Twilight woke up and unfortunately found that it was still night. She sighed and sat up, noticing Dash was doing the same.
“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked. Twilight shook her head. “Yeah, me neither. It’s really hard to do that thing hanging out under us,” Dash gestured down to the beast below them.
“I know,” Twilight said and looked down, “and if it keeps doing this every night, we could lose a lot of sleep.” Dash nodded in agreement and looked at Twilight.
“Are you feeling alright?” Dash asked and Twilight gave her a weird look. “I mean it might just be me, but we are taking this whole ‘being chased’ thing way too casually.”
Twilight rubbed the back of her head. “I guess so,” Twilight started, “I’m just not sure what to make of the past week or so.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Just let it all out, that’s what I usually do when I’m stressed. It’s just me and him here anyway, and I’m sure he doesn’t care what you have to say.” Twilight looked down at the creature and took a deep breath.
“Ok.”
“Uh oh,” Cheshire Twilight said as she noticed Twilight’s mental activity going up. “This isn’t going to be pretty,” she said and braced her hooves for what could come next.
“I mean, where do I even start?” Twilight said twirling a hoof in the air. “Where do we even begin with the *yay* we’ve been through?”
“What?” Dash asked, caught off guard by that last sentence.
“Oh no, no I know how to describe it. This is bucked up! That’s what it is, bucked up.” Rainbow took a step back as Twilight continued.
“It’s only now that I realize how much I took my old life for granted before all this. Wake up, read some books, hang out with you and the others, and maybe send a letter to the princess if we learned something that day. Oh how I wish we could go back in time so I can just ignore that stupid magic wave, but I didn’t and now we’ve found ourselves running for our lives from that thing down there,” Twilight gestured down and Rainbow found that the creature was listening intently to Twilight.
“Even worse, in retrospect you didn’t even need to get involved in this at all. The only reason you are involved is because I asked you to come along. When you get down to it, this whole thing is my fault and that’s not even the worst part about this, and do you know what that is Dash?” A bit of Twilight’s mane popped out of place, which instantly put Rainbow on edge.
“I’m seriously afraid to ask,” Dash said.
“NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE!” Twilight yelled, causing Rainbow to fall of the cloud and start hovering next to it. Even the creature below flinched a little. “Out of all the possible things it could be sealed in, why a painting? Why not something more comfortable like a lamp or a vase or something? Why is it made of shadows? Why does the sun hurt it? Why would it waste the time hanging over me menacingly while I sleep instead of just killing me? Why did that painting give off that magical wave in the first place?” More of Twilight’s mane sprung up.
“What the *yay* is the quickening? How can Pinkie do the stuff she can do? How did Fluttershy save herself from falling to her death as a foal by landing in a swarm of butterflies and why is that never brought up again?! Why does this whole thing make less sense than Discord summoning a glass of chocolate milk, drinking the glass, and then having the milk blow up?! And why does that thing’s breath smell so horrible?!”
Twilight grabbed Rainbow by the cloak. “Is this even real? What if this is all just some sick dream made up by some being with nothing better to do than think up ways to torture innocent ponies like us? How long have we been doing this anyway?” Rainbow thought hard about her answer.
“A week I think,” she said.
“A week?!” Twilight said and let Rainbow go, “How did my life go completely insane in a week?” Twilight then started to calm down.
“Are you feeling better?” Rainbow asked, which Twilight replied to by taking a deep breath.
“*yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay*” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs, causing both Dash and the creature below to flinch back a little. When she stopped for air, her mane started to settle back down.
“Ok, now do you feel better?” Rainbow asked. Twilight took another deep breath and her mane settled completely.
“Yes I feel much better,” Twilight said and then fell over on the cloud, asleep before she hit it. Rainbow stared at Twilight for a minute and then looked down.
“It’s nice to get this kind of thing out of your system, huh?” she asked the creature who gave her a strange look. “Why am I telling you this, you don’t care.”
Dash curled up on the cloud and went to sleep. After she was sound asleep, the creature breathed into a hoof and smelled it.
Morning soon came and, after checking for you-know-who, Twilight and Rainbow left the cloud and went into town. They soon found a small café and ordered breakfast, an omelet for Rainbow and pancakes for Twilight. While Rainbow dug into her omelet, Twilight hardly touched her meal.
“Hey, Rainbow,” Twilight started. Rainbow looked up with a bit of cheese hanging from her mouth. “I’m sorry about last night.”
Rainbow swallowed the food and waved a hoof. “It’s no problem, you were just releasing stress. I should know I do it all the time.” Rainbow flashed a smile at Twilight, who couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, I guess. I’m just not sure how to take all this.” Twilight levitated the fork and knife to cut into her pancakes and took a bite. Rainbow followed and thought about what to say next over the next bite.
“You know, now that I think about it that was probably a good thing.” Dash said. Twilight looked at Dash curiously. “Well, anything that relieves stress that doesn’t involve breaking down at the worst possible moment has to be good, right?” Twilight absorbed that for a moment before answering.
“That’s… a really good point Dash.” The part about breaking down at a bad moment sent a chill down Twilight’s spine. “Let’s just hope nothing as big as last night happens again.”
Twilight and Rainbow resumed eating their breakfast. Rainbow finished her omelet first and thought something over while Twilight finished.
“So, while we’re talking about anything else you want to get off your chest?” Rainbow asked. Twilight chewed on her pancake for a moment before swallowing.
“How do seaponies breathe underwater? I didn’t see any gills on her.” Rainbow gave Twilight a weird look.
“Maybe they don’t need them,” Rainbow said. Twilight put a hoof to her chin.
“Interesting, I’ll have to look into that later. For now, let’s get ready to leave.” They paid for their breakfast and left to prepare for the trip out.
We left Fillydelphia at around noon and we’ve been moving for the past few days. We should be in the next town soon; Manehattan or Hoofington or something. I’ll write more when we get there.
Twilight double checked what she wrote, an act she’s been getting used to, and looked at Rainbow.
“Is he still down there?” she asked. Rainbow looked down off the cloud they were on.
“Yep, still doing his twirly thing,” Dash said, twirling a hoof in the air. Twilight sighed and put her journal away.
“So, are you tired at all?” Twilight asked.
“Nope,” Dash replied. “We should probably come up with something to do during times like this.” Twilight nodded in agreement. They were quiet for a while until they noticed a pegasus flying around and looking for something.
“What’s he doing?” Twilight asked. They watched him fly around, poke a couple of clouds and ruffle his mane in frustration.
“I have no idea,” Dash said. After a moment of frustrated poking at clouds, he seemed to finally figure out what he wanted to do and started shaping them. They watched him do this for a few minutes before Rainbow stood up. “I’m going to see what he’s doing. Are you going to be fine?”
“Of course I’ll be fine, I’ll just write some things down,” Twilight said and pulled out her journal. Rainbow nodded and took off toward the other pegasus. Twilight opened the journal to an empty page. After a moment of thinking, Twilight started drawing a rough sketch of the seapony as well as what she knew about it. While she was doing this she glanced at her previous journal entry and cringed a little.
‘Note to self, no journal entries while riding the adrenalin from near death.’ Twilight thought to herself and made a note in the book saying such. Twilight looked off the cloud to see what Mr. Beasty was doing and found it to be staring over at Rainbow Dash, who at this point had finished talking with the pegasus and started helping him shape clouds. Twilight scooted the book closer to her and she started sketching what she could of it. She had gotten the basic shape of it down when a thought hit her.
‘It needs a name,’ she thought. It stared up at her and silently chuckled, its wide grin shining in the dark. The grin brought Twilight back to the night she first saw it and, with that night in mind, she continued writing.
“Are you sure this will work?” the pegasus asked Rainbow as she was placing the last cloud.
“It should,” she answered, “just remember to kick the outer edge of the cloud ok?” He nodded.
“Thanks,” he said. Rainbow waved a hoof and turned away from him.
“It’s no problem,” Rainbow said and flew away from the pegasus, who had in turn started to fly away as well. Rainbow glided smoothly toward the cloud and landed next to Twilight, who was still focused on her journal. “So you have any trouble?” Rainbow asked as she landed on the cloud.
“No, Carver’s being quiet right now,” Twilight said and closed the journal.
“Who?” Twilight pointed down at the creature, which had started jumping up at them again. “You named that thing? Why would you do that?”
“I remember reading once that when faced with an unknown fear, one of the first steps to getting over it is being able to identify it with something like a name. At least I think I read that somewhere.”
“Alright, but where did you come up with ‘Carver’ of all things? That’s so random.”
“It said it way back when we first saw it remember? You know um, ‘this is what is heard when Carver’s bones are disturbed,’ I think it went. It’s as good a name as any right?” Rainbow stared at Twilight for a moment.
“You’re not going to put a collar on it, are you?” Rainbow asked.
“I’m not stupid Rainbow. So what did that pegasus need?” Rainbow settled into the cloud and smiled a little.
“If it works right, you’ll see,” she said and laughed a little. Twilight looked at her curiously but didn’t say anything and waited to see what she was talking about. They decided to spend the time with a sight game.
“So is it white?” Twilight asked.
“Yes,” Rainbow answered.
“It’s the cloud.”
“Dangit, how did you know?”
“It’s the only white thing over there.” Twilight looked around for something saw two ponies walking through the field below. “Who are they?” Twilight asked pointing at them.
“Oh, is he doing the thing already?” Rainbow asked, “Well, let’s sit back and see how it goes.”
“It’s a nice night, isn’t it?” the colt asked looking up at the night sky.
“Yeah it is, a perfect night for a stroll,” the earth pony mare next to him said. The colt looked over at her, happy at how lucky he was at being able to have her for a fillyfriend, and hoped again that this would go smoothly.
“Hey, do you know how long we’ve been together?” he asked. The mare stopped and put a hoof to her chin.
“Oh gosh, it’s been three or four years by now. Why do you ask?”
“I was just wondering.” The mare gave him a curious look.
“Are you planning something?” she asked.
“Oh uh, not really,” he answered and looked up at the sky. “Where did that cloud come from?” The mare looked over at where the colt was looking, which turned out to be a large mass of clouds almost blocking out the moon.
“That’s been there for a while. Why would the weather team leave such a huge cloud there?”
“I don’t know, do you want me to do something about it?” he asked.
“Will you? Thanks.” The colt smiled and flew up at the cloud. He let his nervousness out now that his fillyfriend couldn’t see him.
‘Well, moment of truth,’ he thought and flew up to the cloud and gave it a kick. Much like what that mare earlier had said, the outline cloud had disintegrated leaving only the unattached clouds. He checked the clouds and thankfully found the message to be intact. He looked down at the mare and found she was quite surprised by the message. He flew back down to her and started to dig through one of his saddlebags. The mare finally managed to regain her voice.
“W-what is-?” she tried to get out but felt the words die in her throat when she saw the colt holding out a bracelet toward her, the jewel embedded in it the shape of his cutie mark. She was at a total loss of words as she looked back at the message in the clouds.
Will you marry me?
She looked back at him, who was nervously waiting for an answer. He got it when she threw herself on him and kissed him hard.
“Yes,” she said and repeated that one word in between several kisses. After one last kiss, she looked back at the bracelet and slipped it onto her front left hoof and, after seeing how it looked on her, went right back to kissing her new fiancé.
“Huh, I didn’t think it would work. No offense to the guy but it seemed way too cheesy to work,” Rainbow said as she watched the scene underneath her. “What do you think Twilight?” she asked and turned to her friend to find she was looking down. “Hey!” Twilight jumped a little and turned to Rainbow.
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell me you missed all that?” Twilight shook her head.
“No I saw it, I was just curious about something.” Twilight looked back down and Rainbow got what she was saying.
“Oh really, and what does it have to say about that?” she asked.
“It’s gone.” That statement had Rainbow looking over the side in a flash.
“What when? What happened?” she asked looking around the ground.
“Well, around the time that the mare accepted that proposal, I looked down to see what it was doing. I saw it make a face like this,” Twilight stuck her tongue out and made a face of disgust, “and then it just kind of walked away.” Rainbow stared at Twilight, taking in this information, before rubbing her mane in exasperation.
“What why?! A kick to the face does nothing, but an accepted proposal causes it to walk away? What is that thing?!”
“I don’t know Rainbow, I need to think about it. Come on, let’s try and get some sleep.”
All in all, I’m glad I saw what happened last night. I only hope that our own situation can end just as happily.
The next day back in Ponyville, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy were gathered at Sugarcube Corner. The letter that Rarity received from Twilight lay in the middle of the table.
“I’m starting to get a little worried girls,” Rarity said and patted the letter. “It’s been almost two weeks and we haven’t heard a thing from Twilight or Rainbow Dash.”
“Ah still don’t understand why the two of them would leave in such a hurry,” Applejack said, “Especially with what happened to Pinkie.”
“I’m glad that she’s feeling better,” Fluttershy quietly added, “but why did they leave?”
“She said that Princess Celestia wanted her to get some plants, but when I went to ask Spike about it he didn’t say anything. He even refused my request to send the princess a letter about it.” Applejack lifted her hat up a little and scratched her head.
“Really? That’s awfully out there fer Spike. Ya think he’s hiding something?” Rarity nodded.
“I’m not sure what, but there’s something else going on. If it was just plant collecting, they should have been done and back by now between Rainbow’s speed and Twilight’s expertise.”
“Who’s hiding what now?” a new voice asked. The three friends turned to find Pinkie walking down the stairs, her usual cheery demeanor dark and deflated like her coat and mane.
“Pinkie, are you feeling alright to be walking around?” Rarity asked walking over to Pinkie.
“I’m feeling much better. So who’s hiding something?” Applejack and Fluttershy joined Rarity.
“It’s probably nothing Sugarcube. We were just talking about Twilight and Rainbow.”
“What about them?” Pinkie asked, her ears perking up a little.
“Well um, they left a while ago and haven’t come back yet,” Fluttershy said. Pinkie sulked a little more at that, which caused Fluttershy to scramble for something to say. “Oh but I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”
“When did they leave?”
“A couple weeks ago, the day after your… ‘incident’,” Rarity answered. Pinkie thought that over for a few seconds.
“And you haven’t heard from them since?” Rarity shook her head.
“No, that’s why we’re worried.”
“They’re not coming back.” The three flinched a little and Pinkie looked at the floor, “After what I did to them, I don’t blame them for leaving.” Pinkie started sniffling and tears formed in her eyes, “I just wished they stayed long enough so I could say I’m sorry.”
“Now Pinkie, ya didn’t do anything wrong. Ah’m sure this is all a big misunderstanding,” Applejack said and placed a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder hoping to calm her down. The tears were falling freely from her eyes.
“I know I did something horrible to them, I just can’t remember what it was. All I can remember is the forest, then nothing, then the basement and that…thing.” Pinkie wiped away some tears, turned from her friends, and started walking back to the stairs. She caught a glimpse of some fresh cupcakes and felt more tears form. “I used to love cupcakes. Now…I don’t want to see another one as long as I live.” She turned away from the treats and walked up the stairs. The trio of ponies looked at each other.
“Ah think we should leave this to pasture for now girls, Pinkie needs our help right now,” Applejack said and Rarity and Fluttershy nodded. The three then followed Pinkie up the stairs.
I'm so sorry about how late this is. I was honestly stuck on how to do this, then the romance ponies came into play. Let's hope the next one doesn't take as long.