We ran outside, and witnessed the darkness form overhead. As I suspected. These were not normal clouds whatsoever. They were something more, something sinister.
“Everypony, go back to your homes!” Autumn Blaze cried out, “We’ll handle...whatever the heck this is!”
The kirins did as their leader commanded, and fled to the safety of their abodes.
Guttersnipe flapped her metal wings with that steeled gaze in her eyes. “I’m gonna take off and see what’s going on from the air.” As confident as she looked on the outside, there was something off in the way her eye twitched. “If only Flash Drive were here. He’d know what to do.”
But if she knew what she was doing, I couldn’t fault her. For now, we needed to focus. “Cozy, stay alert. Do you recognize these clouds at all?” I asked her because, as a pegasus, she’d most likely have some expertise on the conflict before us.
“...None. These are completely abnormal. None of the weather factories make use of clouds like these. What should we do?” she looked to me with a face full of fear and confusion.
Ah yes, that’s right. Cozy was an excellent strategist, but when it came to quick thinking on her hooves, she was extremely lacking. That was alright. I could pick up the slack for her as best I could. “No problem. What we need to do is--”
“Boss! We got monsters!” Guttersnipe shouted from above, and pointed to the entrance to the kirin village.
We looked on, and found a monster. But not just any monster. This was...a creature with no definite shape other than billowing smoke and ash. It emerged from the forest just outside of the kirin village. Its body looked to be made of fog? No. There were constant gusts of air that flowed around within it with some sort of weather-based aura.
“A stormy beast…” I mumbled under my breath.
Autumn Blaze yelped. “A stormbeast?! I’ve never seen these before. But…” she paused. On command, she activated her nirik form, and spoke to me in a very casual state. “I think we can totally handle this.”
I took note of it, and realized that there were kirin who could control their powers. Good. Autumn had to easily be the strongest one in her village as leader, so this was perfect. Even still, the kid was in danger. “Cozy. Get back inside Autumn’s home and let us handle this. You’ve done your part already, now it’s my turn.”
I could see it in her pale pink eyes. She desperately wanted to help, but knew this was beyond her--or at least I hoped she did. The last thing I wanted was for her to get hurt. “Okay…” she said before she flew back.
The monster approached us. It generated arms and legs that were close to that of a primate. Except, you know, extremely massive. I took a look at Autumn. “This thing looks powerful, but slow. I’ll distract it, and you can come in for the final strike. Savvy?”
“Sure, sure!” she replied with a wide, fanged grin as she stretched her hooves. “Let’s murderate ‘em! This’ll make a great setup for our next play when we’re done, heheh!”
With the plan laid out, I met the beast in the empty clearing in the middle of the village. It charged at me with what seemed like killer intent and yellow, slitted eyes that were alight amidst the body of darkness. To say this thing was creepy was putting it very lightly.
“Woah!” I managed to dodge one of its smoky fists with a swift roll as it slammed the ground next to me.
Luckily, Autumn Blaze was already on the prowl. She leapt onto the beast’s back, and tried to set it ablaze. “Eat this, buddy!” A roar of blue and red flame rose upon the back of the stormy creature, but sadly, this had no effect whatsoever. “What?!”
Instead, the being casually brushed it off, and blew out the flames. Then, it grabbed ahold of Autumn in its massive hand-like appendage.
“Hrrk! Hey! Let me go!” She wriggled and lashed around in the grasp of the monster. Even as she poured all of her magic into her flaming aura, it caused absolutely no damage to the beast.
Concerning. But first, I had to get Autumn out of this tight spot.
“I gotcha!” I shouted. With a quick action, I pointed my air blaster at the ground, and used it to launch myself upwards. I landed on the beast’s arm, and threw a hoofstrike at its face. “Hya!”
PLAP!
No effect. Yet again. Just what in the devil could be done to this beast?! “...Shit.” There was no time to worry about that for the moment. Those yellow eyes bore through the very essence of my soul, and I could tell it was ready to strike back.
“RRRRRAGH!”
With a mighty roar, the stormbeast flung its free fist--the right--towards me.
“Aie!” I barely managed to avoid the attack, and fell off the gigantic arm. “Oof!” I hit the ground with a brisk thud. But when that happened, I heard the beast cry out from pain.
“AAAARGH!”
As it turned out, when I managed to move out of the way, the beast had struck itself by accident! It stumbled, and its grip on Autumn Blaze was loosened as a result.
“Woah!” She fell, but managed to catch herself just in time via self-levitation.
Sometimes I wished I could do that, but then again, raw durability.
“You alright?” I got up and ran over to check on her condition.
The nirik rose to her hooves in a flash. “Yeah, I’m fine. But what just happened?”
“Let’s see...none of our attacks worked on it so far. But when I inadvertently caused it to strike itself, it seemed to have taken some damage.”
We both looked at it. Even now, the beast was still recovering from the devastating blow it had dealt to itself. Maybe we could use that to our advantage.
“Maybe we can use this to our advantage!” Autumn shouted at the same moment I thought about it. Great minds think similarly I suppose. “We just need to get it to hit itself until it goes down!”
Great plan, but how would we do that, I wondered. “Hmmm--look out!” My thoughts were interrupted when the beast came in for another attack. Both its fists slammed into the earth which caused Autumn and I to dodge in opposite directions. “Dammit. I don’t think it’s gonna fall for the same trick again!”
“Ghh!” Autumn grumbled as she landed in a bush nearby. “What makes you so sure?”
“It’s separated us!” I called out from the other end of the open village field. “We can’t do the same thing again! We need to think carefully!”
Autumn rolled out of the way of an attack once more. “Ah! Hey! Watch it! We don’t want our homes destroyed you big meanie!”
Damn. That was another factor I hadn’t considered. Just how were we going to beat this thing while also avoiding any excess damage to the surrounding area. The kirin’s home was all built into the natural area of the hills and trees itself. Who knows how long it would take to rebuild if a monster destroyed their home?
Come on, Pale. Think.
Meanwhile…
Cozy Glow watched from the inside of Autumn’s home. All the events that had transpired had gotten her to think. “Ooh...I can’t just sit here. They need my help. But just how am I gonna...wait…” With a pencil and a notepad in hoof, she began to draw on it while she came up with a strategy.
“It’s made of storm clouds...pegasi like me can control clouds….maybe…”
Outside…
There was one thing I had just realized.
“Guts! Where are you?!” I shouted as I looked up to the sky.
I realized that Guttersnipe must have fled to a more advantageous position, but that didn’t excuse the lack of communication. I had no idea where that crimson mare went.
POW-POW-POW-POW!
Well, now I did.
“Eat this, ya ugly mug!” I heard her scream from above. The battle cry was followed by dozens of miniature missiles fired off from above which barreled down and exploded in fiery bursts upon the stormy monster.
It didn’t cause major damage, but the beast was forced to use a hand to block most of them, likely due to how much the attack blinded it.
“Mr. Pale, look!” I heard Autumn shout as she pointed a hoof at the beast.
I squinted, and could just barely make out the image of a pony within the smoky creature. Could it be that somepony had been controlling this thing from the inside this whole time? Okay, that was certainly another factor to consider. But it seemed that Guttersnipe’s barrage of explosions had weakened the outer shell of the monster. Maybe...just maybe…
“I can do this. I won’t let you down, sir. Ghh...this hurts like Tartarus, though.” Just out of sight, Cozy Glow had grabbed up a bundle of the clouds, and formed a long spear. When the time was right, she gave a shout. “EVERYPONY BACK UP!”
My ear flicked, and I turned my head. Autumn and I witnessed that pink pegasus grab up an entire mass of the storm clouds that had circled overhead. My mind immediately went into a protective mode. “Kid? What the hell are you doing?!”
The nirik put a gentle, non-flaming hoof on my shoulder. “...I think she has a plan. You know how smart she can get when she has time to think about something. Trust her, sir,” she pleaded with a soft smile.
I shot her the most bewildered look I could muster. “Wh…” My eyes immediately went down, and darted left, then right. With no other alternatives, I closed them with a sigh. “...argh. Fine.”
Part of me wondered just how much Autumn could remember of what Cozy accomplished and whether or not she still held it against the pegasus mare. Even so, this was no time to debate.
“GRRR! RUNNING OUT OF AMMO HERE GUYS!” Guttersnipe yelled out from the sky, “HURRY UP AND DO SOMETHING!”
Dammit. No choice. Whatever Cozy wanted to do, now was the time.
Autumn and I both dove for cover behind some of the bushes nearby. The foggy mass of a monster was still pinned down from the onslaught of miniature rockets. But naturally, Guttersnipe’s ammunition was not infinite. Her attacks had just barely managed to keep the monster at bay long enough for Cozy to enact...whatever the heck she wanted to enact.
“YAAAAA!”
I dragged my hooves down the sides of my face and watched with utter horror as the kid screamed to the top of her lungs as she flew down from the sky. She had crafted some sort of lance made from the same cloudy material that the creature was made of. Wait, did she somehow manage to figure out the creature’s weakness without even having been among us? Exemplary!
Once Guttersnipe’s rocket barrage had ceased, Cozy Glow charged right into the beast and impaled it with the spear of clouds.
“RRRRAUGH!”
It let out a guttural roar as it reeled back. The beast had ultimately been slain by the same material it was made of in one clean, fell swoop!
It disappeared, and the sky became clear once more, which allowed nature’s sunny day to resume as scheduled. All that was left was an unconscious pony from the aftermath.
“Cozy!” I shouted as I leapt from the bushes. I ran up and rubbed a hoof on her mane to check if she was in good condition. “You alright? You’re not hurt are you?”
Her mane was a little frizzy, and she was covered in a bit of soot, but she seemed like she was okay. However, to my surprise, the young mare giggled when it was over. Like usual, she pushed my hoof away with her own, and smiled at me with that bright expression of hers. “Aw, lighten up. It’s like you’re trying to be my dad or something.”
“Oh, uh...right. My apologies.” I immediately retreated, and gave her some space. The last thing I wanted to do was smother her. Dammit, Pale, you’re better than this.
Once the beast was vanquished, Autumn came out of hiding. Her nirik form now gone, and replaced with her usual kirin appearance. “Whew...that was a super sweaty battle,” she wiped some perspiration from her forehead with a hoof, “Everypony alright?”
“Mm-hmm,” Cozy replied with a nod.
“Indeed,” I said.
Guttersnipe landed with an ecstatic grin. “Yeah-yeah, baby! I knew we could do it! But CG--how did ya manage to figure out what its weakness was so fast?”
“I...watched you guys and when I saw it hit itself, I realized I needed to fabricate something made of the same material. So I gathered some of those storm clouds and made a spear out of it. They...kinda hurt a little from how much condensed magic was contained within, but I managed, hehe.”
Autumn Blaze put a hoof on Cozy’s shoulder. “Well I think you did a great job. It took you some time, but you were willing to fight for the safety of a group of kirin that you don’t even know. For that, I’m...super totally grateful, dude!” she squealed and started to violently shake the pink mare’s hoof with two of her own.
Heh. I suppose she couldn’t stand the idea of being so formal for very long.
“Blblblbl!” Cozy tried to speak, but being shaken slurred her words.
“Oh, sorry!” Autumn let go, “I tend to sorta do that sometimes.”
Cozy shook her head around to regain her stability. “Brrr. It’s fine. I’m glad you appreciate my efforts.”
“Hehe!” The kirin leader laughed and pointed at the field, “I’m not the only one…”
We looked out and saw that the other kirins had emerged from the safety of their homes to see what had transpired. After a moment of silence, they all came in and swarmed Cozy Glow with praise.
“You’re awesome!”
“You’re amazing!”
“You’re so cool!”
“Teach me how to do that!”
“Thank you so much for saving us!”
“Oh, hehe…” she blushed and shied away from the words of kindness. “Thank you?”
It was a nice feeling, to watch her be praised for something she did right for a change.
While that occurred, I felt something tap my shoulder. “Hm?”
Guttersnipe beckoned me to follow her. “Take a look at this boss.”
Oh yes. That’s right. The pony body. The one that was left behind after the body of the mysterious beast disappeared. I knelt down to inspect it. It was a grayish pegasus mare with a manestyle that was similar to Twilight’s. The mane itself was two-toned--pink and green. Her cutie mark was that of two flowers.
“Wait a minute...I think I’ve seen this mare before in Ponyville. Blossomforth. A member of the Ponyville weather team. Consistent for the past 20 years or so. But why is…” I had to stop and think. It made sense that a pegasus would be able to control something so volatile, given that they had control over the elements of the sky and the weather. “Hrm…”
All the sudden, a hooded figure emerged from the forest and stepped out to greet us. “I would like to apologize for what has transpired here. I was hunting down that creature myself and it...got away from me.” Their voice sounded feminine and cold, like someone that tended to distance themselves from others as much as possible.
“Hm?” I looked up with complete suspicion aimed at this new character. “And just who are you?”
She pushed the hood down. I was greeted with a dark purple unicorn mare whose horn was missing.
Wait...no way!
“Whoo-doggie!” Guttersnipe chirped aloud, “We never would’ve expected to see somepony like you way out here!”
I noticed Autumn Blaze was also taken aback with a shocked look on her face. But she didn’t speak for the moment. My best guess was that she wanted to let us handle the situation, maybe?
The mare with the damaged horn approached us. “There is...little time. First off, who among you led the fight against this beast?”
The red pegasus pushed me forward without warning. “This guy, right here!”
I shot Guttersnipe an annoyed huff, and rolled my eyes. I looked up at the dark violet mare, and tipped my hat. “Pale Vestige, madam. Nice to meet you.”
She tilted her head to the left, and then to the right as she looked me over. It was like being inspected by a curious foal.
“Ahem...is everything alright?” I asked.
“Hm?” She snapped out of her investigative stupor to answer. “Oh, yes. Of course. It’s just--well, I’m surprised. I’ve been away from Equestria for so long that I wouldn’t expect a stallion to be in charge of something like this,” she explained as she pointed her hoof to the unconscious Blossomforth. “I figured most of them stayed home to simply fix things or pulled heavy weights while the mares did everything else, given that’s what I mostly saw in my time here.”
I couldn’t come up with much of a response other than two words. “...excuse me?”