A Happy Cloud
(Before you read this chapter, do know that it is based off Friendship is Witchcraft Episode 7, Cherry Bomb. If you want to understand the story a bit more deeply, do watch it.)
Raincloud was happy.
It was ever since it was formed. Raincloud remembered that fateful day: the weather was exceedingly tempestuous, and moisture hung heavily in the air. Raincloud once felt like several bits and pieces lying all over the place, with its water droplets roaming and floating around in the atmosphere. The wind was its mother, shaping it, increasing its density, breathing life into it was what its contribution was. However, on the very day of its conception, Raincloud found something dearer to him than a parent, a sibling or any relative.
With a large gathering of Raincloud's relatives came a flock of quadrupedal animals with narrow muzzles, feathery appendages on their backs and hair on their heads and rear. Raincloud and the rest of the Cloud family were taught to abhor these beasts, or 'pegasi'; they would swoop upon the Clouds, using their hooves to kick and dissipate them from the sky. The Clouds saw them as murderers. However, just as Raincloud was formed, it already saw firsthand how the pegasi worked; with horror, it looked on as its minute-old relatives were beaten to oblivion with a single thrust of a pegasi leg. Raincloud shuddered as the pegasi mowed its family down. I'm next, it thought, as it saw a rainbow haired, cyan coated pegasus destroying clouds effortlessly, swooping gracefully through the heavens.
After a tense 5 minutes or so, Raincloud experienced the Sun's rays burning its watery surface. Since none of its relatives were alive anymore to shade it from the Sun's intensity, as all of the clouds were kicked out from the sky. Then, it saw the rainbow haired one advancing towards it. It braced itself.
"Rainbow Dash! Come down here!"
Raincloud saw the rainbow haired one swoop down, away from sight. When Raincloud was still alive and full of water for an entire day after the cyan one disappeared, it realized something: It was still alive. Alive. Something that its relatives weren't. For the second time ever since its conception, it felt something, a special emotion.
Raincloud was happy.
And it owed it all to the rainbow haired one. It failed to see the irony that the one who killed its relatives was the one who saved it. Its mind was too clouded with joy to even know what revenge or malice was, or any of those bad, negative feelings.
It just felt exceedingly happy.
Raincloud flew down to Earth, taking refuge in the shade of some buildings in the town below, away from the Sun's rays. It wanted to find the rainbow haired one, to gaze upon her for the rest of its existence, and possibly find a way to repay her. It finally found her after hours of drifting about in the streets, ignored by others of the same species as the rainbow haired one, just that they didn't have her wings, or some of them even had extensions on their heads. The rainbow haired one was in a curious, sweet smelling building and Raincloud looked through the building's window at her. She was consuming... something. It looked like something hard, like a mineral or a rock, stuck on a stick, just that she continued consuming it, leading Raincloud to believe it wasn't a rock or a mineral, since rocks and minerals don't taste nice. She was communicating with others of her kind, or so it seemed. Raincloud was dissatisfied with the tinted view of its saviour through the window, and looked for an opening to enter the building. It found a large opening at the front of the building, and entered.
"Ah!! What's that?" cried a purple colored, pink and purple haired wingless pegasus, with an extension on her head. Raincloud didn't understand as the wingless pegasi in the building pointed hooves at it, some of them laughing, some of them looking at it with wide eyes and backing off. Raincloud stared at the rainbow haired one, finally, without the troublesome blurry window in its view.
Raincloud was happy.
"Don't be like that! She's going to be our new best friend!" cried a pink haired wingless pegasus, "I'll name her Raincloud!"
Raincloud was given a gender and a name to call itself that day; see, she wasn't always called Raincloud.
Raincloud was happy.
However, the wingless pegasi in the building were not. They shooed her out of the building, leaving a confused Raincloud out in the glaring Sun, the heat singing off Raincloud's droplets. Still, she made circles around the curious sweet smelling building, glancing ever so often through the tinted window to check on the rainbow haired one. When even the windows had curtains drawn over them, Raincloud patiently waited outside, observing the exit of many wingless and winged pegasi from the building, looking for her cyan coated pegasus. When she finally exited the building, Raincloud followed, able to see her saviour in the brilliant light of the Sun.
Raincloud was happy.
However, Raincloud wanted it to stay that way, and kept a safe distance from the other five pegasi that followed the cyan one, one of them winged while the other four were not. Interacting with them meant trouble. She found comfort in merely staring at the cyan one. Eventually, the group split up, giving Raincloud the long awaited opportunity to trail after the rainbow one only. Raincloud mustered up the courage to float closer, and saw a cloud symbol on her cyan pegasus' rear, from which a polychromatic lightning bolt jutted out of. A cloud. Just like her family. The cyan pegasus must be related to her, in some way.
Raincloud was happy.
The cyan pegasus carried on flying, not saying a word, to another curious building. She swooped down and carried a banner in her hoof. Raincloud moved, inch by inch, closer to the pegasus, and her excitement was escalating; she had never been this close to the rainbow haired hero. The pegasus picked up a nail and secured it in the side of the building, fastening the banner. At this moment Raincloud couldn't hold her anticipation in, and her body crackled with energy; frantically, she tried to discharge her lightning somewhere else, where nothing could get hurt. However, the energy surfaced too quickly, and soon a bolt of electricity surged from Raincloud, headed straight for the pegasus. The latter noticed this and flew down just in time to dodge it, but not completely, as her rainbow colored tail was burnt at the tip.
"Now, careful Raincloud!" the pegasus told Raincloud, her brow furrowed down and her eyes narrowed. When Raincloud said nothing, she continued, "Yeah, it's a mystery."
Raincloud didn't understand a word but noticed that her favorite cyan coated animal had noticed her.
Raincloud was happy.
For the rest of the day, Raincloud stalked her beloved pegasus, through rain or shine, day or night. Fact is, she did it for the rest of the week. But the amount of suffering she had to go through didn't matter.
It made her happy, and that was all that mattered.
One day, Raincloud saw her hero move into a large red building with a large door. She had become comfortable with the company of these animals. They shooed her away immediately as she tried entering. It seemed that they still weren't comfortable in the company of her, and she did what she usually did when she was shut out from a building her hero was in; she floated circles around it, tirelessly and patiently, looking for crevices or openings to observe the cyan pegasus. Just then, a wingless brown coated pegasus ran quickly towards the red building, a piece of paper in mouth. He widened his eyes at the sight of Raincloud and turned tail. He left the piece of paper on the ground. Raincloud picked it up by applying water like glue to the letter and lifted it off the ground, and waited outside the building. After what seemed like an hour, a purple and pink haired purple wingless pegasus with a head extension greeted Raincloud.
"Raincloud's here! And she brought me a letter!" said the wingless pegasus, lifting up the paper using telekinesis, and shut the door loudly. Raincloud couldn't understand. From inside the building, however, Raincloud heard voices.
"Please! Shouldn't we invite Raincloud to the party?" came one.
"No, she'll never be one of us," came the voice of her rainbow haired hero. All of a sudden, Raincloud sensed that she wasn't wanted. Her idol rejected her, saw her as something horrible. It was bad, after all, being different species of.. thing from the animals who inhabited the town. She'll never be one of us. She'll never be one of us. She'll never be one of us.
Raincloud was sad.
Rain slowly dripped from the bottom of Raincloud as she floated away. Raincloud hid behind a tree. Then, Raincloud saw something emerge from the red building. A few things, actually. Six pegasi, two winged and four wingless, with one being her saviour. Raincloud was motivated by her appearance and floated after them, a newfound feeling drowning the old, bad feeling.
Raincloud was happy now.
For days after days, Raincloud trailed after them. She even had to keep up with an exceedingly fast, long moving metal thing, which her hero and her friends travelled in. She braved arid climates as she realized that the metal thing was headed for a desert, the hell for clouds. Raincloud felt so much of her weight getting lost in that several hour long journey. But whenever she felt down, she'd look into a compartment of that metal thing and see the best rainbow haired, cyan coated being in the world.
She'd feel happy, and that would be worth all of the suffering in the world.
For the rest of that day, she felt her life slipping away as she spent dangerously long hours in the Sun. The cyan pegasus and her friends found lodging in a desert area. Not even the largest building's shade could provide Raincloud the humidity she desperately needed to survive. But she persisted, as she found solace and peace when looking at... Rainbowcloud. Raincloud deduced that that was her hero's name. Rainbowcloud. Why else would she have such a mark on her rear? She was Rainbowcloud, Raincloud's long lost relative, who saved her those many years ago during Raincloud's conception.
Raincloud was happy.
Her withered form observed her long lost relative Rainbowcloud through a window in her bed in a curious wooden building, in the dry climate, as night came. Humidity was a little higher in the night, thankfully. Raincloud wanted a better view of Rainbowcloud, and found an open window at the side of the room, and drifted in. Raincloud could stay awake, just to hear Rainbowcloud's breathing. Watch her smile while she was sleeping, while she was far away dreaming. Raincloud could spend her life in this sweet surrender. She could be lost in this moment, forever. Every moment spent with Rainbowcloud was a moment she treasured.
Raincloud was happy.
As day crept in, Raincloud drifted out of the room, returning to her vantage point, still staring at Rainbowcloud. She followed Rainbowcloud around for the day, and realized something was amiss when Rainbowcloud chased an orange coated wingless pegasus, or one of Rainbowcloud's friends, across the desert, with four of her other friends joining in the chase. Rainbowcloud and another winged pegasus was pulling a wooden contraption with three of her friends riding on it, while they were running beside the wingless pegasus they were chasing. The orange coated wingless pegasus had a contraption of her own, pulled by four larger members of her kind. They chased and chased, until a fast, long moving metal thing roared through, separating the two contraptions.
Raincloud looked, interested, as her favorite pegasus brought the contraption over the high speed metal thing, and tackled the wingless pegasus. A bundled bunch of red sticks was left on the ground, and there was a timer on it, which ticked from 1 : 20. Raincloud drifted in for a closer look.
Just then, Raincloud heard a voice.
"Hey, Raincloud! Git over 'ere!"
The orange coated, wingless pegasus that the other five pegasi were in pursuit of. In spite of the warm, dry conditions, Raincloud rushed towards them as fast as she could, the droplets on her, her substance of life, falling off at an alarming speed.
"Take this 'ere bomb and dispose of it in the skah!" said the orange coated being, pointing at the red bundle then at the blue, cloudless sky above her. Rainbowcloud looked at Raincloud with a smile.
"Please? It'll make us happy."
That was all the motivation needed for Raincloud. If there was any word that Raincloud understood very well, in her week of existence, that word was 'happy'. Raincloud stuck water onto the bomb, acting as glue and adhering onto Raincloud's surface. Raincloud ascended and ascended into the sky, her droplets falling off of her at unprecedented pace and volume, her form getting thinner and thinner. Raincloud thought she was used to it; after all, she suffered so much in her chase for her beloved Rainbowcloud. She kept ascending, the bomb stuck snugly against her fluffy surface, and thought of the wonderful week she had with Rainbowcloud. They never interacted much. But Raincloud was content, staring at Rainbowcloud. Her one and only living relative. Her rainbow in her dreary sky, her one light in her life of getting pushed around, laughed at, rejected or even feared by others. Her saviour. As the last few drops of her body flew away into the whispering wind and the timer reached 0:00, she thought of how proud Rainbowcloud would be of her.
She thought of how she would make her happy.
That thought made Raincloud happy.