Thunderclouds

by Alaborn

Chapter 7

Thunderclouds

By Alaborn

Standard disclaimer: This is a not for profit fan work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyright Hasbro, Inc. I make no claim to any copyrighted material mentioned herein.

Chapter 7

---

“I’m sorry, Thundercloud, but I think we should see other ponies.”

Those words kept echoing in eighteen-year-old Thundercloud’s mind. They ended the six months he shared with Misty Shine. They were exciting months, filled with ups and downs and more than a few struggles. But what good thing wasn’t worth fighting for?

They were young. They had all the time in the world to make things better. Why couldn’t they stay together?

They were in the middle of winter, with the coldest temperatures of the year, but Thundercloud’s natural resistance to the cold meant he could tolerate it with only a bit of clothing for warmth. Yet no scarf or saddle could fight the coldness he felt from Misty Shine’s words.

He focused on his work, creating and placing clouds with the other weather ponies with all the passion of an automaton. He left work every day and flew straight home, often carrying leftover cloudstuff. His thought was to use the long winter nights to create building clouds and expand his small cloud home, making it a home for two. But now, the cloudstuff attached to the base of his cloud home did nothing but weigh it down. His memories and emotions did much the same.

Fortunately, it being winter, Thundercloud had the luxury of solitude. The thick cloud cover meant he could spend his days seeing few ponies other than his coworkers. He could focus on his clouds, the clouds that always understood when his magic touched them.

---

“Okay, everypony, we’ve got two days to bring in some springlike weather,” Rainbow Dash announced. “Cloud team will clear the sky, and wind team will hook into the currents from down south and pull in some warmer weather. We’ve got to get it all nice for Hearts and Hooves Day!”

Thundercloud was the last pony out of the office, hanging his head as he flew. One of the older stallions circled around and flew next to him. Blue Horizon, from the wind team, he recalled. “Hearts and Hooves Day got you down?” he said.

“What would you know about it?” Thundercloud said. He recalled seeing the stallion with his wife and filly; they had the perfect little family.

“Five straight Hearts and Hooves days alone when I was your age. Twice, right after a breakup. These things happen. It’s hard to find that right love on your first try.”

Thundercloud continued flying to the town center, trailing the rest of his team; Blue Horizon kept pace.

“There are a lot more ponies in your situation than you think,” Blue Horizon said. “Like Rainy Day and Sunspot. But let me give you some advice, from a veteran of this. Everypony will want to spend the day with their special somepony at someplace nice. That means smaller crowds at other places. Like the bars. Head on down to the Thirsty Mug that evening and have a cider. You’ll feel better.”

“Okay,” Thundercloud mumbled.

In the skies above Ponyville, Thundercloud lost himself in his work. Find a cloud, kick it, dissipate any lingering haze. Find a cloud, kick it, dissipate any lingering haze. Each cleared cloud opened a window on Ponyville below.

In one of those windows, he spotted Misty Rain, looking in the window of the candy shop. He turned and flew away. He’d find another part of Ponyville to work, even if it meant working longer to finish his work.

Kick, clear. Kick, clear. And there was Misty Rain again, standing outside a cafe.

Thundercloud headed to the outskirts of Ponyville to continue his work. Thankfully, he didn’t see Misty Rain again. But every now and then, he saw something that reminded him of her. The park they liked to visit. The entrance to the Whitetail Wood, where they ran in the Running of the Leaves. The tree where they shared their first kiss.

Thundercloud flew straight home that night, and crawled into bed.

---

Hearts and Hooves Day. The weather team was scheduled for only a half day, and light duty at that. Thundercloud checked and saw he was scheduled for cloud duty, clearing the weather that drifted in from the Everfree Forest overnight and otherwise keeping the sky clear of clouds.

At least earning time and a half would give him more to spend at the bar.

He worked alone that morning, volunteering for the less desirable work near the edge of the Everfree. He almost wished for some monster to run out and start rampaging through town. But the forest was silent.

Eventually, he finished that assignment, and he returned to town center. All the weather ponies had to keep clouds and cold breezes away from Ponyville, so he patrolled the skies.

With the enhanced situational awareness that came with flying, Thundercloud couldn’t help but see everypony below. Ponies, in couples or families, enjoyed the warmer day together. They walked along the streets, shared a meal at a cafe, or sat together in the park.

And in the park, he noticed Misty Rain. She shared a park bench with a pegasus stallion. He leaned in, and she nuzzled him.

Swiftwing.

He heard of that stallion, Swiftwing. About two years older, a recent transplant from Cloudsdale.

Misty Rain opened a box of chocolates. Swiftwing picked up one in his wing, and fed it to her. She giggled.

Swiftwing didn’t have their shared experiences. They didn’t see each other in school, or around town, or at a Pinkie Pie party.

He offered her a rose. She smiled, and bit into the succulent flower.

It was wrong for Swiftwing to be with his mare.

Thundercloud took off, soaring high into the sky. But no matter how high he flew, his keen pegasus eyes kept focusing on Misty Rain and Swiftwing.

There they went, walking through the park, his wing over her, her wing over him.

He sought the solace of the clouds, but there were no more clouds in the sky.

They headed off, toward Misty Rain’s little cottage.

Thundercloud fled to the one cloud that would offer him sanctuary, his own cloud home. He flew in, not even bothering to close the door. He slumped onto his cloud couch, and stared at the mementos on the wall.

A photograph of Thundercloud, Misty Rain, Silver Cog, and Red Brick. Some big party outside Town Hall. He couldn’t remember which. There were so many. Smiling faces. The way Misty Rain’s head was turned, looking at him.

Lies.

Thundercloud flew off the couch and punched the picture. The glass shattered, and the frame fell off the wall, landing on the cloud floor with a soft puff of air.

His eyes fell on a pair of wing blades. They were an heirloom from his great-grandfather, a veteran of the war against the griffons. He’d never thought of guard duty himself, but he always honored the pegasus military tradition. The blades were lovingly cared for, kept clean and oiled.

They fit perfectly on his wings.

Thundercloud flew out of his home. The clear sky defied the storm in his heart.

But he could make a storm.

He gathered the cloudstuff stored underneath his home. A simple application of his magic condensed it into a normal storm cloud. Further magic charged it with thunder and lightning. Emotions drive the strength of magic, and soon Thundercloud had gathered in his hooves the most powerful storm cloud he had ever handled.

Handled. There was that word again. Hands, hooves, it didn’t matter; Thundercloud’s very soul was poured into this cloud.

Thundercloud pushed the cloud to Misty Rain’s home. He swore he heard giggling from the living room. He knew her house well. And he knew what he could find there. Tools. Cleaning supplies. A cellar.

He kicked the cloud, and a tremendous bolt of lightning struck Misty Rain’s house. Thunder resounded over Ponyville. Once his eyes recovered from the flash, Thundercloud saw the damage. There was a hole in the roof, and flames licked its shingles.

Thundercloud smiled.

He dove into the cloud, the energy still held within invigorating him. It was only a matter of time before they came out to investigate.

And they did. They ran out, looking at the fire, noticing the cloud.

Thundercloud pushed, and another bolt of lightning came, hitting the ground at their hooves.

Hitting them wasn’t the goal. As pegasi, they could shrug off the lightning with little more than sore muscles to show for the hit. Distraction was the goal.

Thundercloud flew out of the cloud. A few quick blows while they were distracted, then he would push them inside.

And then the fun would begin.

But before he could strike, the world turned purple. Then he noticed he was suspended in air, his wings unable to propel him any closer. The purple color came from the sphere that surrounded him.

Thundercloud punched and kicked, but it did no good. As he struggled, he noticed the weather team arriving. A pair of pegasi positioned a rain cloud over Misty Rain’s home, while three others kicked away his thundercloud until nothing was left.

He turned, locking eyes with an alicorn, her horn glowing with the same violet color as the bubble surrounding him. And then Thundercloud disappeared.

---

Thundercloud found himself in a small room, with walls of blue and violet crystal. He was sitting on a simple sofa. The bubble surrounding him was gone, but he felt magic pressing on his legs and barrel, holding him in his present position.

There was one other figure in the room, the same alicorn as before. Princess Twilight Sparkle, alicorn of friendship and magic, looked at him with an expression somewhere between anger and resignation.

“Why am I here?” Thundercloud said. Once he realized he had been teleported, he was surprised to have appeared in this normal room, rather than a cell or a dungeon.

“You know what you did, Thundercloud,” Twilight Sparkle said. “But for now, we’re not going to talk about that. I’m going to teach you.”

“Teach me what?” Thundercloud said. He gulped. Twilight Sparkle’s calm voice unnerved him far more than the prospect of being sent to the dungeon.

“I’ve heard you’re fascinated with humans? And inventions? Well, I thought you’d appreciate a lesson on human inventions.”

“But everypony tells me that humans are myths,” Thundercloud said.

“Humans are real. You always knew that, didn’t you?” Twilight Sparkle said.

The room dimmed, and a pale silver screen, like in a movie theater, descended from the ceiling. Twilight Sparkle loaded a canister in a slide projector, and turned it on.

A black and white illustration was projected on the screen. It illustrated a human, ropes tied to its limbs, the ropes taut as four ponies pulled in opposite directions.

“This is called drawing and quartering,” Twilight Sparkle explained. “The horses in this picture, though resembling the horses of Saddle Arabia, lack the sapience of Equestrian horses and ponies. And so they don’t know what they’re doing as they walk, pulling until the human’s limbs are separated from its body.”

The slide projector clicked, and now showed another illustration, a human standing, tied to a wooden pole as flames licked his body. “This is burning at the stake. Humans have no resistance to fire, and the flames will consume his body, just like any other fuel.”

Another click, and the illustration showed a tall structure of wood, an angled blade suspended at its top. “This is a fine example of human invention, the guillotine. The human’s head is placed through the hole at the bottom, the blade positioned over his neck, and the force of gravity aids the blade in severing his head. It takes several seconds for the brain to lose consciousness, allowing the human a chance to see his own decapitated body before he dies.”

“Stop! Please, for the love of Celestia, stop!” Thundercloud protested.

Twilight Sparkle continued with her lecture. Her next slide was a photograph, a blindfolded human tied to a pole, standing while several other humans surrounded him, pointing devices with long metal tubes at him. “The firing squad. This device, called a rifle, uses a chemical explosion to send a small plug of lead at its target at incredible speeds. These lead bullets perforate the body and its internal organs. As they’re not meant to work while so perforated, death is quick.”

Another photograph, showing a human suspended in the air, a rope around his neck. “Hanging. Another application of gravity. The body falls, and the rope stops only the head from falling further. A broken neck leads to a swift demise.”

Click. Another photograph. Thundercloud found some small relief in that this picture didn’t include a human. It showed a chair, but a chair out of nightmares. It was an uncomfortable skeleton of wood, with straps where the arms and legs of a human would be. Wires extended from the chair, and a strange metal cap dangled above it menacingly. “The electric chair. Humans have even less resistance to electricity than unicorns or earth ponies. And so you might imagine the effect when electricity flows through a human body. It will cook his internal organs, but death will fortunately come much sooner.”

Click. Another photograph of a chair. It lacked the wires, but just thinking of its purpose made Thundercloud sick to his stomach. “The gas chamber. Humans breathe air, just like ponies, and they can’t breathe toxic gasses. In this case, a pill is dropped into a vat of acid, creating toxic hydrogen cyanide gas. It fills the chamber. The human in the chair is urged to take deep breaths, to speed the process.”

“Stop it! STOP! I know humans are better than that!” Thundercloud shouted.

“You’re right, Thundercloud,” Twilight Sparkle said. She advanced the slide, revealing a fortress. Thundercloud relaxed somewhat, no longer seeing a human killing machine. The buildings featured tall walls with barbed wire. It reminded him of pictures of the prison in Canterlot, though without the bars above. But humans can’t fly, Thundercloud reminded himself, so it made sense.

“Do you know what all these slides have in common, Thundercloud?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

Thundercloud shook his head.

“These were all methods used to punish the guilty, Thundercloud. But humans changed over the years. Past methods were deemed barbaric, or to use the human parlance, cruel and unusual. They were restricted to only the worst of criminals, but eventually were abandoned altogether. And so the guilty were instead confined to prisons. This one is called San Quentin, and it is perhaps best known for an album of music recorded there.” Click. Another picture, an island with several of these fortress-like structure. “And this one is called Rikers Island. Because it’s close to the human city that resembles Manehattan, it frequently appears in fictional stories.

“But for the worst of criminals, life in prison was still cruel. For twenty-three hours a day, the criminal was confined to a cell, alone. And for the last hour, he could exercise, still alone. Just like ponies, humans are not meant to be alone. And so, once again, humans changed. They deemed this treatment to be cruel, as well.”

“What kind of humans are these?” Thundercloud said.

“The cruelest, most dangerous humans,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Like this one.”

The next slide showed a human, a real human! The descriptions in the books couldn’t compare to the real thing. There were two photographs of this same human, one looking ahead, the other looking to the side. His skin was free of hair, except on top of his head and the small tracing around his mouth. He had small eyes and a small nose, separated from his mouth. His ears were oddly shaped, and set in the middle of his head; the books never did describe the bizarre ridges of the human ear. The human in the photograph stared, no love in his eyes. And in those eyes, Thundercloud saw something familiar.

“I know that human,” Thundercloud said. He gasped. “That’s me!”

Twilight Sparkle nodded. “James Wayne Gunderson. Convicted of brutally torturing and murdering two other human beings. Judged too dangerous to interact, even with other hardened criminals. In past days, the kind of criminal to be executed, or placed in solitary confinement. But humans, showing great compassion, have given even humans like James Wayne Gunderson a chance to prove they could be decent human beings.”

The slide changed again, showing the same human, lying in a hospital bed, his eyes closed. “While the criminal’s body rests in a vegetative state, his mind is uploaded into a computer simulation, where he is given a chance to demonstrate that be can be a better human, by first proving he can be a good pony. The hope is that the human will learn these lessons, which he will then remember once his consciousness is returned to his body.

“And that is what brought you to Ponyville, James Wayne Gunderson. You were given every advantage. You had a loving father who was always there for you, not one who abandoned you before you were born. You had a caring and compassionate mother, not one who would beat you and starve you. You had a good home, plenty to eat, in a community where everypony was willing to be your friend. And from the very beginning, you failed to be a good pony.

“From your first day in Ponyville, you showed no ability to empathize with your fellow pony. You thought nothing of hurting them. And even though this simulation would either fix the damage you caused immediately or stop you from causing the damage in the first place, you always kept trying.

“And now today. You were going to kill those ponies, weren’t you?”

“No!” Thundercloud shouted.

“Do you remember all the body parts you dismembered from that man? What you did with the bleach, while the woman was still alive? The power saw in the basement? The shallow grave in the woods?”

“No! No! Please, stop!” he screamed.

“Why? You didn’t stop. And you were ready to pick up where you left off.”

“No! No, I wasn’t!”

“James Wayne Gunderson, I am the one entity in this simulation that knows your thoughts. And I am the one who judges whether you pass or fail this test. You have failed in every way. The way you can casually lie and not feel any guilt is just one sign of your sociopathy. Every ‘No!’? Every ‘Stop!’? Every ‘I’m Sorry’? Not once did you feel any empathy. Not once did you think of anypony other than yourself. Until you can learn to treat others with harmony, to embrace the elements of kindness, generosity, laughter, honesty, and loyalty, you will continue to fail.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Thundercloud asked.

“You deserve to know. We can only hope you learn the lesson.”

“So what are you going to do now? The guillotine? The gas chamber?”

“None of those things. Humans are compassionate, even to a despicable human like you,” Twilight Sparkle said. “We will try again. We are a simulation. We do not change, we do not age. Only you will age, or rather the unconscious body you are separated from will age. We have all the time in the world. You do not.

“Your life as Thundercloud is over. You will wake again, with no memories of his life, but God willing, you will remember the lessons you have learned.

“And remember, James Wayne Gunderson. Your next pony life is a fresh chance to be a better human.”

---

An eight-year-old unicorn colt stood outside the small schoolhouse, flanked by his parents. His mother, a unicorn mare heavy with foal, hugged him and mussed his silver mane.

“Mom, stop!” the colt protested.

“I’m going to miss you,” she said.

“And I’ll miss all of you when I’m in Canterlot,” his father said. The unicorn stallion wore his Royal Guard armor, cloaking his appearance in the illusion of the common guardspony, but the colt could always sense which guard was his father. “But I’ll be back with every leave, and when the foal is born.”

“You’re going to love Ponyville, Gumdrop” the mare said. “It will be a much nicer place to raise you and your new sister. And I can’t wait to share my sweet confections with everypony!”

“Now run along, son, and make some friends,” his father said.

Memories flooded Gumdrop of his past schools in Canterlot. Many of the unicorns there were unfriendly to a pony like him. Would these foals be any better?

Gumdrop walked across the schoolyard. Foals were playing hoofball while waiting for class to begin. A ball flew through the air, landing at his hooves.

“Can you kick that back here?” an earth pony colt shouted.

Gumdrop nodded, and kicked the ball. But he slipped on a loose bit of dirt, and all he accomplished was falling over and moving the ball a short distance.

The earth pony colt laughed, and trotted over to get the ball. “I guess not everypony’s good at hoofball.”

Gumdrop got up and dusted himself off. He stared at the rude colt as he walked away.

He’d show him.

Author's Note:

Author's notes here.

Comments

[ValenceBond]

Man, my 'legal philosophy' sense is tingling. I can only wonder how the meeting to institute this program went. I kinda wonder if going for a shitty life would have a different outcome...

[TheStratovarian]

in the end of it all, while the theory is sound, the practice of what they are seeking to fix isnt. You arent fixing the neurochemistry, just letting it go down the same old path its familiar with. until you can interrupt that, its a doomed effort.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Whoa. Well then. I think I'll save most of my thoughts for the author's note blog, but I have to say, that was one heck of a twist. Nicely done.

[the Joyless1]

I like it, it felt like it had a matrix vibe, but the computer simulation part wasn't expected. good job at the twist in the end. A criminal recreation program, nice touch.