//------------------------------//
// After the Show 
// Story: Nightmares Over Equestria 
// by Ignimbrite 
//------------------------------//

"Aww man, I was certain we'd win."

Obsidian draped a wing over Feldspar.

"Yeah, so was I, but the royal guard team did put on a good show."

"Besides," Kind Face added, "second place isn't that bad, and we did make your dad's paper."  

She held up the paper, which showed a picture of the winning team flanked by the two runners up.  

Considering the third team was a zompony apocalypse, the combined group had turned just taking the picture into a story of its own.  The final photo, and the only one good enough to print with the story, showed half the royal guards and most of the zombie hunters holding back a hoard of zomponies with spears and chainsaws while Celestia and the other half of the guards fought the Trio of Terror.  Everypony on the three teams had a good laugh at that one.

"So, who do you think those ponies in the forest were anyway?"

Feldspar and Kind Face both shrugged.  

"I dunno."

"Beats me."

Obsidian looked towards the forest for a moment.

"Well, I hope the police find them.  To think, all that was happening right here, and nopony even knew it."

Kind Face nodded.  "Yeah, so do I, but on the bright side, they at least know to look, and Red Shirt is back on her way to Canterlot, so we probably won't have to worry about them again."

As they made their way back to the creek, they passed one of the judges from last night.

"Hi Twilight!"

"Hi kids."

"Hey, come to think of it, everypony else said you were going as some sort of old wizard again.  What happened to that costume?"

Twilight folded her ears as a hint of glitter fell from her mane.

"I lost a bet with Spike."

"Oh.  Is that why Spike was grinning like that all night?"

Twilight nodded.  "Yep.  Also, word of advice, never place bets on anything that has to do with Pinkie."

With that, they said their goodbyes and left for the creek.

Finally, they were back at their usual hangout spot, ready to find a use for the leftover dry ice from last night.

"So what did you two have in mind anyway."

Obsidian just grinned.  "You know how we were able to walk on the clouds from this stuff, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, we figured as long as walking worked on those, we'd see what else does."

As he said this, Feldspar dumped some of the ice into the creek, releasing another cloud of fog.  She then immediately hopped up on top and started jumping.

Kind Face was puzzled.  "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to make it rain.  I saw some other ponies do that over Applejack's farm."

Obsidian looked over at Kind Face.  "Yeah, I saw them doing that too."

"So did I, but those were professionally made rainclouds, not dry ice fog."

"Yeah, but even so, I think Feldspar did discover one good use for the rest of this stuff."

Feldspar tilted her head while still bouncing.  "What?"

"Cloud trampolines!"  He turned to Kind Face.  "Come on, I'll give you a boost."  

With that, he shot her with his magic, and they both joined Feldspar in bouncing on the cloud of fog.

It was all fun and games until Kind Face landed a backflip on all four hooves.

KRACK!!!

All three of them looked at the burn mark on the bank of the creek.

"Woah!  How'd you do that?"

Kind Face looked at her hoof, then stomped on the cloud.  Nothing happened, so she tried stomping with both front hooves.  A few sparks shot out of the cloud, but not anything close to the bolt of lightning from a moment ago.  Feldspar and Obsidian tried it too, Feldspar getting a few sparks as well and Obsidian getting nothing at all.

"Well that's weird.  Why do you think it's not working now?"

"How should I know?  I'm not even a pegasus."

"Maybe it's 'cause we were all bouncing on it.  Hey!  That gives me an idea!"

Feldspar started turning in a slow circle, shuffling her hooves across the top of the cloud the whole way.  At the end of the circle, she stomped, sending a bolt of lightning straight into Obsidian's rump.

"Ow!"

In the shock of having just been shot in the tail by his own sister, Obsidian accidentally let go of the magic field around Kind Face, causing her to drop straight through the cloud and into the creek below.

"Hey!"  She climbed out and shook off, sending a spray of water at the other two.

"Hey!"

"Watch it!"

They all laughed.  

As Feldspar stepped off the cloud, Obsidian started shuffling his hooves himself.  He stomped just like the other two did, but nothing happened.  He tried again a few more times, even shuffling in a circle and bouncing with all four hooves, but nothing happened.

"Oh come on!  It worked for you two."

"Maybe you're just not pegasus enough," Kind Face teased.

He grumped down off the cloud, glared at it, and shot it with his horn.

KRACK!!!

"YEOWCH!!!!!"

For the second time that day, he was shot in the rump by a bolt of lightning.  Kind Face and Feldspar rolled on the ground laughing as he fluttered back down to the ground and rubbed the sore spot with his wing.





"It was what?"

"Costumes.  Our entire plan was ruined by foals in costumes."

"Of all the..."  The earth pony growled and stamped his hoof.  He then turned back with a snort.  "What now?"

"Simple.  We gather the supplies, regroup, and hope fortune turns in our favor.  Ever since that night I've been feeling a strange magic in the air.  We may yet have another opportunity."





"What happened to you two?"

Obsidian and Feldspar stood in the doorway to their house, their manes and tails standing even more on end than the time they touched that Winnyhurst generator at the science museum.

"You look like you got struck by lightning."

Feldspar giggled.  "We were."

Gneiss stepped into the conversation.  "How?  There aren't any storms scheduled for today."

Feldspar flapped a couple feet into the air.  "We learned how to shoot lightning outta clouds!"

Obsidian, meanwhile, looked away.  "And we might have spent the rest of the afternoon zapping each other afterwards."

"You... did what?  I thought you said you were going to hang out with Kind Face this afternoon."

"We did!  She zapped us too."

"How?"

Obsidian just lit up his horn with a green glow.  "Same way she walked out on top of the fog last night."

As they went up to their rooms, Quartz gave a questioning glance to his wife.  

"So, they and their friend all spent the afternoon shooting lighting at each other.  Should I be worried?"

"All it means, dear, is that they take after you."

"Me?"

She smirked.  "Which one of us used to stage 'zap wars' with his brothers again?"

"That's unicorn magic.  It's different."

"Not from what they told me last Hearth's Warming."

He frowned as she used her wing to pull him closer.

"Oh relax, it's just a little lightning.  They've got pegasus blood; they can handle it.  Besides, every pegasus shocks themselves at some point growing up.  It's how we learn to be careful around the storm clouds."

"What about their friend?"

"Hmm...  I suppose we will have to remind them to be careful around her, although from the sound of things, she seemed fine with it."

He looked back in the direction of the kids' rooms.  "Great.  My parents kept telling me they hoped I'd have a kid that was just like me, and now I have two who are."

Gneiss just smiled at him.