It was a month later that I met that mare again. I could not stop thinking about her for some reason… why?
She was a Bright Eye. By all rights I should have just handed her over, or refused aid… but my own damn sense of honour forbade me from doing so… or was it something else? Since I was a foal I’d been treated… awkwardly since I’ve got green eyes. True I don’t have Bright Eyes, but in a world where every other Dull Eyed ponies eyes were brown… any different colour was viewed with nearly the same level of suspicion. Not enough to get you thrown into prison like the Bright Eyes… but enough to make making a living very difficult.
But here she was… a mare who didn’t… who seemed to appreciate my talent, and wanted to see it… expand. Bah, get a grip Storm. She was desperate for a hiding place from the guards, that’s all it was. Just a mare pulling the right strings to get you to help her… that’s all.
Right?
Damn it why do I have to be so damned nice?
I was heading into the woods to go to this cave I used to gather my clay from. What? Like I’m going to pay somepony to do the job of collecting clay for me when I can do it myself, and hope that the clay they bring is proper quality? Get stuffed.
As I approached the cave I heard a shrill scream from my right. Yeah, you guessed it. I dove right for the scream. A pony was being cornered by a lone timberwolf. Now I’ve tangled with them before in this neck of the woods and the trick I’ve learned with them is to show them who’s in charge. That I own this territory. How do you do that? By doing something they can’t.
Now I’ve got this little trick I can do with my wings. If I vibrate the feathers in my wings I can create a static charge of lightning and then discharge it on impact with whatever or whoever I need to. And right now this wolf was needing a good old zapping. I charged in wings already crackling and slammed my right into the creature’s side before landing in between it and the pony.
“Stay back.” I said not looking at the pony behind me, only hearing her hoofs as she shuffled into a more safe position behind me. I locked eyes with the wolf and flared my wings making myself look bigger than I was, and to get a more intimidating light show going with the lightning in my wings. The wolf took one look at its smoking side, then at me, yelped and ran off deeper into the woods.
“Rarity! Are ye all right girl?” I heard a pony say behind me in a southern drawl. I discharged my wings into the ground and turned around to see if the pony whom I’m guessing was called Rarity was alright. As I turned around I just stared at her before pointing a hoof.
“You again!” I exclaimed. It was the same mare from a month ago, and stood next to her was an orange earth pony with a yellow mane and a Stetson on her head. Her eyes were a Bright green. She looked at my own eyes and then took up a fighting stance between me and the mare.
“Rarity, get outta here! Ah’ll hold him off!” she intoned.
“Applejack, stop. This is the stallion I told you and the girls about earlier… the one who helped me.” She explained. Both myself and Applejack looked at one another carefully before slowly leaving our attack poses.
“I thought I told you not to get into trouble again miss?” I asked of the unicorn. Now that I could get a better look at her, I could see that her cutie mark was a trio of diamonds, and Applejacks was a trio of apples. Big surprise there given her name.
“Well I haven’t until that beast showed up and tried to eat me. Seems I owe you again for saving me once more.” Rarity replied. I just harrumphed and started to walk off. The sooner I left these mares the better. I felt a pair of teeth grab onto my tail and drag me back.
“Oi! Let go of me!” I demanded as I saw Applejack dragging me off somewhere.
“No can do. Ye’ve seen us and now we need to figure out what to do with ye.” She said through her teeth. I roughly pulled my tail out of her mouth and hovered in the air.
“Problem there little miss. I can fly.”
“So can I!” another voice sounded from above me. Before I could get a good look or even react, this cyan ball of fur and feathers crashed into me and slammed me into the dirt. I then felt a rope being quickly tied around my legs. I glared up at the trio of ponies. The new one was a cyan Pegasus, with a rainbow coloured mane and tail. She had Bright violet eyes. “Now then, what are we going to do with this spy?” she asked.
“Rainbow, Applejack… he’s not a spy.” Rarity tried to explain.
“Then what’s he doing all the way out here?” the Earth pony demanded.
“If you’ll let me talk, I’ll explain you crazy mare!” I growled. “I came out here to grab some more clay from a nearby cave. I then heard her,” nodding my head towards Rarity, “shriek and so I came over to help. The rest you know.”
The orange pony looked me square in my eyes and I held her gaze. She then slowly nodded.
“He’s telling the truth.” She said before untying my legs. The one Rarity called Rainbow didn’t seem to completely believe her friend but shrugged as if that was the end of the matter.
“To be honest with you ladies, I don’t give a flying horse-apple if you think I’m a spy or not. I just want to be left alone… hard enough with these damned eyes of mine without some Bright Eyes jumping into my life.” I grumble as I stand up giving my wings a quick check in case that crazy Pegasus had damaged them in the crash. All three ponies looked at each other then took a hard look at my own features. I’ll admit it was a little disconcerting having three mares staring at your face at once.
“Ya know, I never noticed it before… his eyes aren’t brown… they’re still Dull as a rock, but they ain’t brown…” Applejack said.
I grumble to myself as I start checking my pockets in my jacket to make sure that all the tools were still intact. Thankfully they were.
“How’d you beat back that wolf anyways? I didn’t think a Dull Eye could do anything like that.” Rainbow bluntly asked. I responded my zapping up my wings as I liked to call it. The Pegasus seemed to have a look on her face that could easily be translated as “Wow”. I’ll admit, I took some satisfaction in showing off.
“Like that. I’ve met the timberwolves in these parts before whenever I had to grab some more clay. They learned pretty quickly to leave me alone, or else they get burned.” I said as the Pegasus walked around me checking out the lightning wings.
“I have GOT to learn that move… it would be awesome for when I put on my next performance back at the-“ Rainbow Dash started.
“Rainbow!” Applejack interrupted looking sharply at the cyan pony who immediately cringed at her voice.
“Sorry sorry sorry AJ… got kinda caught up in the moment there for a bit… But we still don’t know what we’re going to do with this guy… I mean, even with what Rarity’s said about him we can’t just let him walk away. He knows who we are.”
“And this is why when I last bumped into you I said no names.” I grumbled at Rarity who had the good grace to look somewhat sheepish.
“Well, since ye know our names, only fair that we know yers.” Applejack responded. I sigh and shrug.
“Fine, since I’m in this boat that’s going up the creek. I’m Tempest Storm.” I replied with a little bow to the ladies. Applejack and Rainbow Dash just looked at me oddly.
“Um, what’s with the bowing dude?” Rainbow asked.
“I was taught to always treat a lady like royalty. Good manners and all that.” I answered with a shrug. The fact that I was prepared to smack the cowpony around a moment ago didn’t come up.
“Well I find it quite a relief to encounter some good old fashioned chivalry in this age darlings.” Rarity replied smiling and dipping her head towards me. The other mares simply rolled their eyes at this little exchange.
“So… clay ye said?” Applejack asked tilting her head.
“Yes, clay. Kind of need it for my sculpting. And to be blunt, I don’t exactly trust the usual suppliers. Last time I bought some clay from another pony, it turned out to be sub-standard dirt. Barely usable.” I replied with a shrug. The cowpony sighed and shook her head.
“Ah know the feeling. For mah farm Ah have to get mah own fertiliser.” The cowpony said, sounding sincere.
“The pains we go through for our talents.” I muse.
“You usually this chatty with fugitives?” the Pegasus asked me, before getting a stern look from the other two. “What? It’s a fair question guys!”
“No Miss Rainbow, I’m not. But given that you seem to be debating on what to do with me, given your status within Equestria, and I’m already up the creek since I know your names and haven’t handed in Miss Rarity when she first showed up on my doorstep…” I shrug as if that answered everything. She seemed to shrug in reply and started eying up my wings as if trying to figure out how to pull off my Storm Wings as I called them.
Yes, I call the technique Storm Wings. What? Creative license. So sue me.
“Hmm… maybe… he would know best what to do with our guest?” Rarity suggested. Applejack looked at her as if she’d suggested hoofing a foal over to a pack of hungry timberwolves. Rainbow just kept inspecting my wings.
“Um… he who?” I asked.