//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: Discharged 
// by The_Last_Centurion 
//------------------------------//

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc. 
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth. 


Chapter 11



I woke up to the sun warming my face and birds singing in the trees. I rubbed my eyes and opened them slowly, letting them adjust to the light gently. It was a wonderful morning outside, and I could feel it would be a wonderful day. I remembered that I was exempt from work today, so I might as well go do something fun. I sprung out of bed and landed on my tiphooves. I bounced and kicked my bed from underneath, making it fold in half. I smiled. Always works. 
I entered the house carrying my bed under one hoof and kicking the back door open. Spike, was doing the post breakfast dishes, almost dropped the one he was washing when he jumped three feet in the air. I laughed as he started to yell at me. Twilight came into the kitchen scared and confused.
“What just happened?”
“Crimson just came in through the back door for some reason!” Spike said pointing at me in an incriminatory way.  
“Why do you have your bed?” they both said, noticing it for the first time.
“Just felt like sleeping underneath the stars.” I said shrugging my shoulders. I swaggered past Twilight as she was going to say something. She changed her mind last minute and just looked at me surprised. I went into my room and put my bed back where it was, but pulled out my suitcase. 
“Hey Twi!” I called energetically. “You got any heavy liftin' to do or any dead trees that need to go?”
Twilight poked her head into my room with a puzzled look on her face. “Uhhmm, no?” Why do you ask?”
“I feel like doing something fun.”
“Well Fulltershy said there were a few dead trees on the edge of the Everfree that...” 
“Awesome! Yo Spike, wanna come see those gauntlets I was talking about?”
I heard a pair of quickly scampering feet race into my room. “Where are they?” he asked quickly and alertly. 
I opened up my suitcase and had him help me remove my trinkets again. We put the trinkets on my nightstand and on top of my wardrobe. I saw Twilight produce a parchment and quill from somewhere, and start scribbling down something. When my suitcase was empty of all my memorabilia, Spike stuck his head into the suitcase looking around.
“Where are they?” he said almost excitedly as I said. “Step back.”
The bottom of the suitcase was lined with vinyl like the rest of the inside, but it rolled back to reveal a hard metal bottom. I tapped it around the sides until I heard a decent “pop!”. I had made this 'secret' compartment by putting this metal plate in as a bottom. The real bottom was rounded, following the casing of the suitcase. However, in this compartment laid my gauntlets. I put the suitcase on the bed and pulled them out for all to see. 
Spike's eyes sparkled with the light reflected off of them. “Woah....” he said stunned. I tossed them to him so he could hold onto them. He caught all four of them very carefully and looked at them reverently.
Even Twilight was mesmerized by them. “Hey, that's Princess Luna's magic on them!”
“Yeah. She put a few spells on them to help me out.”
“Like what?”  she said clearly intrigued.
“If you come with me to Fluttershy's, I'll show you.” 
“Horseapples. I can't I promised Big Mac I'd help him.”
“Big Mac?” I asked suspiciously. “What does he need help with?”
“I don't know.”Twilight said shrugging her shoulders. “He said he needed me to help him out with a project because I am 'the smartest unicorn ah know'” she said in a pantomime of Big Mac. 
“Alright, but I'm gonna take Spike with me.”
Twilight raised her eyebrows. “Gonna?”
“Yep this is a dragonnapping!” I said as I galloped past her and picked up Spike by the scruff of his neck. 
“Hey!” he said as I ran out the front door with him. I flipped him up onto my back.
“Hold onto my gauntlets kid.”
“Hurmph. Hold onto the gauntlets, but you don't care what happens to me....” he whined. I startled him by sprinting even faster, making him really hold on.
By the time I got to Fluttershy's cottage, I had gotten lost twice and Spike had to lead me there. Unfortunately, he thought it would be funny to do so by pulling on my mane in the direction he wanted to go. He was laughing hysterically when we stopped at Fluttershy's, but that didn't stop him from tugging on me.
“Come on Crimson, go this way! Giddyup!” he said gleefully.
“Hey kid” I said as I saw a mud puddle a few feet away. “put down my gauntlets.”
He dropped them, and was swiftly bucked off my back into a perfect arc, landing in the mud.
I fell down and laughed at his surprised and muddy face. His look was priceless!
“Now I know why you get along with Rainbow Dash so well.” he muttered as he wiped mud away from his face. 
“Don't worry, I'll make it up to you.” I said as I sat up and put my gauntlets on. He eyed them suspiciously as I went up to Fluttershy's cottage and knocked on the door with my head. Spike laughed at this, but he didn't know why I couldn't knock on the door. Shortly, a graceful butter-yellow pegasus opened up the door. 
“Oh, hello Crimson! How are you!”
“Great! Twi said you have some dead trees and stuff that you need gone.”
“Oh yes. There are two trees in my backyard that need to go, and then there's a tree that was struck by lighting. It was in the Everfree, but fell. I would be delighted if you would remove it. It's blocking the stream that flows into the pond for all my little fishy friends. I would love it if you helped. I asked Big Mac to do it, but he said he had a surprise that he would show me today.”
“No problem. I'll get this done quickly. If you want to watch, you can.”
“I'd love to.”
“Alright.” I said cracking my neck. “Come on Spike, you're gonna like this.” 
We walked to the backyard and over to the first dead tree. I took my front gauntlets off again.
“Hey Spike, go hit that dead tree as hard as you can.” I said.
He raised his muddy eyebrows at me, but complied. He walked over to the tree and winded up, giving the tree a fair “smack”. He shook his claw out afterward blowing on it in pain.
“Now look at this.” I hit it with my front hoof and got a louder “thump” out of it.
Spike laughed and said “What was that? Were you trying to impress me?”
“Nope. Just giving you something to contrast.” I said as I walked back over to my front gauntlets and put them back on my hooves. I walked back over to the dead tree for a final time and stood up on my back hooves to give it a front sucker-hoof. The tree splintered satisfyingly on impact as I knew it would. Spike stared at me with his mouth hanging open. Fluttershy stood smiling at his expression.
“The first thing my lovelies do is amplify my strength. I might not be as big as Big Mac, but with these I'm as strong as he is.” I said as I drop-kicked the stump, shattering it into a million pieces. Then I walked over to the next dead tree. I called Spike over and told him to claw a large “X” into the base of the tree. Then I found a decent sized rock and gently picked it. I gave it to him and told him to go stand next to Fluttershy again. This time even Fluttershy seemed intrigued, even though she was silent. I took up the same stance across from the tree.
“Ok, Spike. Throw the rock at me.”
“What?”
“Do it kid.”
“Whatever.” he said as he lobbed it my way. He didn't throw it hard but I compensated by winding up and firing it with a hook. The rock went from a large semi-spherical shaped stone lazily floating in the air to a sharpened projectile flying fast enough to cut through a dead tree, the two live trees behind it, and then come to rest smoking in the tree behind them. Spike again looked on with an opened mouth and wide eyes, but Fluttershy also watched with wide eyes. I had them hooked.
“The second things my babies do is form a repelling barrier around themselves. So, if somepony throws a rock at me, I can punch it back at them, but return it better than it was given to me.” I said as I went over to the dead tree and poked it in the perfect whole the stone made. The tree fell backwards, and I kicked the stump, making it disappear. 
“Now, where's that tree blocking the stream?” I asked casually.
“O..over this way.”Fluttershy stammered looking at the tree.
She led Spike and I further into her backyard which was more of the very entrance to the Everfree forest. We walked from a soft cut grass into the wild vegetation of the forest. Spike looked a little scared, but I just shrugged it off. The Everfree wasn't scary at all. Compared to some of the places I'd been to rescue some ponies, the Everfree was a cute little animal sanctuary. 
We reached the pond and I saw it was in a bad shape. The water had stagnated so some algae started to grow on the surface. Fluttershy looked worried for her fish friends for a good reason; if they didn't get fresh water soon, they'd probably die.
I walked from the pond to the tree that had rudely fallen across the vital stream. I started to dig through the thick ground vegetation, until all four of my hooves touched the earth underneath. I closed my eyes and focused.
“What is he doing?” Spike whispered loudly to Fluttershy. 
“Um, I don't know Spike. Maybe we should be quiet, he looks like he's trying to focus.”
“Shhhs.” I said with my eyes closed.
After a little while I heard the dragon-pony pair gasp as I worked my will on the tree. I could feel the tree, and I decided to make it into a cute little bridge you could walk over. I opened my eyes to see the bridge that was just in my mind, there where the tree had been and I fell down, sitting on the ground. 
Spike and Fluttershy raced over to me. 
“How did you do that?” Fluttershy asked.
“The tree! It, it rippled like water! Then it started to change!” Spike exclaimed animatedly.
“The third thing my gauntlets do” I said panting “is amplify my latent power when I touch the earth. You both know how earth ponies are good farmers and metal-smiths?”
They nodded their heads in confirmation.
“That's because earth ponies have latent magics. Where pegasi and unicorns can use their magic to do things like teleport or control the weather, Earth ponies can't do that. The magic we posses is inside of us, and it only comes out when we have a direct contact with the ground. Even then, we can only do things like make crops grow a little better or craft some better metal work. However, earth ponies used to be able to access all their magic when they connected themselves with the earth. I think we still can, it just takes years of practice. But my gauntlets are like a valve that opens my magic up to the earth. When I'm connected, I can impose my will over any thing borne from the earth. Like the tree over there.” I said while pointing to the new bridge.
Spike and Fluttershy helped me up and we walked out of the forest and we talked the whole while.
“Twilight would have loved to see that!” Spike said.
“Thank you for helping out today, Crimson.” Fluttershy said. “I feel like I need to repay you.”
“Oh no, I couldn't except. Just call it as a favor for a friend.”
“I insist. There must be some way I could help you......”
“Hey Fluttershy, give him one of your massages!” Spike broke in.
“What? No, I could....” I stuttered embarrassedly 
“That's a great idea Spike!” Fluttershy said.
“Crimson, she can make you super relaxed. She's a pro at it and you feel like rubber when she's done. It's awesome!” 
“Uhhh.....Ok, I guess.” I said apprehensively. I didn't think I would like somepony touching my muscles and body, especially when I was trained not to let something like that happen. 
We all left the woods in a cheerful mood and went up to Fluttershy's cottage to get some tea and snacks, but before we could get to the back door, Twilight appeared in the backyard.
“Guys you gotta see this!” she said excitedly.
“What?” we all asked her.
“Look!” she said pointing up at the sky. 
“I don't see, anything.” Spike said
“Is that a hawk?” I said spotting a far-away dot.
“No, it's not the right shape.” said the animal expert. “What is it?” she asked aloud as it started to descend, getting bigger. 
It sped off out of sight past the cottage and we all turned to Twilight to ask her what it was. Then we all heard a loud “YEEEHAAWWWWW!” as the thing sped quickly overhead and did a flip in the air. 
Fluttershy was the first one to recognize the voice. “Toshy?!?” she said excited and confused.
Spike and I looked at each other 'Toshy'? Then we saw the flying thing's color.
“BIG MAC!” we shouted dumbfounded. We looked at each other for a tic and then back at the flying form of Big Mac. He did another flip and then landed by us unsteadily. 
“I gotta adjust the ailerons and practice my landings. But the maiden flight was a success!” he said happily as he removed the flying goggles around his eyes.
A sudden realization hit me. “THAT is the project you've been working on?!”
“Shoot, did AJ tell ya about this? Dangnabit! She said she wouldn't tell nopony. Well, serves her right. She thought it was all a joke.” he said going through a mix of emotions, starting out a little angry, then finishing smug.
“Honey, what are these?” Fluttershy said.
“Remember when we had dinner out on the ledge above Ponyville? You said you would love to fly with me in the dusk sky?”
Fluttershy blushed at the memory but said “Yes.”
“Well that got me thinkin'. If I cauld fly with you, we go do things that ya love ta do with other pegasi, an' you don't have ta worry about leavin' me behind!” he finished excitedly pulling her into a hug. “These are fer you hunay-bunnay!”
“Oh Toshy, you didn't have to do all that for me!” 
Spike and I giggled at their pet-names, but were amazed by seeing Big Mac fly. I had to admit, the wings Big Mac had on looked way cooler than my gauntlets. But I would never trade them for all the cool-looking wings in the world.
“So how'd you make those, Big Mac?” I asked him after he let Fluttershy go. 
“You'll like this Crimson, being a son of a blacksmith an' all.” he took them off of his back and laid them on the ground. They were made of metal and looked like two big oblong triangles. There was no weld line down the middle, so it must have all been one piece. I eyed his craftsmanship approvingly, noticing that only the most diligent of workers could get that right. Then I saw the 'ailerons' he talked about. They were two flaps of metal on the back part of the wings. 
“What do they do?” I asked him.
“They control which way I want to turn. The also control whether I go up or down.” he said excitedly.
“Then how do you work them?” 
He flipped the wings over onto their back. On the other side there was the harness that supported Big Mac as he flew. There was also two metal pulls that were connected to the ailerons and ran up the underside of the wings. They went out along the wings for some time and then jutted out facing forward and coming out. The ends opened up and had a bar across them, so that Big Mac could slip his hooves into them and push or pull, making the ailerons and thus wigs go whichever way he wanted to. 
“That's some pretty fancy metalworking there. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Thank ya kindly Crimson.” he said with a smile, turning to Fluttershy. “Now hunnay, would you like to go fer a fly with me?” 
“Yes!” she said delightedly.
Big Mac hurriedly picked up his wings and strapped himself into them. 
Before he could leave I asked “How do you know the harness won't fail?” with concern.
“It's Solar denim. Rarity said it was the strongest fabric known to ponykind an' that it would go along with all my outfits nicely.” he said amused before he put both hooves in the aileron controls. Then he shot up into the sky to fly away with Fluttershy.
Twilight came over to Spike and I and watched the happy couple fly off into the distance.
“So what did you do?” I asked her.
“I helped Big Mac with the magic part of the wings. He had already done all the calculations and researched which spells would work the best.” she put a hoof to her chin. “I would have never suspected Big Mac to be so.....well book smart! He always seemed kind of slow whenever we had talked before.”
“Maybe he was just shy?” I prompted making Twilight think for a little before she looked over to Spike and saw a dirty baby dragon.
“Spike! How'd you get so muddy?!”
“Ask you coltfriend.” he said sarcastically.
I told her about how he got thrown in the mud.
“Spike you deserved that!” she said to him. “But that doesn't mean you can do that Crimson!” she said to me.
“Oh yeah?” I asked playfully “What are you gonna do?”
“Next time, I'll throw you in the mud and see how you like it!” she said as threateningly as she could.
“Will you jump in there and wrestle him to the ground?” Spike asked
“Yeah!” 
“And call me names?” I asked following Spikes lead.
“Yeah!”
“And wear a leather bikini?” Spike said stifling his giggles. 
“Yea....Wait, what?”
I high-fived Spike gently, quickly throwing him on my back to gallop off again.
Twilight then realized the picture we had painted her into. “SPIKE!!!!CRIMSON!!!!!! WHEN I GET MY HOOVES ON YOU TWO!!!!” she screamed as she chased after us. Spike and I laughed as I ran as fast as I could from the deadly magical weapon on legs.

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“Ok. Do that again.” Twilight said awhile later after she had calmed down. She had given Spike a bath and he had told her about what I had showed him and Fluttershy. She brushed off the first two effects of my gauntlets since they were simple augmentation and protection spells. But she became interested in the third.
So now she had me in the backyard standing in the dirt, change a large rock she and Spike called 'Tom' for some reason, into different shapes. 
I changed it back from a large cube to it's original diamond shape.
“Can you try changing it into something specialized? Like a statue?” she asked from where she was sitting, recording notes on a piece of parchment.
I panted in the hot sun. “I can try.” I felt the rock with my magic through the earth; that was the easy part. Next, I picked a statue from my memory. That cool one from back in the desert outside of Las Pegasus, yeah that one would do. Next, came the hard part, imposing my will on the earth.
When you work with earth as a magical conductor, you find out that some elements are more appeasing to your will. Water would take any form you wanted it to, but was hard to control. Rocks and earth were very stubborn. They were easy to control, but resisted your will with a tenacity. Plants were the best to work with. Not only did they comply the best with Earth ponies, but they listened to you when you asked them to take a certain form, and they would let you control them if you just asked nicely. 
But Tom wasn't a plant; he was an annoyingly stubborn rock. I had the picture of the statue in my mind and started to release my magic on Tom. Changing him to take the statue's form was tiring and pernicious. Beads of sweat trickled down my face and over my closed eyes. When I thought it was done, I opened my eyes. There stood Tom, changed into the monolithic slab covered in archaic runes and a large picture of a sun in the middle of it surrounded my alchemical symbols. I started to celebrate,but Tom started to shimmer and he took on a fluid composition as he went back to his original shape. 
I picked up a smaller rock and threw it at Tom. “Buck you!” I shouted at him. “You suck! Boooooooo! Get outta here!”
I fell back onto the ground with an exhausted sigh. I closed my tired eyes, but opened them again as the sunlight around me disappeared. I saw Twilight standing over me giggling and floating her notepaper and quill above her head. 
“Come on inside. Spike has to have lunch done, and I'm sure you're hungry.” Twilight said.
My stomach growled loudly. “I'm in.” 
I got up off the ground and followed Twilight into the house. I agonizingly walked through the delicious smelling kitchen to put my gauntlets into my room and I walked to the washroom to clean my dirty hooves. Then I raced into the kitchen and sat down and had my napkin tied around my neck and fork and knives in my hooves before Twilight could blink. Spike turned around holding an amazing smelling covered-pan wearing a 'kiss the dragon' apron. He placed the pan on a hot pad on the table and stood next to his seat.
“Since we're going over to Sugarcube Corner for dinner, I'd like to present my piece-de-resistance for the day.” he removed the cover and my eyes bulged out of their sockets along with my tongue springing from my mouth.
“This is the braised alfalfa with potatoes and carrots all in a lemon perinon sauce. Enjoy.” he said with flourish. 
Twilight and I ooh'd and aww'd. Not only because it was Spike, but because it smelled and looked amazing. I let Twilight and Spike serve themselves, before scooping up a large portion of the meal for myself. I tucked in right as it hit my plate. It didn't only just look and smell amazing, it tasted out of this world! I went through two plates before I began to compliment Spike's cooking. He blushed and shrugged off the compliments modestly. I was complimenting him again when the earlier part of Spike's speech hit me.
“Wait? We're going to Sugarcube Corner for dinner tonight?” I asked them. When did that happen?
“Yes Crimson.” said Twilight. “If you had breakfast with us, you would have known that Pinkie Pie invited all of us to Sugarcube Corner for dinner.”
“It's just an excuse to get us to help take care of the Cake's kids. It's their anniversary tonight, so they're going out for a night in Canterlot.” Spike explained. 
Twilight looked at him sternly. “Be that as it may, I already told her we'd be delighted to go.” 
“Just so long as she doesn't bring out that party cannon again.” I shuddered at the memory.
“It'll just be us and the girls, so don't worry about it. Pinkie only pulls that out when it's a big party.” Twilight tried to comfort me.
I was apprehensive about it, but the thought of it slipped my mind when Twilight said “So you think you'll be ready to use your magic after lunch.” with a 'I won't take no for an answer' stare. 
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Ugggh. If only I could escape....wait, that's it! I let the chair teeter over with me in it. Twilight and Spike both tried to catch me to stop me from hitting the ground, but that's what I wanted to happen. I carried the momentum, rolling backwards out of the chair and out of the kitchen into the library. I quickly scrambled up onto all four hooves and blasted out the front door. It was pity I had to sacrifice the rest of Spike's delicious cooking, but I needed my freedom from the magic dictator Twilight.
“See you at Sugarcube Corner!” I called back to the house as I galloped away.
“You don't even know what time to be there! Urghhhhh! Stallions!” Twilight shouted back, slamming the door.
Whatever. I'd make it up to her later, but now I had my freedom, my sweet, sweet freedom. My freedom was apparently all that I saw, because I tried to skid to a stop before I tumbled into a trio of little fillies. 
“Hey!”
“Watch it jerk!”
“Why don'tcha watch were yer goin'!”
“Sorry, sorry. I didn't see you.” I said as we untangled ourselves.
“You're lucky we don't go call the cops! For all we know you could be a filly-molester!” said a spunky orange pegasi. I was taken aback at her comment.
“Yeah! Know what! I'm gonna get mah big brother tah beat you up!”
“Hey, hey! It was an accident kids. I didn't mean to bump into you young mares like that.” I said trying to appease them. “I'm not looking for a fight with anypony's brother, and I'm certainly NOT a filly-molester.” Sheesh. Kids these days.
“Hey, you're that stallion Rarity was talking about.” said the small off-white unicorn of the group. 
“You know Rarity?”
She nodded, her curly purple and pink stripped mane bouncing with every nod. “I'm Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister.” she said politely and energetically.
“What about your friends, Miss. Belle?”
Sweetie giggled at the use of 'Miss.' in front of her name, but her friends didn't follow her mood. 
“I'm not gonna fall fer any a' yer sweet talkin' mister! Mah big brother is three times yer size and can crush you like a bug!” 
From her accent and the way she talked about her brother I could guess who she was.
“Your big brother is Big Mac, right? Sorry, but we already had a little tussle, and I came out on top.”
She eyed me suspiciously. “Yer a liar.”
“I'm Crimson Moon. I'm sure Applejack or Big Mac have told you about me; I work on your farm! Here, if I'm lying, then I'll do all of your farm chores for a month.” I extended a hoof.
The little light yellow filly with a red mane that almost matched mine glared at me for a minute. Then she took my hoof in hers and shook. “Deal. Mah name's Applebloom, Mister Crimson.”
Applebloom poked the orange pegasus filly in the side.
“No Applebloom, I still don't trust him. How do we know he isn't a filly....”
“I wouldn't become a filly molester for any fillys, even the three beautiful ones in front of me.” I cut her off and also making all three of them blush. 
“So what's your name Miss?”
“I'm Scootaloo.”
“Well where are you three off to, Miss. Scootaloo.”
“We were going to Rarity's” Sweetie started .
“So we could help out” Applebloom continued.
“So we could find out what our talents are!” Scootaloo finished.
“Go Cutie Mark Crusaders!” They shouted together.
I laughed. “You three make quite the triumvirate.”
The all looked at me with weird looks. 
“Trium-a-what?” Sweetie said.
I was astounded. “You kids don't learn about Ancient Roam in School?”
“Didn't we do that a while back?” Applebloom asked her friends.
“Yeah, cause we tried to get our cutie marks as gladiator-ponies.” Scootaloo replied.
I shook my head. Kids these days.
“Alright little mares, I'll be seeing you around. Will you be going to Sugarcube Corner tonight to help foalsit with Pinkie Pie?” I asked innocently.
“HUHH!” the three gasped in unison. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Foalsitters go!”
I had the sneaking suspicion I just opened up a can of worms, but I just smiled and walked away before anything more could happen.
I walked on through Ponyville quickly becoming bored. Sure, the little town was vibrant, but it seemed taunting when all it's citizens, except for a select few, were deathly afraid you go ballistic on them. What was worse was that nopony wanted to show out right fear. The just gave me nervous smiles and waves. I tried my best to smile and wave back with as much friendliness I could muster, but it still felt as if the whole town was still distant. 
So I kept walking, until I saw a familiar rainbow stripped mane falling off the side of a cloud. I went over to a stand selling carrots and bought two with the small emergency stash of bits I kept in a tiny pouch around my neck. It was colored silver, so it was almost invisible against my coat. 
I stopped to nibble on one carrot underneath the cloud Rainbow Dash must've been resting on. I took one of the carrots into my front right hoof and took aim. Ok, her mane was hanging off the side that way, so her head must be....there. I threw the carrot and it struck home. I pumped my hoof in the air as I saw the pegasus jump up after being hit.
“Who threw that!?” she said angrily.
“WHO....Crimson, you jerk.” she said as she saw me doing my celebration dance. She landed beside me to walk next to me and I offered her the other carrot.
“Thanks, so why'd you do that.” she said curiously.
“I was bored.” I replied. 
She punched me in the shoulder playfully. “So what do you want to do?”
“I don't know. You tell me.”
“Hey! Why don't you teach me some Colt Maga!”she said excitedly, throwing the end of the carrot off into the distance as she did.
“I don't know.” I said before eating the end of the carrot, stalk and all.
“Dude, that's gross.”
“What?”
“You're not supposed to eat the ends.”
“I always have. Ever since I was a little colt.”
“Whatever. You are a weird stallion. I should have expected it. So you gonna teach me some Colt Maga, or what?”
“You'd need pads and other protective gear.....”
Rainbow put a hoof to her chin, then her eyes lighted up. “Be back in a minute.” she said rocketing into the sky.
I wondered what she was doing, until I saw her pushing a cloud. She landed and pulled it to the ground with her. Then she walked into it, did a little sculpting, and came out of it wearing a perfect set of cloud-pads. 
“Stand still.” I said. I walked up to her and punched the clouds on her side at medium strength. “You feel that.”
“Nope!” Rainbow said energetically. “Come on! Let's go!” 
“Can we take it somewhere a little less public?” 
Rainbow shook off her cloud armor and picked me up by my midsection. “Sure!”
“Wait!NO RAINBOW! DAMN IT!!!!” I cried as she flew away with me.

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We were up on the cliffs overlooking Ponyville. I was sitting down, trying to make my vertigo go away while Rainbow sculpted another set of cloud-pads from a newly captured cloud. She walked over to me when she was done and beckoned me to come at her. I stood up and happily complied.
After the third time she fell to the ground, I helped her back up and asked “You finished?”
She smiled at me and said “Not by a long shot.”
“Alright, I'd better teach you some basics so you can at least have a chance.”
“Let's do this.”she said, her eyes glittering with determination.
“Widen your stance.”
“A little more.”
“Ok. Now lean your weight, so you're stepping on the tips of your hooves.....”

Our lessons continued until the sun was low to the horizon, and we were both comfortably tired. I decided to stop the lessons there for the day so we could get to Sugarcube Corner, but also to make sure Rainbow wouldn't overexert herself. We were relaxing, watching the sunset; I sat in the grass on the overlook while Rainbow laid down, panting and exhausted.
I rose from my seat and told to the athletic mare “I'm walking this time.” seriously.
“What? You didn't like Rainbow Airways?” she said in exhausted delight.
“I'll meet you at Sugarcube corner.” I said as I walked away amused.
My walk was slow, not from lack of energy, but because I felt too relaxed to race around. I'd be a little late, so what? I looked around at the scenery as I traveled down the wooded path that led back into Ponyville. The houses and buildings looked like the gingerbread homes we made for Hearth's Warming Eve in  the setting sun. I serenely walked through the settling town and reached Sugarcube Corner as night first touched the sky. 
I stopped outside the front door remembering the unpleasant memory of the first time I visited. I shuddered at the thought, but brushed it aside. This wasn't a large party, just dinner with friends. It couldn't be that bad right?
I opened up the front door to be hit with a wave of sound and a billowing of smoke. 
“Nononon, pound-y don't fly over there! Pumpkin get that out of your mouth!” cried Pinkie's frantic voice.
Oh boy. 
I tried to slowly back out the door, but I was spotted by the pink mare who had been chasing a baby unicorn and pegasus around. She grabbed me and pulled me inside.
“Watch them while I finish the cupcakes!” she ordered me as she sped into the kitchen which was filled with smoke. Caught, I realized I must have been the first pony there, so I had no chance of escape out of the foalsitting. I looked around for the twins and I found the baby pegasus standing on the ceiling upside down, his small wings fluttering. He saw me and gave me a friendly baby greeting, which was him opening his mouth and making baby gurgles. His sister was close by, sitting on the table with the table cover shoved in her mouth. I sighed dejectedly at the ordeal I was about to face.
The first thing I did was find a broom and gently get the little pegasus baby off the ceiling. I delicately caught him, but he stated crying, being deprived of his freedom. Next, I picked up his sister and she started to bawl as well, when I removed the table cover from her tiny maw. With both babies screaming in my ears, I should have expected what would happen next. I started to feel the heat at the base of my neck and I started to panic. I could NOT have an attack while I was with these babies. I walked around Sugarcube corner, and found a room with a couch and a few chairs in it. It appeared to be a family room but I didn't care. I had to get these two to be quiet and calm, or else I would explode. I felt the heat rise with every agonizing wail, and I tried everything to quiet them down. I rocked them in my forehooves and I tried to play peekaboo with them, but nothing seemed to work. I tried to calm myself down by closing my eyes and blocking out their cries, but Oakleaf's song beat the inside of my mind like a sick drum. Then I decided what to do. It was a long shot, and it would probably hurt me more than an attack, but it could just possibly calm down these babies. I took a deep breath, and whistled the song in my head gently.
My whistling immediately seized the babies' attentions, but I didn't notice. I kept my eyes slammed shut so I wouldn't start bawling myself. The whole time I whistled, my memories of her flooded back. Her death was the most prominent and first memory to pop up, but then I started to remember all of my other times I was with her. The patrols, the long walks on our breaks, the parties we had with our unit after another successful mission, the fun we had, and closeness we had. My whistling broke, as I let our a stifled sob. I let the tears flow slowly as I took in a few shaky breaths. I felt two small warm things nuzzling me and I opened up my eyes. The babies on my lap looked worried  and were trying to cheer me up by nuzzling my chest and stomach. I smiled sadly at them and nuzzled them back.   
I decided I wouldn't bring the two adorable and loving children down with my misery over the past, so I wiped my tears away and started to play a game with them. By the time Pinkie Pie came into the room with a Applejack and Rarity, they found the two children climbing all over me. 
They all gave a large “Dawwwww.” when they saw the spectacle and I rolled my eyes, smiling.
“That's so precious darling!” said Rarity, her eyes as big as dinner plates.
I was barraged by a wave of female appreciation to cuteness. The whole time I continued to play with twins, ignoring most of the mares comments on how 'amazingly cute' I was with the babies. After a while of this, we all heard a knock from the front door and Pinkie Pie vanished from the room to greet the new arrivals. The rest of our little get together trickled into the room. Rainbow Dash laughed at me with the babies and Twilight smiled at me, while Fluttershy and Big Mac sat next to me on the couch, too obsessed in each other to notice my antics with the children. \
We conversed for a minute until Pinkie Pie came into the room and announced that dinner was served. I put Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake on my back and followed Pinkie into the dining room. What I suspected to be a sugary-sweet confection, was actually a dinner of normal spaghetti and fried hay-balls with marinara sauce. I tried to put the children in their high-chairs next to Pinkie's seat, but they wailed as soon as they were separated from me.
“Looks like they like you!” Pinkie said eliciting a loud 'Dawwwww...' from the mares again. “You wouldn't mind feeding them, would you?” she asked me.
I mumbled something, but switched seats with Pinkie so I could be next to the children. I barely ate my own dinner, as I had to feed the twins first, which I found out was time consuming and messy. I floated above the pockets of conversation at the table, but managed to grasp wisps of them as I fed the kids. 
“...really fast and he even had better reflexes than me!” I heard Rainbow say to Pinkie Pie, recounting our little training session. 
I didn't hear any of Fluttershy's and Big Mac's conversation, but they were whispering sweet nothings to each other, I was certain of it from the way they looked at each other.
“...they amplify your earth pony magic, and from what I've gathered allow for magic that could be greater than unicorn or even pegasi magic.” Twilight told Applejack scientifically about my gauntlets. I listened in on Twilight's conversation, not to be creepy, but because I couldn't pull my ears away from her voice.
“Wow, Twi!” Rarity said in a girl-to-girl voice semi-quietly. “You're lucky to have landed such a stallion!”
“He's not my..”
“He's great with kids, has a great personality, and looks absolutely fabulous in a uniform!” Rarity said before pouting. “Why do all the good ones have to be in relationships?”
I pantomimed getting another bite out of my meal, but glanced over at Twilight. She was a bright red and Rarity playfully pouted. Applejack smirked at both of them and then saw me staring. She stifled a giggle and I went back to feeding the kids.
When we finished, we went back to family room and talked some more. I sat in the same place on the couch, but Pumpkin had climbed on top of my head and chewed on my mane while Pound lounged in my lap.
“You're really good with kids Crimson. The first time I foalsat them was almost a disaster.” Pinkie Pie said.
“They're such great kids. I didn't really have to do anything. But talking about kids, I met Applebloom and Sweetie Belle today.” 
“I hope they didn't cause too much trouble.” Rarity said.
“Well other than claiming I was a filly-molester, we were fine. In fact the whole thing blew over when they found out who I was. They said they were part of the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' with a little pegasus named Scootaloo. Where are they now? Because they said they were going to help foalsit....”
“Oh so yer the pony who put that idea in their heads?” Applejack commented. “They're back at Sweet Apple Acres havin' a sleepover. When I left, Granny Smith was tryin' to teach them how to talk to the earth or somethin' else. She says it helps the apples grow better.” Applejack said amused.
“Huh. And I had a story all planned out to tell them.....” I lamented.
“Oh, another one? Well go on, tell it!” Twilight said, already captivated.
“It was gonna be for the fillys....”
“Come on, don't leave us hangin'. Jest tell it.” Big Mac said surprising me
“Well it was a story for them” I stammered out “because it was about when I met Daring Doo.”
“Daring Doo is real!” Rainbow shouted, startling the babies. 
I quickly calmed them down and said “You all really want to hear it?”
“Yes!” Rainbow and Twilight said excitedly.
“Fine. It was an escort mission......”