Well, he here was. Trapped in a school building filled with small ponies that were shaking with anticipation but were almost too scared to say anything. The air was tense and very uncomfortable, and Cloud wanted to leave right away. Rainbow was by his side though, nudging him with her head to push him forward as the teacher pulled a seat right in front of the class. When he was pushed to the chair, Rainbow pulled back, giving a huge expectant smile. The teacher was also seated beside her students, and she looked just like a schoolgirl with that creepy grin.
So, Cloud did what came naturally.
He slammed his large sword into the ground, impaling onto the wooden floor and making the students gasp in shock as they reeled back into their seats. Cloud then seated himself down onto the chair, crossing his arms as he leaned back. He had no clue how a pony could sit in something like that, but he was thankful that it actually fit him just fine. That would make his visit a little more...tolerable?
He didn't notice Rainbow take a seat next to the wall facing him, and he had no doubt that she was slightly irritated by the fact that none of the other students called her out when they saw him. That thought almost made him smile. The room was very quiet, however, and Cloud realized that he didn't know where to look. He would meet a pair of eyes wherever he looked. The students were like firecrackers, and one small thing would make them explode-
A pencil began to roll off one of the desks, and the blonde human watched it fall through the air in slow motion.
It hit the floor.
The room immediately erupted in voices, and the high pitched squeaky voices were enough to almost break a blood vessel near Cloud's brain.
"Why do your eyes glow?!"
"Why do you always wear black?!"
"Where did you come from?!"
"Who was your best friend?!"
"What did you do to get here?!"
"What's it like to have hands?!"
"How do you live with hands?!"
"Hey! You asked the same question!"
"No way! I worded it differently!"
"Don't make me come over there!"
"Oh really?! I'll-
"ENOUGH!"
The voice of Cheerilee boomed, and even Cloud was completely stunned by the sudden outburst, suddenly finding his hand gripping the hilt of his sword in surprise. The maroon pony cleared her throat before smiling at Cloud, "One at a time, everypony!" Her voice instantly became cheerful, and Cloud was starting to find himself more wary of ponies than before.
A lone, trembling hoof raised itself near the back of the room, and Cloud noticed it belonged to a small colt. Even in the classroom, the ratio of male to female ponies was ridiculous.
"Um..." The voice squeaked in the back, "Uh...Where...Where did you live?"
There was a few moments of awkward silence with Cloud staring straight into the pony's soul. A few seconds later, the blonde human sighed, "A town called Edge."
The ponies whispered among themselves, and the next pony who raised a hoof was someon-somepony he recognized. It was Sweetie Belle, and she had a wide grin on her face.
"Mr. Cloud!" She called out, her eyes beaming with her curiosity, "Do you have a special somepony?"
"Oooh!" The class crept forward in their seats, and the atmosphere just grew more tense in the room.
"Special...somepony?" Cloud repeated, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Yeah! Like do you have somepony you love?" Applebloom asked, "I bet you do!" Rainbow Dash, who was sitting near the wall on Cloud's right, also was staring at the human with intense curiosity.
"Someone that I love..." Cloud murmured quietly, closing his eyes. A few flashes of Aerith's face came to mind, and Tifa's also appeared. Did he really love Aerith? Or was that Zack's emotion?...And Tifa...was she just a childhood friend, or more?...
"I..." Cloud began, his eyes slowly opening up, "I don't know."
"You don't know?!" Scootaloo asked, crossing her fore-hooves, "What do you mean you don't know? Don't tell me..." The filly's eyes found Rainbow Dash and grinned, "Is it Rainbow Dash?!" None of the ponies were close enough to see, but a bright red flush lit up on the cyan pony's cheeks.
"O-Of course not!" Rainbow Dash laughed meekly, "No way! That's just weird! Me and Cloud over there are best buds!" Her heart was thumping, and she was giving the blonde human a strange look. Cloud just shook his head silently, before finding another raised hoof.
The hoof belonged to an arrogant looking pony with what looked like a tiara on her head. She was batting her eye lashes at the human, and Cloud couldn't help but start to feel instantly sick to his stomach.
"Cloud...would you ever consider marrying a pony?" She asked, resting her head on her hooves while giving him a dreamy look. If Cloud had been drinking something, he would have instantly spat it all over the class.
"Now now..." Cheerilee said nervously, dabbing some sweat dripping down her cheek, "Don't overwhelm him with questions on love, children. How about Cloud tell us something about him that he wouldn't mind sharing? Cloud sighed, thanking the teacher silently. He cleared his throat, thinking of something he wouldn't mind talking about...
"Well... " Cloud began, "I... " He kept drawing a blank, and he couldn't help but feel incredibly stupid about the whole situation. The only thoughts that kept popping into mind were depressing or violent, and he had a hard time finding something to speak about under all this silly pressure.
"Come on!" Sweetie Belle chimed, "You can do it! Just think, Mr. Cloud!" The fact that a little pony was encouraging him like that was just... embarrassing.
"Alright... " Cloud cleared his throat, "I... There are two children living with me back at my home planet. They both should be about your age... " He looked up at the fillies, taking a small breath before continuing, "The little girl is named Marlene, while the boy's name is Denzel."
"Marlene? That's a cute name!" Cheerilee smiled, "If I may ask, why are they living with you?"
"Well... " The blonde human muttered, "Marlene is the adopted child of one of my friends. She lives with us because he would be too busy to take care of her. Denzel... " He tightened his fist, "He... lost his parents." There was a sad gasp coming from the class, and Cloud was afraid to look up.
"So, we took him in and have a little family now," Cloud added, "But... As you can see, I'm not exactly with them right now. I don't know how they're doing, and I'm sure they miss me. I left them once... and now I did it again. It almost feels like I abandoned them... I'm like their father, and for all they know I might have just left them again." He finally glanced up, and noticed that most of the class had shallow tears starting to roll down their cheeks. Was it this easy to make ponies cry?!
Cloud felt a pang of guilt for adding his depression into the room and stood up, "I... Sorry for sharing such a troubling thing." He scratched the back of his head, and he noticed Cheerilee dabbing her eyes with a white tissue.
"It's fine, Mr. Cloud!" Applebloom said quietly, "You miss your family too. I never met my parents... but Applejack always said that they loved and cared for me... " Her lip began to quiver, and before long she started sobbing. The sadness completely infected the ponies in the room, and they all began to audibly cry out their sorrow. Cloud had no idea that ponies could be THIS emotional.
"I'm so stupid..." Cloud sighed, running his hand through his hair, turning his back to leave. He had inflicted enough damage already.
Before he could take a step away, he felt something soft poke his leg. Turning around, he spotted Applebloom looking up at him with her teary eyes.
"Mr. Cloud.... " She sniffled, "Can... Can you give me a hug?"
"Uh... What?" Cloud asked, a bit taken back. That was the last thing he was expecting. Was she really wanting a hug from a man who had completely turned the class into a crying mess?
Figuring that he didn't want to make her even more sad, he crouched down onto one knee before her, and he felt the pony rush up and wrap her small fore-hooves around him while she sobbed into his black collared shirt. Cloud hesitated, but he wrapped his arms around her, hooking her in. Ponies were... soft.
Before he realized it, all of the fillies had jumped off their seats and galloped up to him, and soon his entire body was completely engulfed in a sea of sobbing fillies, and his arms were soon wrapped around about half the class. The rest were hugging his back or his legs, and they were all crying into his body.
The human shot a glance at Cheerilee who was busy sniffling into a tissue and giving him a sad smile. He couldn't find Rainbow Dash, so he guessed that she had left the school building so that the young fillies wouldn't see their hero and idol bawl her eyes out.
So, here he was. Cloud, a fighter of almost immeasurable strength and tenacity being surrounded and embraced by dozens of crying small horses who had heard of his pain and his sadness.
And for a few moments... He was comforted.
Twilight scuffled along, her eyes locked onto the dirt path as she headed to the schoolhouse. She wasn't expecting him to do any less than chew her out. Her mind was completely jumbled, and she ignored the words of the caring ponies she had passed. She deserved to feel like this...she was just so stupid for trying to see Cloud's past without his permission. Biting her lip, she began to approach the schoolhouse.
The door suddenly opened as she was coming up the sidewalk, and the blur of Rainbow Dash sped right by her. Strange...it looked as thought the cyan pegasus had been crying...Twilight shook her head and approached the open doorway. Was Cloud turning his anger onto the fillies? If so...no, there was no way. He couldn't hurt them. The worst he could do was probably say a few nasty things to make them cry-
Twilight's jaw practically slapped the floor. Cloud was kneeling down, a blanket of young fillies around him crying their hearts out, each of them sobbing loudly. Even Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were bawling, gripping Cloud's back as tears were flooding down their cheeks. Something must have gotten to them...but what was it exactly?
"Oh!" Cheerilee exclaimed, wiping her eyes with a tissue, "T-Twilight! What a pleasant surprise!" The purple unicorn noticed Cloud's body stiffen, and Twilight's ears flattened back uncomfortably. She watched the human rise, his hand gripping the blade of his sword as he slowly pulled it from where it had been embedded into the floor. Cloud slipped the massive blade onto the harness on his back and glanced at the doorway where Twilight visibly stiffened.
"Class..." Cloud said softly, "I'll come back another time." The fillies all nodded and sniffled, smiles appearing on their faces. Cloud stepped past them, his eyes locked onto Twilight's.
"Hey..." He started, "We need to talk."
Beneath the twisted, demented tall trees of the Everfree forest was a pained cry. It's groaning and grunting was harsh and coarse, the sound of crunching and scratching keeping even the most dangerous creature away. The monster snarled, the crooked digits forming from its hand grasped around the neck of a timberwolf, the now slain beast that was being dragged through the forest floor.
The creature that had torn the poor thing apart was definitely not a pony, and resembled that of a deformed demon. Its legs were dragging below it, their form littered with odd sharp scales that would jab into the creature painfully. His torso seemed to try to morph into a horrific human form, the scaled body twisting and discoloring the skin that was only visible on the collarbone. It's arms were elongated and clawed, blood dripping down from where it held the timberwolf.
Then creature grunted and snarled, dropping the beast from its hand onto the ground. With a loud cry, and creature gazed into the sun, it's beady black eyes unaffected by the powerful rays. It's head had blue crude horns jotting out in random directions, the skin on its face looking plated and hard. It's teeth were sharp, and the monster howled.
"Mnngh...." The creature cackled, "Mon...Moth....Mother...."
Twilight followed Cloud quite a distance from far behind. Cloud was walking like usual, but she was plodding along behind him. Well, it's not like she didn't have a reason for doing that since she put Cloud through his past again. But she could tell that he wasn't as upset as he had been before.
The purple unicorn had no clue where he was taking her. They had passed the library a few minutes back, and now they were beginning to leave Ponyville. He wasn't heading towards the Everfree Forest...he wasn't going to try to assault her, was he? She shook that thought out of her head. No way. That wasn't like Cloud.
The answer was given to her as they began to climb a particular hill overlooking a wondrous valley. It was the valley where the meteor had come down upon, and where Cloud had first touched down onto the lands of Equestria. The human was standing still on top of the hill, his back to her as he gazed towards the far off mountains.
She stopped a few feet behind him, her ears flat against her head. She wasn't prepared for this...what could Cloud possibly want from her?...
"You know...," Cloud started, snapping Twilight into reality, "The two people you saw...Zack and Aerith. They were...just as important to me as your friends are to you." Twilight said nothing, but she slowly began to come up right next to him.
"It haunts me, sometimes...Keeps me up at night. I could have been there for them when they needed me. I could have fought with them...I could have..." He stopped himself, not wanting to bring up past emotions. Cloud finally glanced over at Twilight.
"Tell me," Cloud whispered, "What would you do if you lost two of your most precious friends?..."
"I..." Twilight choked a little, "I...would be devastated...I..."
"Exactly, " Cloud finished, ripping his eyes away to gaze upon the city of Canterlot in the distance, "That...Whatever happened to me...I don't want any of you to experience that. Not through me, and not through life."
"Cloud..." Twilight sniffled, "I'm...I'm..."
"It's okay." The human said sternly, "You did something that you should never have done. Apologizing now won't make a difference." His voice wasn't cold, but his words didn't make her feel any better. It was like he was trying to find something to say to make things better but to get his point through.
A few moments of silence passed before Twilight remembered the letter. She grabbed it out of her saddlebags with magic, and pressed the paper into his hand. Cloud looked at it curiously before lifting it up to his eyes.
"It's from Celestia..." Twilight whispered, "For your eyes only."
She could tell that Cloud had re-read it several times. His eyes would dart down the paper and shoot back to the top, yet he showed no signs of an emotional reaction. There was no gasp, no tremble, no tightening fist...nothing. If there could be a human statue, it would be Cloud.
Cloud suddenly dropped the paper, and Twilight watched in surprise as it igniting into flames, the ashes licking onto Cloud's black boots. Celestia wanted it completely top secret.
"Twilight..." Cloud gazed up at the wonderful city of Canterlot on the mountainside, "I'm leaving Ponyville."
Author's Note:
Well, that chapter took a while to write and wasn't very satisfactory. But, it's gonna set up something great for the next few chapters!
For you Final Fantasy lovers, I present to you Freelancer's great fic! It's a great mlp FFVII story! He writes a good Zack, and his fic is very interesting and great to read! Support us, the Final Fantasy mlp authors! And maybe you shall recieve an honorary cookie right from me!