//------------------------------// // Day Four: I'll See You Again // Story: Police Of Ponyville Episode 10: She's A Star // by Shadow Storm 44 //------------------------------// The festival was moving closer or what the residents of the town call it, The calm before the storm. The concert is tomorrow and the whole town is buzzing with excitement and concern about what might happen tomorrow. There’s already been many drunk and assaults calls and they haven’t stopped since day two. Luckily for Shadow Storm and company there’s been no reports on property damage, injuries for both citizens or first responders, and the V.I.P’s are safe and sound. However, a message was received that a large number of guests will arrive tomorrow for the main event based on overwatch outside of the town and reports from the city. This caused an emergency meeting formed by the town’s Safety Committee to plan for tomorrow. Storm and a few others attend the meeting since they’ll be on the frontlines during the concert tomorrow and they need to know how to handle any situation that may happen that night. After the meeting Chief Night assigned him to special call response till the night of the festival. That’s just another way of saying desk duty until tomorrow evening. Storm knew that was just an excuse for him to catch up on the month and a half of paperwork that’s at his desk. As he neared the stairs Twister called out to Storm before he could get to the first step. “Hey, Storm. You have a visitor.” “Take a message,” Storm said while walking up the stairs. Dreading the mountain of papers that are waiting for him. “I got stuff to do.” “It’s your sister.” Storm stopped. There’s no way he could have heard that right. He must have made a mistake. Storm turned to Twister. “What?” “Your sister,” Twister pointed to the bench. “She’s been waiting for a while.” When Storm made eye contact with Snowflake she smiled and waved. Storm forced a smile knowing that being mean to his sister who is a top artist will be bad in more ways than one. “Let her in.” Hear that Snowflake got up and walked to the small gate that separated the waiting area from the rest of the office. A pegasus from Cloudsdale opened the gate for her. She smiled and thanked the pegasus before walking towards Storm. “Snowflake,” Storm began. “Is something wrong?” “I haven’t seen my brother in years. I can’t say hi?” “It would have been better if you would have given me a heads up first. Instead of just popping up out of nowhere.” “I tried,” Snowflake said. “They said that you were in a meeting. So I waited for you. Everyone was nice, they kept asking me if I needed anything.” “So she used her looks and charm to her advantage. Some things never change. Storm led Snowflake to the second floor and directed her to his desk. Papers and files cover the desk. “What’s all this?” Snowflake asked, staring at papers scattered across the desk. “Are you organizing or something?” “Paperwork that I haven’t done,” Storm sighed. “I need to finish this by the end of the week.” “All of it?” “Every single paper.” “And I thought the autographs I sighed when we went on tour were a lot.” “It's not so bad.” Storm said looking at a paper. “Most of this is reports on incidents from yesterday. The others report I need to sign and file for the record.” “Geez, a detective does all of this?” Snowflake asked. “That and I’m head of the sky patrol of the town.” “You work two positions?” “Pretty much. Small town, some of us have to do multiple things for our jobs.” “Don’t you get tired?” “I’ve pulled five all-nighters in a roll with no sleep. I’m holding up just fine.” Snowflake chuckled. “I remember that. You were studying for the flight school exam and you needed a high grade to pass. When it was over you stayed in your room for three days just sleeping.” Strom smiled. “Yeah, you, Mom, and Vortex didn’t let that down for days.” “Speaking of Vortex,” Snowflake said, her voice dropped to a sad and uneasy tone. “Have you heard from her?” Vortex is the youngest of the three. She was born after Snowflake 25 minutes later into the next day. While Storm was born 3 years ahead. Since Vortex could talk she had no problem being blunt. She would often get into fights at school and with Snowflake and Storm on some occasions. Strom nearly had to carry her away from a fight with 3 mares at school after an argument about colts, clothes, or whatever mares talk about at that age. The worst thing he had ever seen with Vortex is the fight she had with Snowflake. It started with something small, a hairbrush, or a towel, something pointless. It escalated from mean comments to shouting. Then Vortex said something that escalated to a new high. “An ugly idiot like you won’t ever become an idol. Just give it up already, you're wasting money.” Things got heated after that. Storm and his Mother had to separate them both before any more damage could be done to either of them. After that things were awkward to say the lease. They didn’t really talk to each other much after that. Storm didn’t know if they made up or not since he was heading for Bootcamp in a couple of days. He left before his mother could do anything. Storm kept asking what happened to his mother when he was on leave, but she would only say, “It’s complicated.” Code for ‘It’s a mare thing. You wouldn’t understand.’ Then contact became harder and harder since everyone was busy starting their own lives and careers. Storm didn’t really hear from his sister after that. He did keep in contact with his mother who talked to all of her children regularly. She would normally try to get everyone together, but everyone’s schedules are different and she admitted that she’s afraid that another fight will break out between Vortex and Snowflake. “Not really,” Storm finally replied. “We talked a little, but it wasn’t anything eventful.” Snowflake nodded and changed the subject to Storm’s love life and other things siblings talk about. They’ve been talking for almost two hours. At one point Snowflake spotted the clock that was hanging near Phantom’s office. “Oh, no is that the time?” Snowflake gasped. “I have to get back to the hotel. I need my rest for tomorrow.” Storm nodded. “Alright, I’ll walk you out. Is a carriage already waiting for you?” Snowflake nodded. “Yea, I told him that I’ll be here for a few hours. So he’s waiting.” Storm escorted his sister to her carriage that was waiting outside for her. There was no incident this time. Strom could help notice a few pegasus looking at his sister a little too long. It looks like the Big brother protect instance is coming back. On the day of the festival the police were preparing for the battle ahead. Last night Storm, along with his team helped set up crowd control barricades to limit access into town and the area of the concert. Clover and Star were working at the entrance of the festival. The area can only be entered by the bridge into the area. There were about seven officers there checking bags and for weapons. Storm and Comet were on overwatch like always. Watching from above and being quick to respond to an emergency. Phantom was on standby waiting in a trailer for the go-ahead to move in. Throughout the late evening Storm was waiting for something to happen. Something always happens at the main event. A fight, a drunk idiot causing problems or a major equipment malfunction on stage Anyone of those things could happen. One more night and it will all be over. It was true that this festival would help raise money for the town and the businesses as well. However, there were a few headaches to deal with. The main thing was the trash in the grasslands. Plastic cups, food wrappers and bottles cover the field from end to end. Then clearing out the crowd tonight and V.I.P’s leaving tomorrow. Not to mention taking down decorations, storing away the barricades, returning borrowed equipment to Hayfield, and other things that are bound to come up. “Pretty quiet huh?” Comet said as the concert was going into the final show of the evening. “Maybe tonight won’t be so bad.” “I hope so,” Storm said. “The last thing we need is something happening at the final show of the night. Stuff like that always happens to us.” “I know. It’s annoying at times, yet I’m glad. When me and Clover moved here we thought that it was just going to be a boring and lazy town. Man, we were wrong the first day we moved here.” “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Storm agreed. “Beats sitting around all day and doing nothing.” “I heard that your sister visited the station yesterday.” “Oh, great who told you?” “One of the stallions from Cloudsdale. He was saying to everyone that the goddess of Snowflake smiled at him.” “That goddess of Snowflake?” Storm asked. “That’s just overkill.” Comet snicker. “Anyway, have you ever listened to your sister sing before? I mean when you guys were younger.” Storm shrugged. “Sometimes, she was in a lot of talent shows at school and she always sang when she was cleaning or cooking around the house. I never really listened.” “You’re a great big brother, you know that?” Shouts and cheers erupted from the crowd below. It appears that the final show of the night is about to begin. Snowflake, Rose, and Silver Flash all came into view and started singing. Storm could barely hear anything as the crowd sang along and him being pretty high in the air. What he could see was the smile on his sister’s face as she sang. He hadn’t seen her smile like that since she was accepted into college. Maybe getting the family together is a good idea. When the performance finally ended 'operation clean up' began. This consisted of picking up the trash, loading barricade equipment into the carriages, and kicking out stragglers after the show ended. Everyone who was assigned to help draw straws to decide who does what. Storm and Phantom along with eight others had to kick out the stragglers. Some did what they were told and others would try to fight. Once they saw Phantom they instantly backed off and left. A few times an airlift was needed to carry an unresponsive pony to the hospital. The operation continued on till the early morning. Then they have the task of loading the equipment up in trains, while everyone else escorts the guests out of town by ground and air. Storm, Phantom, and two earth ponies were trying to load a carriage full of equipment into a train cart. This would be so difficult if the wheels hadn’t been taken off to make room for it. After what felt like forever the carriage was finally loaded in the train cart. Storm let out a long yawn. Working 10 hours is usually nothing for him. However, he suddenly felt drained. Maybe the workload and the lack of sleep from the past week is finally taking a toll on him. The idea of going home and sleeping sounded like the best idea in the world right now. Just as Storm was about to leave the station he’s name was being called from a cart. He turned and saw Snowflake waving from a window. Storm jogged over to her. “Hey there,” Storm said. “You’re leaving already?” Snowflake nodded. “Yeah, we have to go. There’s a question I wanted to say to you before I left.” “Sure, sis what is it?” “Will we see each out again?” “Of course we will,” Storm assured. “We're family and we stick together. One day sooner rather than later that we’ll all be together again you, me, Vortex and mom I promise.” Snowflake smiled at Storm’s answer. “Yeah, you’re right.” The train hissed and started moving. “Stay safe.” Snowflake shouted. “And remember you promised.” Storm waved as the train left the station. “I’ll see again.” “That was really touching Storm,” Phantom said. “I’m glad that you made that promise.” “Phantom,” Storm said. “If you tell anyone about what just happened. I’ll deny it. Then I’ll murder you. Got it?” “Got it,” Phantom confirmed.