“Cloud Shroud…” Ken thought to himself. “That’s my name. It’s the most perfectly stupid name for a nobody no one cares about. So I better get used to it. Now that I’m a creature of the sky, what better way to blend in with the crowd than to be a loser like Cloud.”
Cloud Shroud did not find it overly difficult getting used to his new name like he thought. From his perspective, Ken was no one special, and neither was Cloud. If he was going to live a solitary life under an alias, why not make being furtive every day easier on himself?
Not that working at Rainbow Dash’s weather factory was exactly arduous. The management was lenient and the workflow was regularly easy to keep up with, granted that he had prior experience working a job with less competent management and a more demanding work environment. Co-workers, on the other hand, were a surprisingly different story.
In his human life as Ken, Cloud had an easy time avoiding drama with troublesome characters and acting as if he was really engaged in friendly, yet uninspiring conversations with amiable people when he wasn’t. But ponies were a different case. While he never felt that any human ever cared about him sitting by himself in the break room and eating the same food every day, even as some were bound to find it odd, he always felt that every pony viewed this routine as not only unnatural, but deserving of distrust.
All he ever needed to tell any human who happened to be curious about his behavior was that he had autism, or that he was simply an introvert. But with ponies, it felt like every day, the awkward glares they were giving him were becoming more and more oppressive, more and more committed to reminding him of the fact that he had something to hide and couldn’t fool them. Eventually, somepony who had been bothered by this behavior from the very beginning decided it was time to see if they could drag out whatever he had to keep from them…
“Heh heh heh…” Billy, a brown pegasus with white hair, chuckled. “There he is. I had a feeling he’d be there from what she told us about his usual spot…”
He and his two friends, Hoops, an orange pegasus with brown hair, and Score, a gray pegasus with black hair, had just gotten off work at the weather factory and were looking for Cloud Shroud. Not wanting to find themselves on the manager’s list by doing what they were about to do on the job, they opted to wait until now to put their plan in action. They flew over to a black cloud Cloud had been trying to nap on before the approaching trio caught his attention.
“Hmm?” Cloud thought as he sat up and turned his head towards them, confused as they landed on a flatter surface of cloud with more space nearby. “I recognize these three. I’ve never done anything to bother them, but my gut tells me they’re not here for anything good…”
“Well, well, well…” Billy said snarkily.
“We’ve found out where our mystery stallion gets his name from!” Hoops taunted in delight. “He shrouds himself in mystery with a cloud!”
The three laughed in unison.
“What’s it to you?” Cloud retorted. “Why do you care about what I’m doing?”
“Ask just about everyone else.” Billy answered. “We all think that what you’re doing is weird, and that goes for what you’re not doing too! Sitting by yourself every day, never so much as even looking another pony’s way, always reacting in the most mundane way every time an accident happens at work, goofily smiling to yourself when nothing’s funny, talking in your slee-”
“Shush!” Hoops exclaimed, interrupting his partner with a nudge.
Unfortunately, it was too late. Cloud was already picking up on something…
“Pony culture is definitely different from human culture,” he thought, “but even ponies don’t just randomly go up to someone who’s never bothered them and start critiquing their character...”
In spite of what he suspected, Cloud chose to attack the situation from a different angle…
“So what do you want me to do about it?” he countered. “Why should I care if it bothers you? Why should I care if others don’t like me for being myself? I meet the demands for productivity, my supervisor tells me on more than one occasion that I do a good job, what else matters? I don’t think you actually believe work is about holding hands and singing happy songs with co-workers who don’t care whether you live or die. But then again, maybe you do.”
“Why you-let me at ‘em, let me at ‘em!” Score, the one who didn’t talk, was saying in his mind as he flailed his forelegs about. Hoops was holding him down.
“Settle down!” he told his other partner. “I got this!”
“I hope you don’t believe we didn’t come here prepared for the classic “I don’t care” comeback that went out of style years ago!” Hoops proclaimed confidently, sneering. “Because we’re going to give you something to care about...heh heh heh…”
He pulled out a tape recorder, which certainly caught Cloud’s attention.
“Yes, this was our final push to confront you.” he explained. “A little birdie told us you say some pretty wacky stuff to yourself. Stuff so out of this world, they just couldn’t resist recording it to prove they weren’t just full of hot air. I’m sure you know what’s on this tape…”
Cloud gulped, continuing to stare at them in silence as he tensed up.
“You have a terrible poker face and we’re not bluffing ourselves.” Billy chimed in to keep the pressure on him. “We know what’s on this tape, how could we resist listening to it ourselves? Humans, windigos, and shadows, oh my! You even do different voices for your imaginary friends! And while we admire your passion for at least one thing, what we kind of already figured out is abundantly clear now...you’re cracked up.”
“What do you plan to do with that tape?” Cloud asked angrily, shooting them a stern glare, a green light flashing momentarily in his eyes...
“We haven’t played it for anyone else yet…” Hoops answered. “But just imagine what would happen if we played this for your boss!”
Recognizing his job as his new comfort zone, Cloud felt an unbridled rage come over him. The cocky smiles of the taunting trio soon faded, fear coming over them once they felt a hostile aura exude from Cloud. His eyes turned green, exuding purple haze, a shadowy aura surrounded him, and then, for a split-second as he responded with a bellow…
“YOU WOULD DARE TRY TO GET ME FIRED?!”
They thought they could see a Windigo flash beside him like a bolt of lightning. It didn’t even matter to them whether or not it was real...it gave them an icy-cold stare that literally chilled them to the bone.
“Plan B, Plan B!” they frantically exclaimed in their heads.
“Dude, we were just joking, relax!” Hoops cried, feigning innocence.
Cloud calmed down, his eyes returning to normal and his aura receding as he decided to give them a slight benefit of the doubt.
“We just wanted to see if we could get some kind of reaction out of you for a change, that’s all!”
“And it worked, ha ha!” Billy interjected derisively to keep up the act.
“Ha ha ha, yeah, we all had a good laugh…” Cloud sarcastically remarked, irritated. “I’m calling your bluff, especially after what you said about me having a terrible poker face! You wouldn’t think twice about playing that tape for someone just to spite me!”
The three had looks of guilt on their face after hearing that.
“In the worst-case scenario that you do get me fired, I can always find a job somewhere else.” Cloud continued, trying to maintain control of the situation. “I doubt what I can explain as a minor mental disorder will be enough to have me blacklisted. But do you really expect me to believe you’d burden yourselves with the guilt of getting a guy you don’t even know fired just because he acts a little loopy? At the very least, I suspected you were lying. Yet I went along with it and lost my cool. And do you know why?”
“Why?” Billy asked, he and his friends feeling confused.
“Because…” Cloud began his answer with a stoic look on his face that abruptly turned into a big, goofy smile as he finished what he was going to say.
“I’m not as much of a goody-goody two shoes as I look. I like a good opportunity to blow off some steam.”
Billy, Hoops, and Score were astonished. Before now, they had honest distaste for Cloud under the impression that he had been trying to fool everyone around him into thinking he was a perfect angel. Now, however, Cloud had admitted for the first time in his own way that he was no better than anyone else. He didn’t avoid others because he hated them...he was just doing what he was used to doing...being himself. This didn’t mean there was nothing wrong with his ways though...and when the three looked down at the tape recorder, they all had the same thought despite their change of heart about Cloud…
“It’s obvious he’s not actually aware of what’s on this tape…”
Meanwhile, down below on the ground, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were walking through the picnic area where Dash had first met Cloud and having a conversation about him…
“So what is he like?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “What does he do when he’s around you?”
“Wouldn’t I like to know.” Rainbow answered, annoyed. “The guy’s been staying at my place for two weeks now and it’s like finding out my house is haunted! He never says a word to me about what he likes to do, never mentions anything unique that’s happened to him, always shuts himself in the attic, and every night since he’s been over, I’ve had a hard time getting to sleep!”
“Why’s that?” Fluttershy questioned. “Does he snore?”
“No, admittedly, that’s more up my alley.” Rainbow confessed, rolling her eyes. “But honestly, I’d rather him do that than open my attic window every night. Whenever he does that, I feel this unsettling cold breeze roll in that makes me feel like I’m being...watched.”
“Oh my…” Fluttershy reacted with concern. “That’s a terrible feeling to have come over you, especially when you’re just trying to sleep. I’m really sor-”
“Hold that thought!” Rainbow exclaimed, interrupting her as she saw Billy, Hoops, and Score descending on the grassy field ahead. “My scouts have returned! Let’s see what they got from our little friend before he could take his cat nap!”
Fluttershy groaned, putting her hoof to her face in response to Rainbow’s hypocrisy. As Rainbow excitedly rushed over to greet her henchmen, Fluttershy half-heartedly followed, slowly trotting behind her.
“So what did you get out of him?” Rainbow asked the trio.
As the three relayed to her what happened, the expression on Fluttershy’s face grew angrier...
“His reaction was...more interesting than we expected.” Billy answered. “We didn’t anticipate the usual taunts to yield any results outside of simple sarcastic remarks, but the way he got angry with us after we busted out the tape recorder was a complete surprise. His eyes got all weird...and for a split-second, I thought I could see a Windigo…”
“What?!” a shocked Rainbow responded. “Are you suggesting that he actually…”
“We’re just telling you what happened.” Hoops affirmed. “It’s not all craziness that we got out of him. Once he calmed down, we saw a completely different side to him. We really feel now that he’s not as untrustworthy as he seems. However, that silver lining was offset by the fact that he doesn’t know just how damning this tape you made is…”
“Oh yeah, I feel kind of bad for him now…” Rainbow replied, feeling concerned as Fluttershy was literally shaking with anger. “That tape would not just cost him his job, I wish. Imagine if we played that for the princesses…”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Fluttershy hollered furiously. “Rainbow Dash, I can’t BELIEVE YOU! How can you EXPLOIT ponies like this?!”
“What?” Rainbow replied bemusedly, shrugging. “I gave them bits for their help.”
“That’s not the issue!” Fluttershy continued to rebuke her. “The problem is that you used them to do something so underhoofed as to bully your roommate after you spied on him, collecting dirt on him like a blackmailer!”
“We never intended to blackmail him!” Rainbow proclaimed in her defense. “The tape was just part of a test!”
“Oh, really?” Fluttershy replied facetiously with a smirk. “Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind destroying the tape. Because you don’t need it for anything else now, right?”
“.....” Rainbow had a long, nervous pause before she finally spoke up.
“Fluttershy...I think you need to hear what’s on this tape-”
“AND NOW YOU’RE ASKING ME TO BE COMPLICIT IN THIS?!” Fluttershy bellowed, fuming with rage. “Celestia as my witness, Rainbow Dash, if you ever, EVER, use that tape to blackmail that poor stallion, our friendship is OVER!”
Fluttershy stormed off angrily in a huff. Billy, Hoops, and Score had no idea what to say as a small tear came out of Rainbow’s eye. She really did have no intent to blackmail Cloud with the tape or hurt him.
“Part of me thinks he’s just crazy…” Rainbow thought despondently. “But even if that’s what’s wrong with him, I just want to help him...especially when I’m getting more of a premonition he’s possessed by an evil force that’s threatening Equestria…”
Meanwhile, the Windigos, who were watching the scene unfold from above near a sleeping Cloud Shroud’s cloud, were snickering to themselves.
“What a bunch of dopes…” Aero mocked them. “They’re falling for our trap like a ton of bricks…”
“The hate growing inside of the yellow one is already a great thing to savor…” Aera said with pleasure. “But the self-hate the blue one is starting to develop...oh, it’s like watching a cherry ripen…”
“We aren’t even close to the main course yet…” Aeros remarked, turning to Cloud and smiling sinisterly. “And our good friend here has no idea how much he’s already helped us...even as we told him our plan…”
The day before...
“So how exactly are you guys going to get the ponies to understand your hate?” Cloud had asked. “What is me talking to them going to do if they don’t even know you?”
“You’ll see in due time.” Aeros had answered. “How you will inevitably stir up the enmity within their hearts and create for them a new world where they can not question our hate. For soon, you shall know the kind of darkness that haunts even Equestria’s rulers…it’s already inside of you...”
Now...
Cloud began to sink into his own cloud forebodingly, as the same shadow from before appeared...
...not beside him, but beside Princess Luna, who was sitting at a desk in the room of royal records.
“No need to explain.” Luna said bluntly, sensing the shadow. “I know the truth…”