But like all things in life, this freedom and joy were fleeting.
Suddenly I found myself in a raging storm cloud I’d somehow missed. It was full of winds that angrily fought back to push me down to the ground below. I struggled to flap my wings to try and break past it, but its violent and angry roars petrified me with fear. At that moment I became a shark that stopped swimming, doomed to die. It immediately took advantage of my moment of weakness and stripped me of all control.
The wind gripped me and yanked me away from the friendly breeze below before throwing me around like an angry toddler throwing a toy. My stomach churned as my head became disoriented. I no longer knew up from down, left from right. All the world was a blur as its cold rains pelted me like bullets; soaking my coat in their icy waters. I tried to scream to do anything, but I was helpless on my own. My wings didn't budge and my magic didn’t help. I was at the mercy of this enraged force of nature.
For several long minutes I was tossed and beaten senseless by the storm's wrath. Until only one emotion was left. Hated. Raw, unfiltered hatred for the storm. Not because of its viciousness but because as I’d finally realized what freedom really was, and this storm caged me. I wanted to break free but I didn't know how, I didn't even know which way was up or down. So what chance did I stand? Tears finally began to build up in the edges of my vision as I came to realize I’d never be free. I’d die sooner than be free from this storm's grip.
I felt like a caged bird. Destined to never free its wings. Doomed to forever live trapped. I wanted to look for a door on this cage but there was none that I could find. Only thick iron bars. As lifeless and cold as I felt. I wanted to bash my body to try and break free of this confinement, but my body would break far sooner than the bars. I wasn't even given the mercy of seeing beyond my cage and the open air outside. Just a sea of darkness in all directions.
The cag swiftly drove me mad. I already wanted to pluck each and every feather off from my wings. I just wanted to rip off my wings all together. I wanted to bash my skull into the bars till I forget what freedom tastes like. Then I wouldn't be tormented with the hell of knowing what freedom was like but not having it. At least on Earth I couldn't ever know the freedom of the air, only wish for it. But here and now, I knew it was achievable and so close, but I’d never be strong enough to reach it.
I must have screamed, for what felt like hours but was only a few minutes, only to be drowned out by the howling winds and rain. Though as my voice finally gave out in its futile screaming match against the wind, my heart stopped racing. Seemingly as my body gave out on me, so did my mind. Then as if sensing my defeat the storm simmered a bit, not enough for me to break free but enough to where I didn't feel sick. Not that it mattered, I didn't care I knew I was this thing’s prisoner. It's plaything. So I resigned myself to my fate. That was until finally it gave me one mercy… The mercy of death.
My body was suddenly flung, harder and faster than anything before, towards the ground below. My ears rang from the rapidly changing altitude and my head still spun from my spin cycle as my wings remained tucked in and useless.
My body whizzed through the cloud layer as I approached ever quicker to the ground level below. I felt more like a brick than a pegasus at that moment. Heavy, motionless, incapable of action, doomed to the fate of the forces acting upon me. With that feeling came a sense of embarrassment and shame,
Worse yet out of the corner of my eye I could start to make out the ground below. The spot I was rapidly approaching was Ponyvill, namely the God forsaken hospital and its dead tree. In a way, it was at least an amusing way to go out I guess. Crash landing and dying in the same place I crash landed in and started this new bizarre life.
As my body hit ground however, I was not greeted with a hard bone snapping thud. But rather a soft cloud based mattress. My body jolted up in a cold sweat as I hugged myself in my dorm bed. My body gasping as I recovered from that nightmare. I could feel hot salty tears start to flood down my now heated cheeks as I processed what had happened. Though I didn’t cry because I had died in a dream, that would have been childish. Rather I cried because I had realized something. I’d never be strong enough to be free of the cage.