flank off. She blew a raspberry at him, then turned back to Dusk, who was looking at her with an eyebrow raised as to ask “really now?”. Her cheeks went a lovely pinkish color, not unlike the shield around Canterlot and she hid her face in Dusk’s neck. The stallion chuckled softly, gently rubbing her back with his spare hoof. “Morning, Stormy,” He said softly, then looked at Cloud. “Morning, Cloudburst.” “Hi, Dusk,” he said simply, sitting back up. Dusk felt the mare in his embrace relax, her breaths evening out. “...annddd she's sleeping again,” he chuckled slightly. “There's a weird thing outside, Dusk. I don't like it,” Cloudburst said after a minute, looking to the side. The stallion frowned. “‘Weird thing’?” Dusk asked him, somewhat concerned. The foal nodded. Dusk gently nudged Hail. “I think this might be important, hop up.” The mare whined softly but let him go after a few moments. Dusk stood up slowly, a soft groan escaping him as he quickly stretched, then hopped off the bed. “It looks like an upside down fishbowl,” Cloudburst murmured, glancing back out the window. Dusk frowned and looked out the window as well, moving next to it. “I… I think I know what this is,” he said slowly, his tail flicking and his ears slightly down. “And?” “It ain’t good,” he bit his lip. Hail groaned, rolling over to face him. “Whaddya mean ‘ain't good’?” she asked groggily. “I mean, that's a pretty high power shield, and it looks like it's covering the entirety of the city. That doesn't exactly imply good things,” he explained after a few seconds of looking outside. Hail shivered, pulling the sheets tighter around her. “...I should probably ask Umbra what this is all about…” Dusk murmured, opening the window and sticking his head out of it. “...what’s he doing?” Hail asked the foal, getting a very helpful “I dunno” in return. A large flash of emerald green suddenly lit up the interior of the ‘fishbowl’, the source being a hovering ball of magic of the same color suspended high above the ground. Half a minute later, another identical one joined it, then a dark blue and a yellow one a few seconds later. A full three minutes of awkward shuffling, and the occasional rustle of wind from outside, Dusk pulled his head back in, looking pale. “...D-dusk?” Hail immediately sat up, biting her lip worriedly. “What is it?” He took a deep, shaky breath. “Grab something quick to eat, we’re going to the castle. There’s been a threat on Canterlot and it’ll be safer there.” Cloudburst let out a soft whine and pressed into Hail’s side gently. “A-alright,” she nodded once, looking between the two before standing up slowly, gently nudging Cloud towards the edge of the bed. “C’mon Cloudburst.” she murmured to him, giving him a final push, before carefully stepping off her bed and onto the floor. Behind them, Dusk’s horn was alight, parts of the wall were glowing in response, forming intricate patterns on them. Cloudburst walked past Hail and out the door while she watched Dusk for a few more moments, following the foal afterwards. She walked down the darkened hallway, turning into the kitchen. “Cloud, you c-can go wait on the couch if you want.” He shook his head quickly, pressing gently against one of her legs. She smiled softly, then leaned down and gently nuzzled the top of his head comfortingly. "Hate to ruin the moment, but we'd better get a move on." Dusk said softly from the doorway. Cloudburst looked up at him, glanced back at Hail for a few moments, then cantered over to Dusk hastily. Laughing softly, she turned to the fridge, opening it and browsing its contents. She sighed. "Remember how you raided the fridge? There's no leftovers or anything." "...oops, my bad," Dusk grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Hail gave him a deadpan look, loudly shutting the fridge door for emphasis. There was a moment of silence between the two, broken by Cloudburst's single fake cough. "Right, right, we should go." Dusk nodded, herding the foal out the door. She followed after them, getting to the apartment door before realizing that most of the lights were still on. "You two keep going, I'll lock the place up." she said to them. "Just don't go back in your room, you could, uh, upset the spells in there before they settle," Dusk said quickly, biting his lip. Hail nodded slowly, walking back to the kitchen. "M'kay." He shut the door and hurried down the stairs, Cloudburst keeping pace with only a little trouble. They made it to the ground floor within a minute to find the streets completely empty. "...I'm not liking this," Dusk murmured softly, pulling Cloudburst a little closer to him. In a whirl of dust and feathers, something hit the ground right in front of them causing Dusk to yelp and bring up a dark green shield in front of him. "...back now," Hail said. Dusk opened his eyes, seeing Hail in front of him, looking somewhat smug. "...ha ha," He said sarcastically. "Now you're here, let's go." She nodded and began to walk up the street in silence, Cloudburst next to her. They walked for a straight minute before Cloudburst froze suddenly, a whimper escaping him. "What's wrong?" Above them, the sky cracked. The sound of glass breaking. The stallion and the mare looked up. Black shapes rained down from above. Screams drifted upwards.