The Darkest Storm

by TheReaderAndWriter

Effort

6. Effort.

"Now, Cloudsdale is pretty much visible once you go over the clouds. You just have to scan around for rainbows, they will show you the way. It's often cloudy below Cloudsdale, hence the name. So it's better to go up above the clouds here, since there are less dark thunderclouds. We really hit a lucky streak here," said Windy. She looked around to make sure nobody saw them.

"Understood."

"There is one last thing, Ivanhoe. Since you weren't hit with the spell head on it might not have worked as it should...and clouds are an odd thing. They won't let anypony who hasn't shown trust in them walk on them, spell or not. In other words, if you want to actually walk on them, you need to jump from the balloon onto them. That works best," said Windy worried. Ivanhoe was just as worried as her if not more.

"I'll be alright. Time to see if this is true or not. Good luck down here. Avoid the rain."

"Can do," said Windy. Ivanhoe pulled the string with his mouth and the flames under the balloon intensified. It was slowly taking off. "Good luck."

"I'll be back soon," said Ivanhoe.

***

He got higher and higher up. Actually steering the balloon was difficult but nothing he couldn't handle. Eventually he could see the large castle or Canterlot far away in the horizon. He kept going higher and higher. Second by second the balloon rose towards the dark and blue sky. He couldn't even see anypony down in Ponyville anymore. The winds had never been this terrifying. One strong gust of wind and he could plummet to his very messy death. This was the worst time ever to realize he had a slight fear of heights. Still, he got up without much trouble. At one point he barely avoided touching one of the dark clouds, a few more feet to the left and he would've been fried. Fortunately, the most threatening thing they did to him was almost growling at him, it felt like that anyway when they let out a little bolt of lightning below. Eventually the balloon stopped. He had reached altitude where he couldn't even make out the buildings below. He looked around, it was supposed to be here somewhere. He just needed to find the rainbows... The rainbows that actually didn't exist. There was nothing there. Ivanhoe resisted panicking but he couldn't see it no matter how much he looked. There were only a few dark clouds, a few normal ones that seemed to slowly be eaten up by the dark ones and a really large dark one in the far distance above the rest- above the rest? Ivanhoe leaned out over the edge of the basket, peering at that particular cloud. He thought he saw something on top of it. Structures. That was it. The dark cloud had a fine layer of still white clouds on top. He hurried there. If he waited much longer those white clouds might be eaten up, making walking on top of the cloud utterly impossible.

***

It took almost an entire hour to get there in the painfully slow balloon. Ivanhoe knew he still had time, so he tried to not stress. He slowly lowered the balloon down to the outskirts of the town. It looked so different from Ponyville. Pegasi certainly had a different culture, a very interesting one. Ivanhoe looked at the clouds below him. They were white like snow, fluffy like cotton, solid like either a brick or air, this was the moment he would find out. Ivanhoe looked in his bag: rope, bandage, extra food, water, and of course his little pendant of a souvenir. Ivanhoe pulled it out and put it on. For good luck. Ivanhoe took a deep breath. The only 'comfort' was the fact that it wouldn't be a long drop to his death if the spell wouldn't work. The dark clouds at the bottom would certainly finish him off way before he reached the ground. He took a deep breath again.

"What am I doing here? How the heck did this happen? I could've been home, I could've been eating, I could've met a nice girl. I don't want to be here...I- I don't want to be here," said Ivanhoe, filled with fear. Honestly considering just turning around, giving up. Was it worth dying for? "Possibly dying, just because I heard a voice in my head," said Ivanhoe and looked over the edge, the street below looked so safe, yet so deadly. Ivanhoe let out a sigh. Disappointed in how stupid his whole decision had been. He turned back. Then he took a step forward. Then he turned again and jumped right out of the balloon. "But to save so many? SCREW IT!" he yelled while he was in the air. Then he fell. A shock went through his body as his hooves made firm contact with the clouds below him. He made it. "Alright, 'king', where are your little artifacts?" asked Ivanhoe and started walking along the streets. Where could that artifact be? Probably in some old building, something that had been around long enough, something that held secrets at least as old. He walked away from the balloon, not realizing something truly monstrous was observing him from the shadows.

***

Ivanhoe looked at a clock tower almost every minute, just making sure how much time he had left. Just below an hour. Where could that thing be? He was supposed to know it when he saw it. He went to the Cloudsdale's town hall. It was big, certainly looked old in style if nothing else. He hurried inside it. He pretty much ran into all of the rooms and hallways, trying to find what he was looking for. However, there was something really wrong hanging in he air. Ivanhoe knew something was off, but he was so focused on the task at hand he couldn't focus on anything else. He didn't have much time. Once he gave up in this building he went to the next one, looking at the clock again. Forty minutes. At this pace he could only check out two more buildings.

"Pick up the pace, you idiot!" Ivanhoe said to himself. His eyes focused on the nearby hospital. There he might find it, it looked just as old in style as the town hall. He kept running through it. There was nothing there, except a lot of blood. If he would've just stopped to think he would've realized what it all meant, but time waits for nopony. He couldn't find any 'old' wards. So he turned around. He froze. He was sure he had seen something at that door ahead. It had disappeared just when he gave it a glance. "Wait! You can help me!" said Ivanhoe and ran after the pony. He kept running but he didn't find who he was chasing. He just ended up running out to the center of town again. He was basically between all the important and popular buildings. But he could only thoroughly search one other building. Which one? All of these pretty much looked old. Sure, they were all made of clouds and could very well have been built yesterday. But what other thing could he go on? The only thing not made out of clouds here was the library clock and...and that's when it hit him. If this was in fact all true, then whoever left the notes, maybe the king, knew about all of this, which would make the notes very relevant. And the latest note that hadn't made any sense had clearly said 'Why not visit the local library?' Ivanhoe looked up at the clock, the iron clock. It certainly was the oldest thing there not made from clouds. Ivanhoe might as well take a peek, he rushed into it. He was starting to run out of breath, and time.

***

When he got inside everything there was just clouds, just like everything else. It was a very large and beautiful library. The sun's light lit it all up through the windows. The books were so well kept despite actually being around nothing but moisture. The very lifestyle of pegasi was reflected in how it was built: so open, so free. He walked further into the library, past the large bookshelves. He searched every little room he could. It was all empty, everything was so darn void and quiet. "Where the heck is it!?" yelled Ivanhoe, it echoed back to him. He probably only had fifteen minutes left. He was not going to give up now though. He kept going deeper into the library, he wasn't even sure he would make it back to the balloon from here on out. He suddenly got out into a very, very large room. The walls themselves were bookcases and the ceiling was a gigantic map of the starry sky. Suddenly something drew his eyes towards it. At the very end of the large room there was a gigantic book, larger than he was. The title written upon this book? 'The Artifact'. "Oh, you have got to be kidding!" said Ivanhoe. Still, it was eye catching. It had to be it. He rushed towards it. He pulled it carefully from its pedestal, but it was too heavy for him. To his shock he dropped the book on the floor. It shattered into pieces. "No!" yelled Ivanhoe. He tried to fix it, he tried to collect the thousands of large old pages, but there was no time. "I, I failed," said Ivanhoe. He looked down at the book, he tried not to cry, it was basically all he did. He had never been that disappointed in himself in his entire life. He slowly realized he was still under a ticking clock, so he slowly got up and was about to leave. Now, describing the large book as 'eye catching' certainly felt appropriate when he first saw it, it was freaking huge! But that description was not even close to the almost physical way his eyes were drawn to that one little thing stuck between the pages, like they were being pulled. The object had a tremendous effect on his very being. Deeply inside himself, something awoke. He didn't only think this thing was what he was looking for. He knew it. He pulled it out from between the pages. As he stared at the object, its very edge seemed to glow in a simply otherworldly way. He could swear he heard something mysterious inside himself. A little child laughing and yelling out to his best friend. It wasn't a quill, it was just a feather, used as a bookmark. "I GOT IT!" screamed Ivanhoe from the top of his lungs and then put it in the bag. He had done it.

"Very good work. You were chosen with care. There are two more to go. Good luck. And here is a useful hint: if you can't fly down, just fall instead," said a voice inside his head, the king. Ivanhoe didn't answer. He simply knew it was already gone. Now to hurry back. It was all true. He was going to save the world, and he felt great. He looked at the large mess he had made.

"I hope nopony will mind that I- wait," said Ivanhoe. That is what had been so wrong. There was nopony there. He had been there for an hour in one of the biggest pegasus cities in Equestria, and yet not really seen a single soul. It was all empty. It suddenly started to rain on the outside of the windows. It wasn't just any type of rain, it was black, purple and red in its hue. The corrupted rain was here. He feared what had happened to the pegasi, but that didn't matter right now. He simply needed to get off the cloud before he was electrocuted. He turned around, and at that moment he had never been so scared in his life, not even when the princesses had tried to kill him."No," whispered Ivanhoe, it was the only thing he could manage to say. What had happened to the population wasn't a mystery anymore. In front of him, dozens upon dozens of the Cloudsdale populace were standing, still as can be, without a single sound. Ivanhoe couldn't even hear them breathing.

"That, would be ours," said a really large one in the front of the pack. It wasn't a pegasus though, not anymore. Hooves had been switched out for claws, mouths turned into predatory maws, filled with large teeth, blood was less red than those teeth. The coat and mane had turned black, their bodies slightly longer, their eyes black as night. Their cutie marks gone, as well as their identity. The voices though, the voices were so much worse. Twisted, echoing, and enjoying the change into monsters. The by far worst thing however, was the fact that some of those monsters were smaller, fillies and colts turned to monsters to enjoy the hunt with the rest of their families.

"How?"

"The rain tastes excellent," said the large beast and took a single step forward. Ivanhoe grabbed the heavy loose cover of the book. Holding it as a shield. The monsters started to tear the clouds beneath them. They pulled away what turned out to be a very thin cover of clean clouds. Ivanhoe had been only inches away from death his entire time there. "You'll taste it too, or die," said the monster. They walked over the dark clouds themselves, unharmed. Ivanhoe strongly doubted he could do that, he would need to be turned first. That was the last thing he would do. Suddenly there was a cracking sound. The star map above him was being punched in from the outside. Rain started pouring through. He stepped back, making sure his mouth was closed.

"I'll never allow this!" said Ivanhoe to them.

"Not now, but soon you will," said the monster. Suddenly something pounced him from behind. He was forced down on the ground, still holding the cover. The rain started pouring down through the roof, making a puddle below, right in front of him. Then they started dragging him towards it. One of his captors had taken the feather from him.

"Stop it! I know you're in there! Stop this now!" yelled Ivanhoe desperately while struggling for everything he was worth.

"We don't kill, we change," said that monster, breathing heavily in excitement. Ivanhoe struggled, but he couldn't stop it. They were so many of them. All around him. The young ones were the most happy. Then they made him touch the puddle. A few seconds, how long before he lost his mind and started to drink? One second, two seconds, three, four, five...six...seven? Eight!?

"It's not working!"

"Drink!" yelled the monster to Ivanhoe. He basically forced it down into his mouth. He couldn't help it. He expected pain, drowsiness, losing his mind in general...yet nothing.

"It doesn't change him, why?!" yelled the monsters around him.

"This pendant, is this your pendant?!" asked the monster and held Ivanhoe's pendant in front of him. Maybe whoever made the notes made sure he would get that thing too somehow, or maybe it was the cloak. Either way, the corrupted water didn't work on him. They were, however, very surprised.

"I'll tell you the secret, come closer," whispered Ivanhoe. The monster wasn't smart. He leaned over, then Ivanhoe knocked him right in his ugly head. His own head hurt, but who cared? It was such a surprise he managed to get out of their grasp and steal back the feather. He ran towards the hallway beyond the black cloud floor. Sure, water didn't do anything, but a deadly shock was another story. He hit another monster with the book cover as he ran - very awkwardly but surprisingly well - on his hind legs. He tossed the cover on the black cloud and jumped. He was used to taking risks right now. The cover landed on the black cloud, and Ivanhoe hit it and jumped again to the white clouds on the other side. He just made it over.

"OUR FIRST KILL WILL BE HIM!" screamed the monster with a horrible screech. Ivanhoe ran much faster with all of his four hooves on the floor. He didn't look back, he knew every single one of those things were after him. If he stopped he was doomed. He got out of the building and quickly turned in the direction the balloon.

***

It felt like it took such a long time, yet he managed to get there quickly. He could hear the clock tower in the distance. The first ring: he kept going. The second ring: he saw the balloon! The third ring: he started to lose his footing a bit. The fourth ring: it was like walking on dough rather than solid ground. The fifth ring: the balloon, it was destroyed! The sixth ring: he didn't stop. The seventh ring: the roars of hundreds of monsters behind him filled his ears when the rings didn't silence them. The eight ring: he saw the edge, he was close. The ninth ring: what other choice did he have? The tenth ring: the spell was almost over, like running on foam that couldn't quite hold his weight. The tenth ring: he was used to taking dangerous leaps today. The eleventh ring: he jumped. The twelfth ring: darn, this was dramatic. The thirteenth ring: wow, somepony needed to fix that clock.

***

So he fell. The many clouds below him were mostly dark, but there were a few openings. He tried to aim for it, it was difficult though, very much so.

"Please be there, please be there, please be there!" said Ivanhoe like a mantra to just keep himself from crying. He fell down, in between the last clouds. There was nothing beneath him but the hard ground. "WINDY!"

"IVANHOE!" yelled her wonderful voice. Ivanhoe saw her coming in from the side. She grabbed him and tried her best to slow down."ARE YOU CRAZY?!" she yelled so he could hear her through the wind.

"YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW CRAZY IT WOULD'VE BEEN TO STAY UP THERE!" yelled Ivanhoe right back. Something was wrong. She wasn't slowing down quickly enough. "COME ON!"

"I can't!" she yelled. It was easier to hear as he started to filter out the wind.

"You can do it!"

"I can't! I'm not a good flier!"

"No, I'm a bad flier! You're a good one! Do it!"

"You're not listening to me! I can't do it! I mean it! Nopony but the best could!" yelled Windy, but despite that fact, despite the desperation in her voice, she didn't stop trying. Ivanhoe looked down. They were still falling very quickly, too quickly.

"Windy!"

"What is it?!"

"Let me go!" yelled Ivanhoe.

"WHAT?!"

"We can't both make it out of this alive. My cloak, or my pendant, protects me from the rain. There is a feather inside my bag. That feather is one of the artifacts. The third one is 'beyond'!"

"You can just shut up! I'm not leaving you to do your treasure-hunt for you!" yelled Windy.

"Do as I say!"

"Shut up! I'm going to do this anyway!"

"You said you can't!"

"But I will try!" yelled Windy with determination.

"Why?!"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE MY FRIEND!" Ivanhoe looked into her eyes, then downwards towards the ever approaching ground. It was close. She was ready for this. Ivanhoe embraced her, making sure she was above, so that maybe her chances would increase at the sudden stop. This was it.

***

Suddenly, an explosion in the distance. Something came by so quickly through the gigantic prism. Healed, ready and twenty percent cooler than any other. It was Rainbow Dash and she was carrying them.

"Did you miss me, Windy?"

"RAINBOW DASH!" they both yelled. Incredible, Ivanhoe had heard about how most pegasi almost seemed to control the power of momentum to varying degrees, but to direct two bodies from a 6800 feet fall into completely horizontal travel so quickly without hurting them, without even breaking one of their bones. That took a whole other level of awesome. Ivanhoe felt the wind passing by his mane as they flew. This was the closest he would ever be able to fly, and it was awesome.

"WE DID IT!" yelled Ivanhoe in triumph.

"Two to go!" shouted Windy.