DATE: March 7th
LOCATION: Cloudsdale
[Perspective: Arrell]
I sighed. It worked.
The pony with the hoodie didn’t look too pleased. He turned to me with a growl, glaring about as well as he could without having eyelids to lower. I cringed a bit when I realized that this guy went the whole three miles with becoming a pony ripoff of Jeff himself.
However, I didn’t have time to think about that. It was showtime.
I grinned.
“Bring it on, pal. Throw it all at me.”
Apparently taking me literally, he chucked his knife. In a near-perfect repeat of the day before, I caught it with my hoof by pure instinct.
“That’s not going to cut it.”
I threw the knife over my shoulder and into my saddlebags, where he wouldn’t be able to retrieve it. I then turned to face him and saw him charging at me at top speed.
...oh.
He slammed into me, sending us both flying across the Cloudiseum. He recovered quickly, pulling a hoof back and slamming it into my face so hard I felt teeth crack.
If I ever meet Colgate, she’ll probably faint when I open my mouth.
He repeated this action a few times before I decided enough was enough, and grabbed his hoof. With a sharp twist, I got him to let out a scream of pain before I shoved him off of myself and stood up.
“You gotta do better than that!” I taunted.
He pulled a machete out of his hoodie pocket.
“...how did you even fit that in there?”
He didn’t answer - not like I expected him to. Instead, he ran at me again, ready to swing. I tried to back up, only to be reminded that I was right up against the cloud wall. With a startled yelp, I jumped to the side instead, barely avoiding getting some sharp metal stuck in my skin.
He didn’t relent. As soon as he regained his balance - which took all of one-tenth of a second - he turned and swung again. This time, I couldn’t dodge in time, and he left a mean slash across my cheek. The only reason he didn’t take my head off completely was because he didn’t think to move closer to me before attacking.
...ow. Well, at least now I’ll get to see if Windigoes can get scars.
I jumped back as he tried to swing again, avoiding any similar cuts. Then, switching things up, I jumped forward and grabbed him in a headlock.
Falling prey to the natural instinct of anyone to have their head trapped, he dropped the machete and tried using his hooves to pull himself free. I just let go and shoved him down, diving for the weapon and throwing it into my saddlebags just like his earlier knife.
“Come on, man! You gotta do better than that!” I chided as he stood back up. He growled and spread his wings, taking off into the air.
I frowned at seeing him do what I couldn’t, but I knew he’d have to come down soon. I sat and waited, keeping my eye on him.
He flew in circles for a while, then turned and tried to dive bomb me. With a smirk, I rolled to the left, and he slammed face-first into the ground where I just was. Growling, he hefted himself up and lunged at me, taking me by surprise with how fast he stood up.
Once again, he had me underneath him, and looked ready to punch me in the jaw once more. But instead, he grinned maniacally, and brought both hooves up as he leaned back, looking like he was trying to get onto his hind legs.
What is he - oh no…
Before I could react, he brought his entire body weight down on my stomach. I gasped, feeling the breath get knocked out of me and being especially glad I hadn’t eaten that day. He reared back to do it again, and even though I saw it coming, I couldn’t avoid it. I was too busy trying to breathe again.
He slammed onto me again. I would have gasped, but I didn’t have the energy. I couldn’t breathe at all. He reared back and did it a third time, and I saw black appear around the edges of my vision.
Then, he finally made a mistake. Rather than continuing his assault, he reached into his hoodie and pulled out what must have been his last weapon; a meat cleaver. A tiny part of my brain questioned why meat cleavers existed in Equestria.
In the time that it took him to pull the weapon out, I had managed to - finally - suck in a small amount of air. It was all I needed to buck him off and begin the slow, torturous process of standing back up.
“You...gotta...do better...than that!” I panted, even as I struggled to stay on my hooves.
He growled and threw the cleaver at me. Rather than trying to be all showy with catching it, I just ducked, letting it sail harmlessly over my head. He’s getting angrier...losing the tiny bit of mind he has left…
As quickly as I could while still getting air back, I turned and plucked the cleaver from the wall it had gotten stuck in, tossing it into my saddlebags. Now, he was completely disarmed.
Except for his hooves. And my apparent fondness for taking my eyes off of him.
He tackled me, beginning to slam my head against the cloud wall. I know that doesn’t sound painful, but these clouds were as solid as stone. It was like a brick wall to me. I felt something wet starting to leak from my forehead, and I could’ve sworn I briefly forgot my name.
He let up, and I fell down. My vision was swimming, and the blackness in my sights was closing in. The pony with the hoodie stared down at me, giggling madly.
“Go to sleep…”
Sleep...sleep sounds good…
“Go...to sleeeeeep…”
Sleeeeep…
“GET AWAY FROM HIM, YOU SON OF A CHANGELING!”
In what little vision I had left, I saw the pony with the hoodie turn his head, then get knocked away by something. I blinked, confused.
I struggled to sit up, my vision very slowly returning as I fought away the urge to actually pass out. Up against the wall was Asylum, holding the pony with the hoodie in a chokehold with strength I wouldn’t have expected from her.
Finally, my brain got back to full capacity, and I blinked. Standing up, I stumbled over to where they were. I didn’t question what the mare was doing here; whatever the reason, she saved my life, and now she was giving me the opening I needed.
As she held him down, I grabbed the hoodie and began to pull it up, trying to get it off. Just like with the headband, electricity began jumping off of it, but in much smaller amounts. I would later discover that the reason for this was because the clouds beneath us were absorbing most of the static charges (and creating quite a few storm clouds that I would later avoid any blame for the creation of).
Slowly but surely, I edged the hoodie up and over his head, finally pulling it off of his form completely. Breathing heavily, I looked down at the article of clothing I now held, unable to fully believe that it was all over.
Because it wasn’t.
Asylum released the pony from her grip...and he started to scream. He grabbed at his face, feeling his eyes and the cut he had made for his fake mouth, screaming all the while as he felt all the pain he had inflicted upon himself.
Guards began trickling in, coming to check on myself and Asylum. All of them were carrying swords or knives, just in case. One of them ran up to the pony.
“Sir, please, calm down-”
“MAKE IT STOP!” he screamed pleadingly. “DEAR CELESTIA JUST MAKE IT STOP!”
“Sir, please-”
The pony took his hooves away from his eyes and saw the knife the guard had attached to his armor. With a final scream, he grabbed the weapon, turned the blade towards himself, and sunk it into his chest.
“Make...it...stop...”
We all stared in silence as his breathing slowed. He collapsed to the ground, lifeless eyes staring upward and permanently open. Blood trickled from his self-inflicted stab wound onto the clouds beneath us.
I continued to breathe heavily as I watched this all unfold. I turned to Asylum, who had made her way over to me. She had been watching the scene as well, but when I turned to her, she looked back.
“...I tried not to kill him,” I whimpered. “I tried...”
She moved closer to me. I think she hugged me. I’m not really sure. I blacked out at that point.
The pony who found the hoodie had actually been a teenager; maybe a year or two younger than Asylum. He had a habit of going around with his friends and making fun of, if not outright beating up, younger kids.
Drizzle had been the witness to several of these, and had told his parents about it. They told Aerial Patrol, and in the end, all of the ponies who took part in this were either given jail time or left to the punishment of their parents. The pony who found the hoodie got away with just the latter, but he wasn't happy about it. So once he had the hoodie and it took over his mind, his first instinct was to go after the colt who got him in trouble.
His parents were found dead the same day the hoodie was removed. The only other member of their family was an older sister, who wasn't even in the city at the time. Apparently she was in Manehatten. I left the job of explaining what happened to her to the Aerial Patrol.
The clouds around the Cloudiseum were eventually removed, bringing it back to its original state. Soon, the entire city was back to normal.
Me? I missed all of that, because I was unconscious. Asylum had to tell me about it all later on.
"Arrell?"
Speaking of whom...
I turned away from the window to the yellow mare, shaken out of my thought process. "Yeah?"
"It's a little late...shouldn't you be sleeping?"
I chuckled. "I slept all day. Unwillingly, in fact."
She smiled a bit as she stepped closer to me. "How are you feeling?"
I knew what she was referring to. I touched my bandaged cheek and winced. "Feels normal as long as I don't touch it...kind of surprised they didn't have more ice anywhere in the city."
"Well, they use what they need to make the snowflakes." She sighed. "Anything else that hurts?"
"My stomach still aches, but not too bad. It'll be gone by morning." I looked to her. "Thanks again...for getting involved...even though I told the guards to keep you out."
She smirked. "You did, and they tried."
"...what happened, exactly?"
"Oh, nothing much...I could hear pretty much everything, even if it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. You started sounding more and more in pain, and then he said 'go to sleep'...I kind of freaked out..." She looked down. "The guards tried to hold me back, but I just shoved them off of me and ran for the door."
I blinked. "...I told them to lock the door. And barricade it."
"They did."
I blinked again. "...oh."
She giggled. "See? You're not the only one who gets adrenaline rushes."
I smirked. "Yeah, guess not..." Anything else I had wanted to say was interrupted by an unwilling yawn. "...you know, I think I'll take up that offer of sleeping now."
She smiled and walked back to the bed, climbing in and underneath the covers. I followed, though stayed on top of the covers for obvious reasons. She wrapped her forelegs around me, and I did the same. It wasn't for comfort or warmth or anything; it just felt nice.
Just like the night before, she pecked me on the nose. "Good night, Arrell..."
I smiled, nuzzling into her as I closed my eyes. "Night, Asylum..."