//------------------------------// // 17 - Watch Your Back // Story: Storm Of Secrets // by Beware The Carpenter //------------------------------// Dash led her exuberant team in wedge tail formation over the rooftops of Ponyville, stopping every few streets for spontaneous stunts to wow the gawking ponies below. Rainbow knew they should be moving along, but the Wonderbolts loved showing off, and if this helped bolster their morale for the mission ahead, then fine, a few minutes wouldn't hurt. They switched formation and began a more complex routine of barrel roles and cartwheels as the crowd grew larger. Dash could see Twilight on her front lawn with Shining Armor talking into her ear and Pyromite on her back. Twilight's eyes closed and her horn was glowing like she were focusing on some sort of spell. The eggheads were busy which meant the Wonderbolts had time to perform. Throwing themselves into a more complex routine of barrel roles, cartwheels, leaps and dives, the Wonderbolts preformed with one purpose—to please the crowds. The crowd grew with every new stunt, and so did the stakes. Simple barrel roles might be enough to impress fifty ponies, but a crowd of five hundred wanted better, more elaborate stunts. The Wonderbolts were happy to oblige. On one rooftop appeared Scootaloo, jumping up and down and waving to get Rainbow Dash's attention. Dash flew close enough to give her a high hoof and almost knocked Scootaloo off the roof. Dash was about to double back and catch her, but Scootaloo caught herself and scrambled back onto the roof, grinning from ear to ear. The crowds cheered louder and louder but eventually one chant rose above the rest, “DASH, DASH, SONIC DASH. DASH, DASH, SONIC DASH.” They wanted the Sonicrainboom. Dash did one fast lap around Ponyville to pick up speed and gain altitude, then sped back to the center of town, breaking the sound barrier right above the audience just high enough not to cause any ear damage. Dash sang into visibility a glittering rainbow over the small township, doing all sorts of loop-the-loops through the clouds until finally settling into a spiraling dive, breaking her fall at the last possible instant and landing right in front of the library. The rest of the Wonderbolts lined up on either side of her and joined her in taking a bow before the wowed audience. Dash turned to Twilight who seemed as amazed as the rest of Ponyville, although a little confused, then turned to Shining Armor, expecting to see a similar expression of wonder, but was met instead with eyes that glared daggers. His mouth moved but the crowd was cheering too much for Rainbow to hear anything. She moved closer and motioned for him to repeat himself, there was a flash of light and the noise faded; looking around Rainbow recognized Twilight's basement. “What do you think you are doing!?” “My job, I'm the Wonderbolt captain, this is what we do.” “Your job right now is to help rescue Princess Cadance and Silent Storm from the Everfree Forest! To do that, I was hoping to leave Ponyville quietly, so nopony would think to follow us or ask us why we were going into the forest, but that's going to be a lot harder after your little charade.” “Come on, it's not that bad, is it?” “Maybe you didn't understand what I meant when I said the Rangers plant poison joke along the paths to discourage stupid travelers. If we go into the forest now, half the town will go trooping in after us. Do you have any idea how stupid that was?” “I...” “Apparently Princess Celestia thinks you and the Wonderbolts are smart enough to take on a classified mission. Is she wrong? Because if you're not ready; you should go home right now. In fact that would be useful as it would distract the town long enough for the rest of us to get into the forest.” How dare he? Dash had spent her life dreaming, bleeding and striving to be a Wonderbolt, and he was belittling them as though they were nothing. He hadn’t earned the right to be angry at them like she had. Dash puffed out the feathers in her wings to make herself look bigger and stared Shining armor directly in the eyes, “You bet they're ready.” Shining Armor calmed down, but only slightly, “You've told them about the terrormongers and the Rangers?” Dash ignored the weight in her gut and answered on instinct, “I've told them everything they need to know.” “Good. I have some letters to write, go make sure your Wonderbolts are ready for the job. So long as you can keep them under control, we should be fine.” “Oh, they'll be ready,” promised Dash angrily, “And frankly, you should be more concerned about you keeping yourself under control then worrying about them!” With that, Rainbow turned and leaped to the top of the basement stairs with a single bound. Hearing about the Rangers and the mission had distracted her momentarily, but it hadn't made her forget what she saw when she flew in the window earlier today. It hadn't been Storm she’d seen embracing Twilight, it had been Shining Armor, and in its own way, that was even worse! He was engaged to Princess Cadance wasn’t he? So what was that, adultery plus incest? Even if Shining Armor wasn't engaged, Rainbow highly doubted that Celestia would allow incest in the royal family, or the royal guard, or her school for gifted unicorns, or just about anywhere for that matter. Did Storm know what Shining Armor was doing with his body? Rainbow walked past the bedroom she had seen the two unicorns earlier; the rancid body odor was gone, replaced instead by a faint smell of ash. The unicorn’s lewd behavior was doubly surprising because she had always taken those two to be complete sticklers for rules. Twilight treated a late library book as if it were an appalling felony and Shining Armor well they'd... met once before, in Canterlot, when he was arresting her over that teeny, tiny, little illegal fight club incident. She'd tried telling him that she'd only just walked in there after hearing some ponies talk about it on train, and how she'd thought that some rich guy had a secret underground flight club in his basement, and she had her mouth guard with her because she was on her way home from the dentist... at one in the morning. He didn't buy it. She ended up spending one night in a cell and getting stuck with a stupid fine; she'd decided at that stage that she didn't like him, but had almost forgotten about it until a couple months later when Twilight showed her a family photo. So far it seemed that Shining Armor didn't remember her… hopefully it would stay that way. “Wow, a baby dragon!” Rainbow followed Misty's voice into the kitchen where several of her Wonderbolts were gathered around Spike who seemed to be enjoying the attention. “He's so cute,” squealed High Winds, “What's his name? Can he talk?” “You bet I can talk,” grinned the dragon, “Call me Spike.” “How old are you Spike?” asked Rapidfire, goggling at the adorable reptile, “Wait, let me guess. You’re ... seven.” Spike hesitated a few moments and a mischievous glint lit up his eyes, “Actually I'm three thousand, four hundred and forty-six! You see, dragons are born big and then they get smaller as they get older. I used to be the dragon emperor, but then I got overthrown in a horrible palace coup. So I'm hiding out in Ponyville until I can organize an army to retake my throne. Oh, I hired a unicorn assistant to help me in the meantime. She's a swell gal; sleeps in a basket next to my bed, makes me breakfast, stuff like that.” Three shocked Wonderbolts’ jaws hit the floor almost in unison. Spike stood perfectly still, looking almost regal on his little three inch legs, until Rapidfire began to sink to his knees, sending Spike into a hopeless series of hysterics. Rapidfire jumped back to his hooves, afraid that his gesture had somehow offended the tiny sovereign but Spike by now was laughing too hard to notice. “Did we do something wrong? Is he angry with us?” asked Fleet Foot in a panicked voice as Spike's laughter began to sound like some kind of barking. “He's about to eat you!” shouted Dash who had crept up behind them, “Run. RUN!” The Wonderbolts fled the room leaving Rainbow alone with Spike, whose hysterics only redoubled at Rainbow's interference. Eventually he was able to get enough of a grip of himself that he recognized his old friend. Still struggling to recover Spike was able to pull himself to his feet, “Rainbow hehe Dash, good to see you. I haven’t seen you since... well about three hours ago really...” “You saw me when I came in before?” “Well of course, I was in the room with Twilight and Shining Armor. You probably just didn't see me because I was behind the door.” Dash felt like her blood was running cold. Shining Armor was horsing around with Twilight... with Spike in the room. What kind of a library was this? “...What were you all doing in the room?” “Well Celestia said that there might be unexpected side-effects from Shining Armor's body swap, so I moved my basket into Shining Armor's room so I could keep an eye on him. He slept for ages and then he started thrashing around and yelling in his sleep so I ran out and got Twilight, who came in and woke him up. He was freaking out from whatever he had been dreaming, something about Twilight being dead, but then he realized it was just a nightmare and gave Twilight a hug. Ah and then you came in... screamed at him... then flew away crying.” Spike's voice trailed off and looked at her quizzically, “Why did you do that?” Rainbow took several moments to digest what Spike was telling her. Nightmare, brother and sister hug, not inflamed lovers hug. “I just... ummm... I saw Twilight with this red stallion, hugging next to a bed, saying they loved each other and thought--” Spike started snickering, “Well I didn't know it was Shining Armor! I thought he was... somepony else.” “Which you obviously wouldn’t care about as you hardly know Storm.” said a voice behind her. Dash pirouetted to find herself nose to nose with Shining Armor, again. Shheesh! Couldn't he announce himself before sneaking up on somepony like that!? “Just how well do you know Storm?” “None of your business!” snapped Dash, “And you should learn not to listen in on other ponies' conversations.” Shining Armor regarded her coldly for a few seconds, “I need Spike for a few minutes. Go make sure that your Wonderbolts are ready.” …........................................................................................................................................................ Spike watched Rainbow huff in frustration and then trot out after her Wonderbolts, before giving his attention to Shining Armor who was levitating two scrolls in front of him. “You want me to send these to the Princess?” Shining Armor pushed one of the scrolls a little closer, “I've already inscribed it with an alternate address, just breathe on it and it will go where it needs to.” Spike complied and the two watched as the letter dissolved into smoke and flew out an open window, “And that one?” Spike asked indicating the remaining scroll. Shining Armor looked around to make sure they were alone then closed the door and lowered his voice, “Once the crowd outside dissipates, hide this somewhere near, but not inside, the library; tying it to one of the higher tree branches would be fine. Someone might come looking for it later, but if they do they'll know how to find it and open it without your help." Spike reached for the scroll, instantly feeling a tingling of magic as his nails touched it. Spike had spent enough time with Twilight to recognize a protection spell when he saw one. Without the proper counter spell this scroll would be impossible for him to mail or open without destroying it. Spike tossed the scroll around in his claws, getting a feel for the energies that emanated from it. It was obviously a powerful enchantment; even Twilight probably couldn't open this without... Spike looked questioningly at Shining Armor. “I'd appreciate it if the others didn't know about this. Can I trust you?” Shining Armor was one of the first ponies Spike had met after Twilight hatched him. He had been about the only pony who could knock Twilight out of her obsessive studying and get her to go have some fun, and on his weekly visits to Twilight he had almost always brought Spike a bag of sweet sapphires or spicy fire diamonds. But to keep a secret from Twilight, “...Yes.”