The Cold Night

Paty awoke in an Infirmary somewhere inside the Arena corridors. His entire body was aching with pain and great soreness. His vision was hazy, but only for a few seconds. When he was fully conscious, he was met with a whole bunch of Ponies. The Whistle-blower and all the Exam failures were sitting by him, including Storm, who was sobbing a little bit. "Are you okay, 77," the Blower asked. Paty looked around and noticed that he was bandaged along with the top of his head.

"I think I am, Sir," he said politely. He gave her a smile and showed relief that he was alive.

"Then get the hell off your ass and head for the East gate," she yelled at him. Paty got out of the bed and looked at the Pony with menacing eyes.

"What did you just say to..." He was cut short after getting smacked hard across his face.

"Shut the fuck up and get a move on before something bad happens!" Paty kept his mouth shut along with the other five failures and followed the Blower to the East gate. Paty's head hung, confused about the events currently happening.

"What the hell," he thought angrily. "What right does she have to treat us like this? I'm a near adult and I'm being treated like a colt!" He then thought about a conversation he had with his Instructor a few days ago.

"What if I fail the Exam, even if I had all the confidence in the world and the strongest belief that anypony could have? What will happen to me, then?" His Instructor sighed.

"I have no idea what will happen to you if you fail. No pony does."

That memory rang through him like a bell. Whatever happens to the Pegasi that fails the Flight Exam he would experience in the flesh. All his worries had come true, even though it wasn't his fault. The fear of being exiled from Cloudsdale clouded Paty's mind. He wanted to start crying, but in his head, there was no point to do so. Instead he remained silent, awaiting what would happen next. When they got to the gate, the Blower told them to keep quiet and wait for further instruction, then told them to make a neat line against the fence, and the six ponies obliged without any resistance. Storm got next to Paty, looked at him for a few seconds, then looked at the cloud floor. Then the waiting begun. They sat there for hours of complete silence. All of the failures took a seat in their spot and kept shut. Paty was still locked in his head, thinking about what the future held for him. He was nervous, scared, and extremely paranoid. It felt like the entire world had turned on him. Everypony was an enemy to him. His fear became worse and worse. After sitting their for what felt like forever, one of the failed ponies got up.

"That's it, I've had enough of this," they said rebelliously.

"Keep your mouth shut," the Whistle-blower said.

"No, I'm done sitting here! I don't have to sit here with you! I have a family with a nice home, I have some bits in a bank, I'm just going to live with them!"

The Whistle-blower looked at them with eyes of heavy rage. "I said keep your mouth shut, you're not going anywhere."

The pony talked back. "Fuck you! I am not going anywhere with you. I'm leaving right now!" They opened their wings and and launched over the gate as quickly as they could. The Whistle-blower sat there and watched as the pony started to disappear in the distance. Then suddenly, a small projectile darted at the pony. A gush of red was seen blast out of the side of the poor pony's head as they started spinning out of control and disappeared in the clouds. Everypony but the Whistle-blower was shocked.

"Do you see what happens when you try to leave," the Blower asked. "You better hope that doesn't happen to you." No other pony moved after that point. Paty was still trying to understand what was happening.

"A pony just lost their life trying to run and nopony is trying to stop it or say anything about it." He wanted to say something, but soon realized that his own life was at stake.

Once again, they sat there and waited. Paty was hoping that all the waiting would tire out the Blower, making for a great escape, but the Blower didn't look tired at all and didn't have to move to kill somepony, so he kept thinking. The day was passing by really slow. Much hours later, the sun was finally going down. Some of the failed ponies went to sleep along with Storm. Paty couldn't sleep, though. His mind was so focused on his surroundings and the potential danger that awaited him.

He then looked back on his accident during the Exam. The sudden illness that overwhelmed him caused him to crash and flunk. How could this have happened? How can something quickly overcome a pony and make them do that? It was unheard of for some pony to just feel sick instantly and force them to crash. No logic was dictated behind it. It was too late now, though. He had no choice but to face what ever was laid out for him.

Storm looked at Paty for a quick moment and whispered "how are you doing so far?"

Paty said back, "I don't have an answer for you". Then the silence was back and got quite uncomfortable. After a lifetime, the sun finally went down. The night darkened the city and the world around Paty disappeared. An unexpected carriage pulled up to the gate the failures were so bonded to. It was being pulled by some armored stallions in bulky black armor.

"Get in the fucking vehicle," the Blower said harshly. More armored ponies showed up and forced the five left over failures in the carriage.

"Wow, that's more than last years failures. How many is that, five," one of the armored ponies asked. A big smile was crossed over his face.

"There was six of them, but the damn bastard tried to make a break for it," the Whistle-blower explained.

"That's a shame." A pony stepped out of the carriage and walked up to the Blower. There was nothing special about him. He looked like a normal citizen that lived in Cloudsdale.

"Lady, let's get this over with so I can go home and forget that I had anything to do with this," he said in harsh disappointment. The Whistle-blower gave him a small slip of paper of which he took immediately. Then he let out a soft sigh and went back to the carriage, then sat down in the driver seat. Once everypony was in the carriage, the door shut shut and was locked from the outside, preventing any kind of attempts to escape. A small window behind the driver seat was opened and the unarmored pony peered into it, making little eye contact with the ponies that sat before him.

"Okay, listen up. Do not talk until we get to the checkpoint. Do I make myself clear?" The five ponies nodded and kept their mouths shut. He closed the window and the carriage started rolling. Paty wanted to look out a window to see where they were going, but the carriage didn't have any. There was no light, it was dark and quite nerve racking. It was cold too, and there was not a blanket in sight to keep anypony warm. Paty Cake glanced at Storm Cloud and they exchanged head shakes. Paty figured that Storm was thinking the same thing he was. "This is ridiculous!" Nothing could be done at this point and nopony had the courage to even attempt to whisper. They were all scared; frightened by abuse and death.

"Does Celestia and Luna know what's happening here," Paty thought to himself. "Do they just choose to ignore it? They are the biggest powers and Equestria, how can they not know what's going on? I can't believe that they would allow treatment of their fellow citizens to slide down a hill and let ponies abuse others!" Then another thought crossed his mind. "If we were getting banished, this would be considered unnecessary abuse. Than…" Paty's head froze for a moment trying to make sure that his next thought would be a legit question, but he knew that it already was. "Where are they taking us," Paty whispered quietly. The four other ponies looked at him and shrugged. Their eyes told a true tale of sadness and despair. The secrecy of the situation didn't add up. Paty, who was in deep thought, gathered some puzzle pieces and tried his best to put them together. He should have realized how anonymous the ponies that took him were being. They literally waited for the night to sink in, when what they could have done was take them hours ago. The random pony driving the carriage didn't fit the whole ordeal. It looks like the guy was picked off the street and was told to do this. Paty moved his thought process to something else considering that there was no true point to figure all this stuff out. "Whatever happens, happens," he thought. The air in the carriage seemed to get colder and colder with every passing minute. The air was thin and being consumed by five ponies all together. Paty decided that there was no using for staying up. He got in the most comfortable position he could. It was crammed having five ponies shoved inside of the vehicle. He relaxed his head while sitting upright to fall asleep. The world around him disappeared.

Paty awoke to violently being thrown forward and a pony in front of him caught him. The carriage came to a stop and the driver got off and opened the door. "Get out and go to the next carriage," he said. "Oh, and you're free to talk with one another." Paty was happy; it felt as if he hadn't spoken in a lifetime. He got out along with the others and saw yet another carriage awaiting them. This time, it was being driven by two ponies in black suits and sunglasses; as if they needed them. As Paty was trotting over to the ride, one of the other ponies started bouncing up and down, then smiled. It was the pony referred to as Number 52, who earlier rammed hard into some hoops like Paty did. He didn't understand why somepony should jump so furiously, but now that he could speak, he wanted to ask. As the ponies piled in for the next part of their journey, the old driver went up to the suited ones and handed them the slip of paper from earlier. They gave him back a giant sack which obviously held loads of bits. Then the pony went on his merry way. The five ponies were now in the next carriage. The doors were shut and locked from the outside while the carriage started moving.

"Finally, we can talk once again," Storm said in glee.

Paty looked at him and said, "It doesn't matter." Storm shook his head.

"Of course it matters! Now we won't be bored out of our minds." Paty looked over at Number 52.

"Hey, what were you doing jumping up and down like that," he asked. The pony looked at him proudly.

"I was testing something out and apparently, I was wrong."

Confused, Paty asked, "What were you testing"?

The pony explained, "We have been traveling for hours so I was pretty sure we were out of the city by this point, but when I jumped up and down, I noticed that the ground wasn't solid. That means that we're still in Cloudsdale."

Storm shook his head again. "A bouncy ground doesn't mean that we're still in Cloudsdale. It could mean that we made it to another city made out of clouds." The pony looked at Storm with rage.

"How many cities are made out of clouds in Equestria? Just think about it." Storm looked at Paty and shrugged.

"What is your name," Paty asked the pony. Paty rarely talked to anypony in his class so he didn't know very many names.

"It's Thunder Game, but you can just call me Game for short."

Paty smiled and said, "I'm Paty Cake and I'm sure you know who is sitting next to me." Game nodded.

"Storm Cloud. The jerk that helped make fun of everypony outside his circle, of course I know him. Everypony does".

Paty turned to Storm smiling as big as he could. "Looks like he already has you all figured out." Storm chuckled.

"Watch your mouth before I make that bruise on your head worse than it already is." Paty kept his smile.

"Says the pony with the black eye." Storm looked at Paty with extreme rage but did nothing to comeback him.

"Anyway's, this is my friend Skull Crusher," Thunder said. Paty and met eyes with what looked like a regular pony. Storm gave him a particular look.

"So you're the one who got into that fight a couple years back," he said happily. Crusher looked at him and smiled.

"You remember me?" Storm nodded.

"Of course I do; they don't call you Skullcrusher for nothing." Crusher's smile died.

"You're the jerk that keeps picking on everypony. Sorry to say this, but I really don't want to talk to you." Paty giggled in his head. He didn't want to focus on his future fate. Other ponies were with him whether they were jerks or not. He was happy to be with others who failed as well as he did. On the other hoof, if Game was right and they were still in Cloudsdale, this wasn't as simple as banishment; it was something else.

"We need to make pact," Paty murmured out loud.

Everypony looked at him funny but listened in. "What kind of pact," Crusher asked.

"A pack saying that we all stay together no matter what happens. Hey, we have no clue where we're headed so we might as well stay close to each other." Even Storm nodded his head in agreement because Paty was right. They didn't know where they were being taken or what would happen to them. None of them wanted to be alone in case something bad was coming. They've already seen somepony die before the trip even was close to starting.

"Guess this means we're all friends now. Though, I don't know how I feel about Storm Cloud being apart of this," Game said.

"I'll be in this pact though I wouldn't call us friends at all. I just hate the idea of being alone in this situation."

Paty sighed. "Okay, from now on, we stick together and what ever comes, we'll be rea…" Paty was cut short and the new group of friends became silent. Fear overwhelmed them to almost complete insanity. Nopony said anything and waiting to see if anything was about to happen, but nothing did. Finally, Storm said the one thing that everypony realized in that brief moment of their lives.

"The carriage stopped moving."