Every now and then life drops something unexpected onto your lap. It could be anything from meeting an old acquaintance to suddenly having to work overtime due to some unforeseen consequence. But as I’m sure to have mentioned before life would be awfully dull if such things didn’t happen, and by taking the good with the bad we can lead fulfilling lives. After all, someone once said that variety is the spice life.

With a lazy flick of my hand I turned on the lights of bathroom before closing the door behind me. I had just gotten back home from a late shift at Berry’s diner and all I truly wished for at the moment was to have a relaxing shower and then head to bed. Actually I wasn’t too sure whether I should call it late or early since the hour had crept close to morning when I finally arrived at my own doorstep. The bottom line was still that I felt close to a zombie as I stripped down and stepped into the shower though. Turning the dials I waited a few seconds for the water to reach an appropriate temperature before stepping in under the cascading water. A pleased sigh escaped me as I felt the water pour over my body, washing away any grime and sweat I had accumulated during the day. Lazily I extended my right wing in front of me so that I could start washing it but a soft clicking sound made stop. That’s odd that sounded almost like a camera? My tired mind produced as I turned my head in the direction where I thought it had come from.

Much to my surprise my eyes found Gilda holding what looked like a quite expensive camera system outside the slightly ajar bathroom window. In my tired state I blinked a couple of times, my mind not fully comprehending the situation. Gilda however noticed that she had been found out almost immediately and bolted soon after, leaving me to stare at the empty spot that she had been in just a second ago. How she had managed to open the window without me noticing I will probably never know but it’s likely that the sound of the rushing water combined with my already tired mind had dimmed my perception enough. Slowly my mind started to catch up with the implications of the photos Gilda had without a doubt taken of me meant. Eyes widening I dove out of the shower, throwing on some underwear and pants before rushing out of the bathroom and out of the house to take up the chase of my “adopted” sister. I would have answers for why she had a need of pictures of me showering of all things. I thought as I took to the sky to follow the rapidly disappearing Gilda, not sparing a moment to remember that I had forgotten to turn of the shower in my haste to pursue.

Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Echoed through her mind as she pumped her wings furiously to get away as quickly as she could. With a bit of luck she would be able to make a clean getaway as she knew that she was a faster flyer than Cloud. A soft sound of a door being thrown open in somewhere behind told her that this wouldn’t be the case though. Daring to throw a quick glance backwards confirmed that her “brother” was indeed chasing after her. Returning her focus to where she was heading she angled herself so that she would by flying towards Ponyville, and a few minutes later she crossed the town border at speeds that could compete with Rainbow Dash on a bad day.

Taking a chance that she could lose Cloud if she hid somewhere in the still slumbering town she dove down under roof height of the town. A few seconds later she was huddled in a narrow alley between two houses half worrying just what would happen if Cloud did catch her and half wondering why she had agreed to do it in the first place. I just had to agree to perform this task for Rainbow Dash! Oh why did I think that anything was worth this? She lamented. Truth be told she wondered why she had even continued to listen when Rainbow shared her plan with her. “Come on Gil, it’s just a few pictures there’s no harm in that, right?” She had told her. She had been reluctant at first then Dash had to mention the bits. “It’ll be easy money Gil, think about it. 400 bits and we’ll split it evenly. It’s not like the pictures are for a newspaper or anything like that even.” Rainbow had pressed on when she had asked who and why the photos were needed.

The sound of flapping wings caused her to pause and study the skies above the alley and not much later the form of Cloud flew past her hiding place. Time to relocate I think. She decided hastily and hurried her steps out of the alley, however lady luck being one of life’s many cruel mistresses decided that hers should run out at that moment. A chilly autumn wind blew through the alley, causing her tail to give an involuntary twitch which in turn hit the lid of a garbage can that hit the ground with a clattering sound. A mere moment later the angered voice of Cloud rang out over Ponyville causing her bolt once more, heading in the opposite direction of Cloud. This time she kept to the ground though running through the streets at a breakneck pace, hoping that she could lose him again. However when the sound of flapping wings steadily grew closer she threw a glance over her shoulder to see her “brother” approaching quickly. It was at this point that the chase came to an end though. Not by Cloud catching up to her, no instead it came to an end due to fact that she barreled straight into something or rather someone else because she wasn’t looking. With a surprised yelp she fell forward as she tripped over whatever or whoever it was she had just hit.

With a groan she stumbled up onto all fours again just in time to hear someone, presumably Cloud, land nearby.

“Damn it Gil, now you got whoever this is involved in this… whatever this is.” Cloud said tiredly.

“Gil!” I shouted as I heard a clatter a few streets down in the direction I had just come from.

I wheeled around in midair starting to head back the way I had come just in time to see Gilda rush out from a dark alley. Driven by my need to know just why she had taken pictures of me in the shower I refused to let her out of my sight again. Luckily for me Gilda didn’t seem to be trying to fly this time around for if she had she would’ve easily outflown me this time too. Yet despite the fact that I was airborne and she was not catching her proved to quite the challenge still. So through the winding streets and alleyways of Ponyville I chased her, before she eventually crashed into an unfortunate unicorn stallion that turned a corner ahead of her just as she threw a panicked glance back towards me.

Given the speed Gilda was going she barreled straight through the poor stallion, landing in a heap of tangled limbs about half a meter away from her unintended victim. Speaking of the victim, he remained motionless on the ground when Gilda struggled back onto her legs. I landed beside the stallion to make sure that he was alright, speaking to Gilda simultaneously.

“Damn it Gil, now you got whoever this is involved in this… whatever this is.” I said tiredly as I hunched down beside the unconscious stallion.

As I did that though, I felt my eyes widen when I realized that I knew who this was. There on the ground, knocked out cold by the weight of a charging griffin, was one of the ponies who understood me better than most. There on the ground lay Swiftmend. And a whole heap of new potential problems. I groaned mentally as I realized that he more than likely wouldn’t be happy when he woke up.

Pushing my concerns aside for now I looked up at Gilda who trying and failing to look innocent. “Gil get over here and help me. We’re bringing him over to the house.” I told her in a no nonsense tone, causing her hop in to action.

Looks like sleep will have to wait. I thought somewhere between suppressing a yawn and a shudder. Now that I had stopped moving I felt how cold the night was, especially since I rushed out of the shower wearing nothing but a pair of pants.

“Thanks for your hard work today doctor Swiftmend.” Nurse Tenderheart chirped as he walked past her desk on his way out of the Ponyville hospital.

“Likewise Ms. Tender.” He replied, keeping his tone professional but sincere. She knew him from his time as a fellow nurse of course, but they had never really been close.

Truth be told he hadn’t been close to anyone between the time he had lost Wild Breeze and when he had met Stormcloud. Though over the past few years he gone through a great many personal trials to reclaim much of his life, and if he had to grade himself he’d have to say that he done a good job. It felt good to be honest with himself again, and for better or worse he could be more honest around others too. Hanging his relatively new doctor’s coat on a hook by the door out of the office area he turned his head back towards the other pony in the room.

“Good night Ms. Tender, and I wish you well until the next shift we have together.” He spoke, his tone keeping a professional note.

“Good night doctor.” Tenderheart replied as he exited the office area.

He walked at a steady pace through the dark hospital corridor, heading in the direction of the lounge area and from there to the exit. He exchanged a quick nod with the nurse manning the reception, but no more than that as he exited out into the night. A quick glance upwards showed him a grand vista of stars in the autumn sky and the slight misting from his breath proved that the days were indeed getting cooler. Giving a content sigh he turned his gaze back down and started heading home.

Accompanied by only the sound of his hooves he soon lost himself to thoughts as he walked through the empty streets of nighttime Ponyville. In fact he was so lost that he barely had time to register that a griffin suddenly had appeared to cover his entire field of vision. Actually that was the last thing he did see before his world fell away into darkness and complete silence.

Swiftmend woke slowly, his mind sluggishly informing him that he was in bed and that it was far too comfortable to not contemplating a short snooze. However as fate would have it his keen mind did latch on to one strange fact, namely that he was in a bed. His eyes snapped open, presenting him with a view of an unfamiliar ceiling. He quickly threw the covers off of his body with a quick magical burst while he quickly scanned the rest of the room with his eyes. Aside from everything being slightly out of proportion it seems fairly normal he started to conclude. But stopped himself. No! Nothing about this is normal. The last thing I remember is that griffin, at least I think it was a griffin. He thought as he hopped off the bed, his hooves hitting the floorboards with a synchronized thud.

He barely had time to wonder whether the sound he had just made had attracted any attention before such ponderings got answered by the sound of steps approaching the room’s only door could be heard. He had even less time to prepare for the oddity that entered room soon thereafter. So instead of formulating any type of coherent thought he just stared dumbly at whatever the creature in front of him was. It wasn’t until the creature spoke that his otherwise quite sharp mind started working again and at first he wasn’t sure that he had heard the creature right.

“Oh, so you are awake Swifty. Long time no see I suppose.” The creature said with a toothy grin.

No… Swiftmend’s mind produced.

“I gotta admit that I was surprised when I realized that it was you, I even thought I was going to have to take you over to the Ponyville hospital for a while there. Wouldn’t that have been ironic?” The creature, that he vehemently wanted to deny to be the individual he had never thought to see again, said cheerfully.

Nonono… His mind continued.

“Guess there won’t be a need for that eh? Swift?” The impossible individual in front of him said.

It can’t be Stormcloud, it just can’t! He refused to acknowledge. It was after all impossible that he was here, they had gone over the full implications of what he had intended to do that night so long ago.

“Swift?” The large bipedal impossibility asked, a hint of concern had found its way into his voice and the expression changed to match the new tone.

“Stormcloud?” He forced himself to say, closer to ask really.

A large smile split Stormcloud’s features. “Hey he’s alive in there, how have you been Swifty?” He responded, his cheerfulness having returned.

Bewildered by all the impossible things happening all at once Swiftmend asked the most relevant question his mind could produce at the moment. “How?”

A mix of emotions seemed to flash across the alien features of his friend’s face. “That’s a long story. One that I will share with you in time but before that.” Stormcloud answered holding up one of the fingers on the arms he now possessed.

Turning around Stormcloud shouted down the lit hallway behind him. “Gil! He’s awake now so I suggest you get up here so that you can apologize!”

There were a few seconds of silence before steps once more could be heard from outside the room, and soon a young griffin female revealed herself in the doorway. From what Swift could tell it was the same one he had seen before being knocked out, although now that he could see her better in the light from the hallway she seemed familiar. Before he had a chance to delve deeper into where he could possibly know her from the griffin spoke up.

“Sorry ‘bout crashing into you it wasn’t my intention.” She said curtly.

Stormcloud let out an exasperated sigh as his face was covered by his hand. “Gil, you could at least try to sound sorry.” He admonished the griffin, sounding tired.

“I did mean it! It’s just that he seems fine to me.” The griffin replied quickly.

At that point the sheer absurdity of the situation boiled over for Swiftmend and he started to chuckle involuntarily. Soon the chuckles turned into full-blown laughter, causing the other individuals in the room to turn and look at him. Once he saw this he made an effort to collect himself before speaking.

“It’s fine, really. I’ll accept the apology as it is you don’t have to force it out of her Storm.” He said, causing his friend to raise an eyebrow.

“If you say so Swift. You seem to have cheered up considerably since we went separate ways.” Stormcloud pointed out.

He gave a quick amused snort before speaking. “What can I say? Seems like you managed to get your message across in the end. I’ve had quite a lot of time to think over past mistakes and correct my heading since then too.”

Stormcloud seemed like he was about to answer but the griffin beat him to it. “Wait so you knew Cloud from his first time here?” She asked quickly.

“Yeah, you could say that… miss?” He began but ended up asking as he still didn’t have her name.

“Oh, the name’s Gilda, Gilda Rustfeather. So how did you two get to know each other? Cloud has promised to tell me about his past but he likes to do so in broad terms, leaving out details.” The griffin called Gilda elaborated.

“Well the first time I met Cloud he was at the Ponville Infirmare:y as it was called back then. He had an injured hoof if I recall correctly and from there he proceeded to annoy the living daylights out of me.” He told the inquisitive griffin.

“Huh, that’s somewhat similar to the first time I met him. He stumbled in half-starved and dehydrated to my family’s inn so we took him in. The first real conversation I had with him ended with began with him making a joke out of my actions.” Gilda told him.

“Uh, guys? I’m standing right here.” Stormcloud added.

Swiftmend ignored his friend and kept his focus on the griffin. “Really? Tell me does he still get injured due to the strangest of reasons? Like through fights that could’ve been avoided?” He asked, now intrigued to see what he could learn.

“You know it. From what I’ve seen he has a talent for finding trouble.” Gilda confirmed.

“Still standing right here.” Stormcloud tried again.

“Did he try to do everything tough and dangerous by himself back when you knew him too?” Gilda asked.

“Well he relied on me for some magic but otherwise I’d have to say yes, he did take a lot the burden back then.” He said thoughtfully.

“Guys! Standing right here!” Stormcloud finally shouted.

“Oh, sorry Cloud I didn’t mean t-” Gilda began but was interrupted by a loud but strangely familiar voice from downstairs.

“Huzzah! Cloud where are you?! We need to practice that last part of the act today!” The voice, which had to belong to Princess Luna, called out loudly but cheerfully.

“Aurgh, I forgot that they were going to swing by early today.” Stormcloud complained.

He turned his gaze towards Swiftmend. “Before you ask yes that was Luna that just arrived downstairs and you’re welcome to stay and watch as we rehearse our act for Nightmare night if you wish Swift. Although you might want to head on home, I guess that’s where you were going before we err… ponynapped you? Nevertheless, it was nice meeting you again. Though I guess it could’ve been under better circumstances.” Stormcloud offered sheepishly.

Swiftmend’s mind however had decided to quit somewhere in the middle of Stormcloud confirming that Princess Luna was the owner of the voice. And while his mind was used to sorting vast amounts of information relating to patients and treatment plans the bizarre nature of Stormcloud’s daily life was a bit too much. So instead of punishing his mind further, trying to sort through everything he had learned in the past couple of minutes he decided to opt out. The last “adventure” he dragged me into had enough excitement to last a lifetime. He thought to himself before answering.

“As interesting as it sounds Storm I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. I must make my way back home after all.” He said after he managed to summon his voice again.

Stormcloud nodded thoughtfully. “Alright I can understand that. Well I guess I’ll see you around then Swift and don’t be afraid to come by and visit when you have some time over.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, just promise me that you keep me out of any of your future plans.” He replied to his friend hopefully.

“I’ll try, now I truly need to run down to Luna before she goes all out canterlock voice on me.” Stormcloud said, taking a step towards the open door before turning. “Hey Gil, could you show Swiftmend the way out?” He added over his shoulder.

“Sure thing Cloud!” Gilda said, snapping to something similar to attention causing Stormcloud to shake his head as he walked out of the room.

As his friend made his exit Swiftmend turned his attention to griffin that had been appointed his guide out of what he presumed to be Stormcloud’s home.

“So, Gilda was it?” He asked the griffin.

“Aye, that’s my name. Now follow me and I’ll show you the way out.” She confirmed before motioning for him to follow.

He followed the griffin out of the room and down a large staircase leading down. Well to be fair everything in this strange building was too large to be intended for the use of the average pony. I have to remember to have Stormcloud give me a tour of this place sometime in the near future. He mused to himself as he studied the strange building layout. His thoughts were interrupted as Gilda spoke up again.

“Well here’s the door, although do you mind if I ask you something before you leave?” She asked.

“Sure, I can answer one question if it isn’t too personal.” He agreed, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

Gilda nodded before speaking. “Why do you keep calling Cloud, Stormcloud?” she asked.

“Oh that, well you see that was the name he used during the first time I met him. I guess it just stuck with me after that.” He explained.

“Really? Would you mind telling me some more about how he was back then?” Gilda asked, sounding genuinely interested.

Swiftmend took a split second to think before answering. “Well I wouldn’t mind filling you in on some of my earlier encounters with Storm, although you’d have to be okay with walking and talking since I really do need to get home.” He suggested.

“Deal.” Gilda said simply, heading out of the door before he could respond. Well outside she turned to face him, the rays of the morning sun giving her feathers an almost golden shimmer. “Well are you coming or not?” she asked, breaking him out of the admiring stupor he unknowingly had found himself in.

He shook his head before answering. “Yeah, sure.” He said before joining the griffin on his walk back towards Ponyville.

After the unsuspected reunion with Swiftmend my days past in a blur of activity as Luna, her guards and I prepared for our grand opening event for this year’s Nightmare night. I did also manage to get an apology out of Gilda for the camera/shower incident however she refused to tell me the reason behind her actions. In the end I felt that it was better to not push the issue too far and dropped it. Well I dropped once I got a promise out of her to not do it again.

In general though time went by fast, and it felt as if I got much done. What truly mattered to me though was that the bonds I had built, or rebuilt, with my return felt stronger than ever. So when the day of Nightmare night arrived at last, and Ponyville was in full swing preparing for the event I felt that I was truly part of what was about to happen. With that bolstering my already high spirits I donned the costume that I had been given by Luna for my role and stepped outside my home. The remaining light of the sun was rapidly disappearing in the horizon, signaling that Nightmare night was about to begin.

Author's Notes:

Huzzah! It's that time of the month and thus I give you a new chapter. I don't really have much to say other than that the current pace of new chapters will last a bit longer. So in other words I thank for your patience and hope that you look forward to a more rapid release schedule during the summer months.

Now as always like, upvote, comment if you like it. Or if you found a glaring mistake point that out too, snarky replies may occur if your comment looks something like this though: You're bad at grammar and spelling. (Well thanks for pointing out what I need to do to improve >_>).

Well enough ranting! I have no true title yet for the next chapter but it will be a multi-part chapter and the working title so far is simply, Nightmare night p. 1