“Be careful, everyone! We’ll be arriving at The Serpent’s Pass in a few days!”
A chorus of murmurs acknowledged Spark’s warning as the pony trio trudged along behind him. As expected, everyone’s spirits were a bit dampened after two weeks of grueling travel. Normally, the three treasure hunters would fill the time with sarcastic quips and witty jokes, but the conversations between them had become short and abbreviated ever since they left town.
At first, Sky thought the curtness was simply due to nerves, but two weeks of tense silence clued him in that there was something else going on.
Every time he tried talking to Cloud, she somehow found a way to worm out of the conversation. One time she had been so desperate to avoid him that she flicked her own tail into the burning campfire and ran into a nearby river with flames shooting off her flank. It was eerily similar to the way she had smashed open her apartment’s window after their infamous medical tent kiss, but this time Sky couldn’t imagine why she would want to avoid him.
As his thoughts carried him away, somepony else coughed nearby to grab his attention.
“Sky, did you hear what I said?”
Sky’s head whipped around to stare back at the younger sister’s concerned gaze. Slapping himself for getting distracted, he stammered, “Flitter! Sorry, my mind wandered a bit. Can you repeat what you said?”
Flitter’s eyebrows scrunched with concern. “Are you feeling okay? You’ve been spacing out a lot recently. We all need to be in top shape if we want to infiltrate the Dragonlands without getting caught.”
“Yeah, I’m good,” he replied, readjusting the nearly empty supply bag on his back. “I’ve just been thinking about Cloud a lot recently. She looks like there’s something bothering her, but I can't imagine why.”
Her expression flashed with jealous anger as a sickening feeling churned within her stomach. Turning to look at her sister, she noticed that Cloud did in fact appear to be in lower spirits than usual.
Cloud’s head and tail both drooped slightly as she plodded along the beaten path. Her signature cocky grin was nowhere to be seen, replaced with a half-grimace of discomfort that had nothing to do with the travel. When she glanced up and saw their gazes, she averted her eyes and hid her face, a light blush dusted along her lavender cheeks.
Flitter turned back to Sky with a pained smile. “I’m sure she’s just worried about the mission. So, you said you were from Ponyville, right? That’s quite funny because Cloud and I were actually from...” she trailed off as Sky broke away from their conversation.
With an apologetic smile, he nodded his head and made his way over to Cloud’s despondent form. Extending a comforting wing towards her barrel, he put on his most reassuring grin and tensed himself in preparation for another painful buck.
Cloud flinched at the sudden contact and tried to pull away, but Sky wrapped his wing around her to prevent another vanishing act. After several tense moments, her shoulders relaxed as she returned the wing-hug and smiled back in a friendly, yet cautious manner.
A shard of ice pierced Flitter’s heart at the display of affection, but she soon brushed it off as nothing more than a friendly gesture. Ruffling her feathers, she stared ahead at the darkening sky and reassured herself of her sister’s innocence.
“Don’t worry, Cloud promised to back off…”
She promised.
Sky stared down at Cloud’s gloomy expression with a frown of his own. As her downtrodden gaze fell to the floor, he squeezed her barrel with his wing to get her attention. “Hey, Cloud, are you feeling okay? You’ve been really quiet for the past couple weeks, which is the last thing I’d expect from you~”
Cloud gave him a weak chuckle and intertwined his wing with her own. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve just had a lot on my mind.”
“I hear you. We all have a scary future ahead of us,” he gave her another reassuring grin and raised his gleaming shield. “Don’t worry. No matter what happens, we’ll be safe as long as I have a say in it.”
Before she could do more than nod, a new voice floated through the air and interrupted their conversation. Turning around, Sky rolled his eyes as two of their dragon escorts engaged in one of their daily spats.
“Dude, what’s the first thing you’re going to do when we get back to the Dragonlands?” a short, heavy-set dragon asked, stabbing his weapon through the air. “When I get back into town, I’m gonna find a nice dragoness and have myself a little fun~”
The taller dragon rolled his eyes and jabbed the other with the sheath of his sword. “You would say that. I swear, that and food are the only two things that ever cross your mind.”
“Hey! Cut me some slack, man! I haven’t seen a dragoness in months.” He lowered his voice to a whisper that still carried to the eavesdropping ponies, “Besides, the ones I did see weren’t really going to fit the criteria… if you know what I mean~”
“Yes, I get the idea.” A wistful sigh broke the taller dragon’s voice as he stared up into the mountains. “When I get home, the first thing I’m going to do is check on my parents.”
Cloud winced as the sensitive topic was dragged into the conversation. Before Sky could do anything to distract her, the dragon explained, “My parents never wanted me to join the military, so they’ve been worried sick ever since I received the draft order. I haven’t seen them for months, so I’m sure they’re going to be really excited when I come home!”
Another stab of pain shot through Cloud as the tall dragon continued to unknowingly torture her with recollections of his family. Just to add one more nail to the coffin, he concluded by pulling out a picture of his parents and holding it close to his chest.
“Once I get back, I need to get them out of town and put them into hiding. I’m going to be known as a deserter and a traitor, so I don’t want them to be punished for my crimes.”
Gazing lovingly at the photograph, he murmured, “I can’t abandon them like that. I made a promise to always come home no matter what. I need to keep it.”
At this, Cloud burst into tears and flew off towards the front of the line. Sky reached out a hoof to stop her, but she slipped through his grasp and vanished into the horizon. Turning back to glare at the tactless dragons, he took off and hissed, “Great going, morons! Look at what you did to her!”
As Sky flew away, the dragons stared after him with incredulous expressions plastered across their faces.
“Jeez, what do you think got up their flanks?”
“No idea, man! Ponies are weird.”
It was well past sunset by the time they set up camp. As the orange horizon slowly faded to black, Sky glanced around at the other campers to make sure no one was watching. Spark and his dragons were milling about, erecting tents and lookouts for their resting site, Flitter was busy collecting kindling and wood for the bonfire, and Cloud was refilling their canteens in a nearby river.
Seeing his chance, Sky took the opportunity to speak to Cloud and hopefully clear up whatever issue was causing her so much distress. As he made his way towards her downcast form, another pair of narrowed pink eyes followed his path towards their owner’s sister.
Brushing off the strange shiver that crept up his spine, he raised his hoof and tapped the moody pegasus on the back. “Cloud, we need to talk!”
Cloud’s wings flew out as she whirled around. “Sky, what the hay!? You almost gave me a heart attack!”
He put on an apologetic smile and chuckled, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to talk about what happened earlier with those dragons. Is everything alright?”
Flinching at the flood of painful memories, she huffed in annoyance and turned back to the half-filled canteens. “I’m fine. You don’t need to coddle me. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
Sky sat down next to her and raised his hooves. “I’m not coddling you, Cloud. I’m just worried.” He ran a hoof through the flowing river and stared at his rippling reflection. “After those dragons finished talking, you had a panic attack and disappeared for over half-an-hour. Was there something you needed to do?”
When Cloud didn’t respond, he glanced at her stony face and sighed, Damn it, she’s not budging. I need to do something that breaks through her shell.
Hating himself for what he was going to do next, Sky steeled his nerves and whispered, “It has something to do with your parents, doesn’t it?”
At this, Cloud’s head jerked up as she stared at him with terrified eyes. Realizing her mistake, she forced herself to suppress her emotions, but the damage was already done.
Sensing her mental walls building, Sky pushed his advantage before she had a chance to gather her thoughts.
“Flitter told me about your childhood before we got the diadem,” he admitted. “I don’t mean to sound pushy, but could you tell me what happened to your parents? Flitter said you knew more about them, and I’m pretty sure whatever happened is killing you inside. I just want to help!”
Cloud’s gaze hardened as she knocked away his comforting wing. “I don’t need you prying into my personal life. There’s nothing important about what happened to my parents. All I know is that they disappeared and left Flitter and I to fend for ourselves.”
Sky was shocked at the bitterness he detected in the normally relaxed pegasus. Even during the first week of their shaky friendship when they wanted to slit each other’s throats, she had never spoken to him with that level of animosity. Treading carefully, he hesitantly mumbled before stuttering, “It sounds like you kind of resent them for disappearing…”
Something within Cloud snapped. Scrambling up, she shoved his unsuspecting barrel to the ground with a hoof and screamed, “Of course I resent them! They vanished and abandoned us when I was eight! Instead of supporting us through our foalhoods, they left us right when we needed them the most! If my old teacher hadn’t asked to see them after school, we probably would have starved to death before anyone noticed! How could I not resent them!?”
Sky stared in disbelief at the raging mare above him. Instead of her usual cocky grin or recent gloomy grimace, Cloud’s face was now painted with nothing but pure vitriol, hatred, and contempt. If it weren’t for her unique purple eyes, he would never have believed her to be the same mare he had just been talking to.
Wrestling her hoof off his chest, he wheezed, “Cloud, I know how you feel! Believe me, I do! It’s not worth wasting your time and energy hating someone you can’t see anymore, especially without knowing all the facts.”
Cloud shut him up by pressing a hoof onto his neck. “How would you know what it feels like!? I barely got to know them before they left! Every second is filled with pain and longing as I pray to Celestia to bring them back! I want to look them in the eyes as they explain why they left Flitter and I before we were able to look after ourselves!”
She lifted her hoof off Sky’s neck and collapsed back onto the ground. With one more agonizing sob, she lowered her head and shook with grief as salty tears continued to flow freely down her fur. After several seconds of tense silence, Cloud glanced up at him with pleading eyes, begging for reassurance.
“I just want to know what I did to make them abandon us…”
Sky didn’t know what to say. Her sudden frailty took him so off guard that he couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Snapping himself out of his shocked silence, he rubbed a hoof along his foreleg and said, “Well, I can’t claim to have been in your hooves before, but I can empathize with how you feel right now.”
Dark memories flashed across Sky’s mind as her words broke down the mental walls he had meticulously built and maintained. Shifting himself closer to Cloud’s shaking form, he wrapped a tentative wing around her barrel.
After confirming she wouldn’t punch him again, he stared at their distorted river reflections and continued, “Self-loathing is one of the worst feelings in the world. You feel like everything is your fault, even when it’s not. You feel like you failed yourself because you weren’t good enough to be what you wanted to be. You feel like nothing will ever change from the terrible grip that reality has on your soul.”
Sky paused and took a shaky breath before whispering, “You feel like a monster because you failed to protect someone when they needed you the most.”
This time, Cloud was the one who looked up in surprise. Throughout their friendship, she had never heard him speak with so much pain and misery in his voice, even during his interrogation of their would-be assassins.
“When I said I knew how you felt, I didn’t mean that my parents disappeared.” The scars of past mistakes bled through Sky’s gaze as old wounds started reopening. “I know how it feels to blame yourself for something you couldn’t control. The agony of shame and regret hurt worse than any wound a sword could ever inflict.”
His unblinking eyes drifted away from her as he stared at the black canvas of night that stretched all around them. In a hushed tone, he whispered, “Do you remember the things I said to Griffy when you first introduced us?”
Cloud’s mind flashed back to the rude, hurtful, borderline cruel insults Sky had thrown towards the quivering young griffon. A spark of anger flared up inside her before he continued.
“Like I said, I never wanted to hurt Griffy. I only said those things to him so that he would stand up for himself and believe in his convictions.” Sky stared into the eyes of his shining reflection as he thought back to his own marred past. “In a way, I guess I saw a bit of my foalhood self in Griffy’s timid, unconfident nature.”
A smile flickered across Cloud’s muzzle as she recalled his adorable foal pictures in his closet. Biting back a witty remark, she raised a hoof to her muzzle and chuckled, “I never would have expected you to be the shy type. When we first met, you were very… assertive.”
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” Sky rolled his eyes as he continued, “You see, before treasure hunting in San Hoof, I used to be a library assistant in a small town called Ponyville. I loved working there because no one actually came by to check out a book, which meant I didn’t have to talk to many other ponies.”
Cloud’s ears perked up at his backstory. “Wait, you used to live in Ponyville!? Flitter and I lived there for a while too!”
They both cracked smiles at the serendipity as he exclaimed, “Yeah! After Princess Twilight started her school, Spike was the only one left to take care of the book fortress, so he hired me to do the boring jobs he didn’t want to do anymore.”
The two of them reminisced about Ponyville’s bizarre history before Cloud asked, “So, why did you hate yourself for working at a library? Were you afraid of getting too many paper cuts or something?”
Sky’s face fell into a sorrowful grimace as he lifted his wing off her barrel. “Not quite. It’s a lot worse than that. I’ve never told this to another soul outside the royal guard, and I’m sure you’ll understand why.”
Gazing at her with an anxious expression, he rubbed his hooves across the ground and whispered, “No matter what you hear, please don’t think I’m a monster.”
“Ugh! If Spike keeps me out past eight again, I’m going to report him to the Equestrian Labor Board, princess connection be damned.”
Sky’s juvenile wings twitched with irritation as he trotted back towards the library. After a long day of sorting, shelving, and deliveries, his aching hooves dragged across the ground, kicking up dust along the way.
“Well, at least it’s the end of the week. If I ever have to deliver another book, it’ll be too soon…”
As he plodded back to work, a sudden movement to his right caught Sky’s attention. Jumping back from the poorly lit side street, he flapped his small wings in an act of defiance and stared around to look at his assailant.
Sky’s hooves paced nervously as he stared into the darkening shadows, but a low growl called out to him before he could yell for help. “Hey, calm down, kid! We’re not dangerous.”
Three large, heavily-armed dragons emerged from the dingy alleyway and began approaching him. Remembering what his parents taught him about stranger danger, Sky backed away from them and yelled, “Stay away from me! I’ll call the guards!”
A large green dragon stepped forward and held up his claws. “Woah, kid, let’s not be hasty! We just wanted to ask you a question.”
His shaking hooves became rooted to the spot. Not wanting to provoke these scary, dangerous-looking dragons, he leaned backwards and prepared to make a break for the nearest house he could reach.
Sensing the young colt’s fear, the green dragon crouched down and whispered, “Really, kid, we don’t want to hurt you.” He opened his arms and continued, “I think we got off on the wrong claw. My name is Sear. What’s your name, little one?”
Against his better judgement, Sky turned back towards the dragons instead of running away. Staring at the scaly green reptile, he stuttered, “M-My name’s Skyfall…”
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Skyfall. Like I said before, we need to ask you a question if you’re willing to answer.”
Sky eyed the inquiring dragon with suspicion before asking, “Okay… what d-do you want to know?”
The three dragons breathed a sigh of relief and smirked at each other before Sear explained, “We were taking part in a tour of the princess’s castle when we got a little lost. I’m afraid we’re not very familiar with this town’s layout yet, so we got separated from our pony friends who were guiding us around.”
He gave Sky a calculating look and whispered, “You wouldn’t happen to have seen them, would you?”
Something in Sky’s brain clicked as alarms rang out, but Sear’s deep, slow tone muted those warning signals enough that he answered. “Well… I don’t really know many ponies around here, so I probably haven’t met them. Do you know what they look like?”
Once Sear finished describing his companions, Sky’s eyes widened in surprise. As fate would have it, the ponies they were looking for happened to be the exact same recipients of his latest book delivery.
Overtaken by a feeling of excitement, he shouted, “Yeah! I just saw them a few minutes ago! They ordered a series of books from the library, so I was delivering the parcel to them.”
A sinister grin split across Sear’s face. With a backwards glance to his cronies, he bent down and murmured, “That’s great, kid! It’s getting late, so we really need to find them. Otherwise, we’re going to be stranded out here with nowhere to stay!” He fixed Sky with an ingratiating smile.
“You wouldn’t mind showing us where they are, would you, buddy?”
Sky’s body shook as he recounted his traumatic childhood mistake. Blinking away tears, he clenched his hooves in the ground and whispered, “I told them… I told them where those ponies were… it’s my fault…”
Cloud stared open-mouthed at his broken form. The usually stoic, confident stallion was now shaking with barely suppressed sobs. Unsure of what to do, she reached her own wings around his barrel and comforted him as best she could.
A feeling of morbid curiosity consumed her as the fate of the revealed ponies weighed heavily on her mind. When the urge finally overtook her, she lowered her voice and asked, “So… what happened?”
Sky took a shuddering breath to calm his racing heart. With a great effort, he recited the story he had repeated to the guards all those years ago. “After I told them where those ponies lived, a bright light appeared on my flank.”
He glared down at the triple arrow pattern on his haunches with a mix of pride and revulsion. “I got my cutie mark that day. The three arrows symbolize my unique ability to discover things that have been lost. It’s what inspired me to become a treasure hunter in the first place.”
Peering up with tear-stained eyes, he shuddered, “But it’s also a constant reminder that some things are better left hidden.”
Cloud’s eyes widened at his implication. “Wait, are you saying that they…”
Sky nodded as the familiar pain of shame and regret pierced his soul. “Yes… they’re gone now. The next day their bodies were found in the house I led those dragons to.”
His voice broke as he forced himself to finish the horrible tale. “I-I went to the guards and t-told them what I had done, but they ruled that I wasn’t t-to blame because I was so young and didn’t know any better...” He trailed off as a morose silence fell upon the desolate riverbank.
Cloud’s eyes started to water as she empathized with his intense feelings of guilt and shame. Thinking back on her own experience, she hugged his quivering form and intertwined their bodies, running a comforting hoof through his mane. "It wasn’t your fault, Sky. It wasn’t your fault.”
The two of them sat there, embracing each other for several minutes before reluctantly breaking apart. They both wiped their eyes and held their gaze as a warm, fuzzy feeling connected their hearts without a single word being spoken.
After a few more heartfelt moments, Cloud smiled and started to chuckle under her breath. Her giggles seemed to be infectious as Sky couldn’t stop the grin that appeared on his face.
As they slowly reclaimed their senses, she placed a hoof over her muzzle and snorted, “Thanks, Sky. I really appreciate you confiding in me like this.” She lifted her sparkling eyes as a red hue coated her blushing cheeks. “And also for caring enough to comfort me.”
He reached out and pulled her into another deep hug. “No problem. I’m glad you’re feeling better.” His voice faltered as he continued, “And I’m sorry for bringing up your parents. I hope you and Flitter will get to see them again someday.”
Sighing into his mane, she rested her head on his shoulder and reminiced over her foalhood memories. “I can still remember their red and blue coats… their Wonderbolt uniforms… their comforting wings. I miss them.”
Her content, peaceful expression was not reflected in Sky’s horrified gaze. His face contorted into a look of utmost terror as his trembling wings clenched tight around the nuzzling mare in his hooves.
At this point, the only pony more mortified than him was a demure, light-purple pegasus whose pink eyes were narrowed into a venomous, accusatory glare.