20% Cooler

by Sunset Swirl

Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle rubbed her sleepy eyes, blinking into the brightness of the sunny day. She yawned and climbed out of bed, heading over to the mirror to brush her hair. As it soon returned to its normal, straight state, the purple unicorn made her way down the stairs, her hooves clapping against the wooden floor of the library. Upon seeing Spike, she greeted him with a friendly, "Good morning! What time is it?"

The little dragon looked at her uncertainly. "Twilight, it's 10:30! What time did you go to sleep last night?"

Twilight blinked in shock. This would explain why it's so bright out, but how did I sleep so late? "I went to sleep at the same time as you did, Spike. I don't know what happened." The bookworm of a pony was always up bright and early, so she could get outside and some fresh air before she got down to her studies and whatever else she had to do. She slowly opened the door with one hoof and continued out the door, and right away she could sense that something was wrong. There was nopony in sight, all shutters drawn and lights whisked away, while tumbleweed rolled past in the wind. The she noticed a cloaked figure walking toward her, looking mysterious, though she noticed its shoulders were rather slumped.

"Again, these muddled up pony folk, think I'm the fire that leads to smoke!" came a rhythmic voice from beneath the dark cloak.

"Zecora! Do you know what's going on?" Twilight exclaimed, trotting nervously up to the unhappy zebra. "For starters, I just woke up, and now I walk outside to find myself in a ghost-town! The skies look like Rainbow Dash's worst nightmare, and-"

"Psst! Twilight! In here!" She turned around to find Pinkie Pie waving wildly at her from inside Sugarcube Corner.

"Not this again," the purple pony muttered, but began to walk toward the party pony, Zecora following behind her. Before she knew what was going on, hooves reached out and grabbed her up, and then her zebra friend, and pulled them inside the dark room. Twilight sighed. "Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here all-"

"I'm not alone in the dark," Pinkie cut her off, grinning broadly as she turned on the light, revealing everypony in Ponyville crammed into the small building. Twilight Sparkle stared in surprise. "What in Celestia's name is going on?" she cried out. Nothing was making sense this morning!

"Twilight, we've got a major problem," Rarity began, looking worried.

"The chickens were trying to escape this morning, and the bunnies were in a panic. Angel kept stamping on my hooves, and... all the animals were out of place. I had no idea why, until..." Fluttershy trailed off.

Applejack picked up from there. "I walked out of the barn this mornin' and found the apple trees a-shakin'. Tried to stop 'em, but they bucked me off like they'd got a mind of their own! I ran outside to get help, when-"

"She bumped into me!" Pinkie Pie cut her off, smiling. "Actually, everypony bumped into me this morning; it was so strange. I told them all to come to Sugarcube Corner with me, and, well, surprisingly, everyone did."

"She promised me muffins," came a goofy voice from the back.

"Oh, right! Sorry, Derpy, coming right up," Pinkie said, quickly coming up with a tray of the gray pony's favorite muffins. The cross-eyed pegasus tried to look straight at Pinkie, gave up, and gratefully accepted the muffins.

"Anyway, something bad was happening. We could all feel it,” the pink pony continued. “Suddenly, an ominous black cloud came floating over the town, and then it opened up and started making a weird sucking noise, and then we saw a rainbow shoot up into it, and then it closed up and floated away!"

"It was so..." Fluttershy began, in her quiet way.

"Strange!"

"Scary."

"Unearthly."

"Crazy!"

"Quiet, everypony!" Twilight exclaimed. "I need to think this through." She then turned around and raced home to the library, flinging open the door. "Spike! Spike!" She cried out.

"Y-yes, Twilight?" Came a voice from the ground.

"Oh, there you are. I need the book titled Strange Happenings, and hurry up!"

"Alright," he muttered, getting to his feet and yanking it off the shelf labelled "S". "Here you go, Twili-"

"Okay, great. Now, 'C', cloud, cloud, ah! There it is. Okay..." She trailed off as she began to read.
It has been said that once every 2,000 years, a dark, terrifying cloud will come and hang over a town. It will suck one pony up into it and then it will move away, not to be seen again for another long, happy 2,000 years. The ponies that are taken in are never seen again, and have never returned to tell the tale; nopony knows what happens to them inside that black cloud.

Twilight broke off, horrified, realizing with a jolt who'd been missing from the bakery. "What they saw wasn't a rainbow," she cried out. "It was Rainbow Dash!"