//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 Carnival of lies part3 // Story: Unwelcome Visitor // by The desert brony //------------------------------// I'm normally not a fan of Author's notes in a story but this time I make an exception. I need to direct your attention to moguera, who helped me name two OC's that make their appearance in this chapter. Dust Devil and Flash Bang. (Also has some good stories too) But without further delay here is... Unwelcome Visitor Carnival of lies part 3 After earning her prizes, Scootaloo relentlessly pestered her father to see the team. He had given in with little resistance, telling her to follow closely. As they weaved through the crowds of fair-goers, many more things caught her eye, but she was determined to see her father's team, and maybe even find her special talent being a daredevil like her father. Within a few minutes, they were free from the crowds and heading up to a very large tent. The ticket booth was empty and the entrance blocked by two large and burly earth pony stallions. They both had dark green coats and ash gray manes, but the strangest thing about the two of them was their cutie mark. Both of them had the same mark, two hooves crossed in front of an archway. The two stallions stood stock like the royal guards, no emotion across their faces. Blaze stopped a few hoof lengths away from the two earth pony guards with a smile on his face. “Hello, Tough Luck. Any troublesome fans bothering you tonight?” He chuckled knowing full well what the answer was. The two guards merely shook their heads in unison, but turned to look at Scootaloo with eyes that seemed to pierce right through her. They turned back to Blaze with raised eyebrows, every movement was in perfect sync. Blaze roared with laughter at the sight of his daughter's shiver under the gaze of the two stallions. “I guess you two want to know who and why I've brought a little filly here.” The twin stallions nodded in unison to which Blaze chuckled again. “This is my daughter, Scootaloo. Turns out she was living in a orphanage and not a single soul told me about her.” The guards exchanged glances to each other then back to Blaze. “You're serious!” The twins cried in shocked unison, the stock facade dropped and both stood with gaping mouths at him. “It's true. Remember when I came back full time nine years ago...” Blaze paused giving the two guards time to nod. “Well, turns out she was pregnant and didn't tell me, not ta mention getting kicked out of the town as well.” Waving a hoof in exaggeration of his last statement. “Either way, Scoots. This here is Tough and Luck. They are twins who guard our locker room and lounge when we perform.” Scootaloo nodded politely to the stallions. Her throat was dry ever since their combined gaze fell on her. “N-nice to meet you.” After her greeting, the two softened their gaze making her feel a lot better. “Well, let's get going. There are still more ponies you need to meet.” With a quick nod, the two stallions stood at attention again, ready to stop any intrusion should it happen. Blaze motioned for Scoots to keep following him to the tent. On the inside of the tent was a flurry of activity. Ponies of all kinds were running around to set up platforms and various types of dangerous machine traps used in the show. One pink unicorn mare with a fluffy red mane and a cutie mark of a tube exploding, was checking some thin tubes and barking orders to others. It was this mare that Blaze crouched and darted behind while snickering. “Bang, your tail's on fire!” The mare screeched and dove into a near by tank of water. When she resurfaced, she was met with Blaze rolling on the ground laughing. “I take it you're back then.” Even though she looked like a mare in her mid-thirties, her slightly scratchy voice gave away the truth of being quite a bit older. “If you plan on continuing your jokes right as you get back, then your emergency leave must not have been that important.” The pink mare climbed out of her watery tank summoning a nearby towel to dry. “Oh, come on, Bang. You know you love it when I scare you.” Blaze rose up and smiled at the mare. “But I have an even better surprise for you today.” He motioned for Scoots to come join him. “Flash Bang, I want you to meet my daughter, Scootaloo. She's the reason I needed to take an emergency leave. Scoots, this is Flash Bang, our lead Pyrotechnic.” Bang had finished drying off and looked to the little orange filly. “Well, I'll be. Blaze, you slick little weasel. When did you have a foal of your own?” As she looked over the tiny filly, Bang smiled, truly delighted at the news. “That's the tragic story. Turns out my wife was pregnant with her when I was told to leave town. She's been living in a orphanage for the past two years and nopony even sent me a letter, till the orphanage found out about me.” Blaze held a grim tone as he spoke. Scootaloo herself was still curious of those events, but now was not the time to bring that up. She happily grinned at the unicorn, wondering how much this mare would tell her about her father. “Nice to meet you. How long have you known my Father?” Bang laughed at how forward this little filly was. “Nice to meet you too. I've know your father since he was born, and if he knows what's good for him, he'll learn not to scare a mare who knows fire magic better then anypony else.” This made Blaze give her a very skeptical stare, but said nothing. “I gotta say, he was a rambunctious one. If I or his parents didn't find him climbing on something, he would be bothering the other workers to let him help out.” She giggled as a memory surfaced. “Oh, one thing he tried to do was help one of my techs fix a broken flamethrower. When it was fixed, Blaze here tried to test it and caught his tail on fire.” She punched Blaze softly on the shoulder as Scoots joined her in laughter. Blaze rolled his eyes as the memory was told, he remembered it all too well. With a snort, the laughter died down. “As much as I'd love to leave my daughter here to learn of all my childhood told by you, she still has yet to meet the others and I do believe your team still needs your help setting up for tomorrow's show.” Bang shot a sarcastic smirk at Blaze and promised Scoots to tell her more tomorrow before the show started. As the father and daughter walked away, Flash Bang felt a twinge of emotion she had never had before. “For once in my life, I'm actually jealous of you, Blaze. You had a wife and now a little foal of your own.” She muttered under her breath. A tech called to her and she groaned, knowing full well this pony's problem. Scootaloo was imagining her father as a colt with his tail on fire as they made their way to the back of the tent. Fresh giggles were hard to hold back as she looked at her father with filly glee. He only gave a snort of irritation, but she assumed it was from having an embarrassing part of his past told. At the back of the tent, Blaze stopped and stared at the entrance to the mobile locker room. His ears flared open, hoping to catch the sounds of his other teammates. After a few pained seconds, he heard the tapping of hooves and faint fluttering of wings. Turning to Scootaloo with the gentlest smile he could muster, “Okay, Scoots. I need to warn you that my captain is nice in public, but in private has quite a loose tongue.” Scootaloo looked to him, her confusion easily readable on her face. “What does that mean?” Blaze heaved a great sigh. “To put it more bluntly, she has a foul mouth. I just needed to warn you, other than that, she's a great pony to be around.” Parting the flaps that separated the two rooms, Blaze ushered Scoots and himself into the locker room. Moving past the small row of lockers that held his teammates flight gear, he stopped at one more door. A voice could be heard from beyond along with some oddly out of rhythm tapping. Blaze sighed once more before covering Scootaloo with a wing and opening the door. Inside this new room was a fully furnished lounge that had three large couches, a few beanbag chairs, and small round coffee table. Despite all of these furnishing, the lounge felt quite larger than it should be. Lying on one of the couches was a pegasus mare. She had a rusted red coat, a wild yellow blond mane and eyes the color of yellow sapphire. The other pony was a gray coated pegasus stallion, with a slicked back blue mane with a lighter streak of blue running down the middle, his cutie mark was that of small brown whirlwind. When the door opened, both turned to see Blaze enter with a half stretched out wing. The red mare's face broke into a sultry smile and a tone of voice match. “Well well well, look who shows up after practice is over and called for an emergency leave the moment we landed here.” The mare dragged her flank off the couch, wiggling her hips a little. “We have less than twenty four hours till showtime, and I was beginning to think you wouldn't come back for the show, or to my little flank.” This mare shook her hips one more time, which allowed her cutie mark to be seen by Blaze's hidden daughter, a yellow disc with the silhouette of a pony in front of it. The other Pegasus said nothing, but clopped his hooves on the small coffee table and making a few gestures in the air. Blaze sighed again, this time out of embarrassment for his captain's slightly lewd display. “Yes, my trip was fine and thank you, captain, for your most unnecessary welcome home, and I'll be expecting an apology soon.” Blaze folded his wing back. The red mare was about to comment, but nearly choked on it when Scootaloo was revealed. The gray stallion however started tapping on the coffee table and made more hoof gestures, all of which made no sense to the little filly. “Yes, this is her. Scootaloo allow me to introduce you to my Captain, Sunbright and my best friend Dust Devil. Guys, this is my daughter Scootaloo. And to make a long story short for you captain, no, I had no idea she was born because nopony told me.” Scootaloo's glaze shifted back an forth between the two pegasi. Sunbright had started doing her best impression of a fish, Dust Devil was smiling calmly and waving his fore-hoof in greeting. With a nervous grin, Scoots scuffed the floor before speaking. “Umm, Hi.” “ugg what's wrong with me? I'm normally good with talking to older ponies. Why am I so nervous around these two?” Scoots chided herself. “Well, that killed my libido.” Sunbright deadpanned. This earned her a stiff glare from both her teammates and cocked head from the filly. With a shake of her head, she spoke in a controlled authoritative tone. “Anyway, I'm glad to see you're back in time for the show. We have sets one, three and seven up for audience vote tomorrow. Should be a cake walk for you Blaze, no matter which one you get. I'll see you two in the morning.” And with that, she launched herself through an open skylight. If Scootaloo hadn't felt awkward before, she sure felt it now. Her eyes fell from the skylight to her father's best friend, who was making more gestures with his hooves. “Yes, I did warn her and no, I didn't expect her to react that way.” Blaze sighed before addressing Scootaloo. “I'm guessing by now you're wondering why Dust doesn't talk?” A slow nod came from his daughter. “Well, the reason is because he was born mute. His entire life he hasn't been able to talk so he uses sign language to talk to us.” A flurry of gestures sprung from the other stallion and Scootaloo watched trying to make sense of the motions but couldn't make heads or tails of it. “No, I haven't told her yet. I'm not exactly ready to. Yes, I do plan on it, just not now... No, I don't know how, that's why...” Blaze gave an exhausted sigh as the hoof motions of his friend continued. “Yes, I know, you were the first one to know then and you were the first one to know this... Yea, she met the twins and Bang earlier... No, I checked into the hotel this afternoon, and before you ask, yes, I did reserve the room in advance... Okay.” Blaze turned to Scootaloo with a smile. “If you want to ask Dust a question, I'll be your interpreter.” Scootaloo grinned and immediately began to pelt Dust with questions. Her father effortlessly translated the sign language. After a few hours and many question, she was tired, having learned much about the history of the team. How every new member had either made a new set of challenges, or a new way to spice up the old ones. Unlike the Wonderbolts, her father's team held many earth and unicorn ponies willing to risk a tightrope walk or attempt some crazy underwater stunt. One story told that night was of an earth pony leaping from a high board into a shallow pool of water. With goodnights said and her father flying her back to the hotel, Scootaloo promptly fell asleep wondering how her friends were doing. If only she had known the events that transpired earlier that afternoon. ************************************************************ The trip to the flower sisters was fruitful, but it was nothing more than learning that Blaze had bought some flowers for a salad. The two crusaders walked the semi-busy streets on Ponyville market. “Who do we ask next?” Sweetie had asked for the third time, having been unable to think of any adult that they knew personally that lived in Ponyville back then. “Well, we can't talk ta my brother because I tried that already. We can't ask Ms. Cheerlee until Monday, and Berry Punch doesn't close until after we're in bed. I can't think of anypony who would know him.” As Applebloom listed off once again the ponies she knew, she found it quite hard to believe that she knew so few adults personally. “Yoohoo! Girls, over here.” A yellow earth pony with an amber orange mane called to the two little fillies. Sweetie looked to her fellow crusader, shrugged and headed over to the stall the older mare was calling from. “Hello, Ms. Top. How are you doing today?” Sweetie spoke politely to the older mare. “Oh just Carrot Top is fine and I'm doing well. Say, could you girls do me a favor?” Carrot Top asked sweetly to them. “Sure, what can we do for ya?” Applebloom replied with a hearty smile, her eagerness to help meant a chance to earn a cutie mark. The older mare smiled sweetly. “Could you two throw out that old magazine right there, some random mare dropped it and didn't bother to pick it up. I would have done it myself, but I can't leave my stall.Would you do this for me please?” Applebloom looked a bit disappointed, but was eager to help. “Sure thing, Ms. Top.” Picking up the discarded magazine, the two walked to a nearby waste bin to dispose of it. That is, if Sweetie Belle hadn't gasped and tore it away from her. “What gives, Sweetie Belle?” “Applebloom, look!” The white filly pointed a hoof to the picture on the cover. One red mare and an orange stallion, the magazine was called... The Newmare Times.