Rainbow Dash hadn't slept, she was sure of it; she'd just blinked and then the sun rose very quickly and Shining Armor appeared back inside the cave nudging her gently with his hoof, saying it was time to get up. Rainbow rubbed the slee- the blink from her eyes and sat up in time to see Shining Armor nudge Twilight.

Twilight’s eyes shot open then squinted at the sunlight coming in through the mouth of the cave in dismay, "But... I was meant to take a shift guarding the entrance."

Twilight looked anything but happy with not having done her fair share, but gave a grunt that sounded appreciative. Breakfast was a bleak affair, eaten in silence.

............................................................................................................................................................

Storm had woken after only a few hours sleep to the delighted snarls of a pack of wild dogs, and the panicked screams of his sister beside him. The fire they had lit the night before had gone out; it had been small, smaller then they could have made with all the dry wood around and smaller then they needed to stay warm and keep away wild animals. But if they built a proper bonfire, then whoever owned this land would probably notice and chase them off for trespassing, or worse. They had learned to walk a fine line of making fires big enough to last the night and ward off predators and small enough to avoid unwanted attention. Last night Storm had made a mistake, the fire had burned too low, and now Silver was paying for it.

Storm was on his hooves in an instant, lashing out with his horn and hooves at the shadows that were swarming around the campsite, shooting one after the other with a weak fireball spell he had recently learned. The fireballs lit up the faces of the dogs a moment before impact and then exploded; sending the dogs yelping and running for cover, leaving the scent of burnt fur behind them. They were gone as quickly as they had come; Storm re-lit the fire as quickly as possible, and then tried to do what little he could for his mangled sister.

She was hurt; badly. He was trying to figure out why then went for her instead of him when he noticed what was left of their blanket. As usual he had insisted that she sleep with the only blanket they owned. She must have sweat in her sleep, making her scent stronger than his making the dogs attack her first! How could he have not thought of that!? At least it wouldn't happen again, the blanket was ruined now, even by their standards, Storm kicked the tattered remains away from the campsite in frustration but couldn't afford to think about that now; Silver was bleeding and needed help. Storm had never bandaged gashes this big before, but if he could get some supplies he was willing to try.

At the bottom of the other side of the hill, was a big house (probably the one that owned this land) that had looked almost empty in the daylight. Storm and Silver tried to avoid stealing anything outright, and only once had they broken into someponies house to do it (that hadn't ended well), but this was an emergency! If nopony had been woken up by the commotion, then Storm might be able to sneak in, find some bandages, and get back out without anypony realizing it.

Quickly throwing a dozen branches onto the fire to keep the dogs from returning, Storm took off at a gallop; teleporting through the outer fence, and then through the window of the first room he found that looked like a bathroom. Opening a random closet he was overjoyed to find a large medical bag almost immediately. It was too heavy for him to teleport with, so he dumped its contents on the floor and began shifting around for the things he needed. That was one roll of bandages; one bottle of antiseptic, Storm was trying to fit another roll of bandages into his mouth in case he wasted some of the first roll when he heard a gravelly voice from behind him.

“What are you doing?” it seemed to shout as a strong hoof came and grabbed Storm between his shoulders. Storm tried to break free, but the grip of the old stallion was too strong. He tried to teleport, but the flash of a horn behind him canceled his spell. After a few seconds of futile struggle, Storm collapsed, whimpering in fear as he waited for what came next. The old stallion would beat him and then throw him out of his house; without the medical supplies to save Silver. Maybe he could keep just one roll of bandages inside his mouth, and if he could avoid yelling when the stallion hit him, the stallion might throw him out of the house still with the bandages in his mouth. Storm braced himself, but the blow never came.

“That's more bandages than you need son” the voice said more kindly. Storm was confused until another hoof brushed against his side, at first he thought the old stallion was gently slicing two parallel cuts into his side with knives, but then realized they were claw marks left from the dogs. “You’re not hit that bad, half a roll would suit you fine. You don't need a second one unless... is someone else hurt?”

Storm didn't know what was happening; he didn't want to tell the old stallion anything but felt himself nodding anyways. “The hound's baying” the old stallion muttered. “Where are they?” When Storm didn't answer he felt the bandages and antiseptic be yanked out of his mouth by powerful telekinesis. “Common lad, speak up!”

Storm felt the stallion's hoof release him and his telekinesis lift him to his hooves. “Where?”

Storm hesitated; he knew they desperately needed help, but he didn't see why somepony he had been trying to steal from, moments before, would want to help him. Why would anyone do that? Storm turned to face the scarred, haggled stallion for the first time; he looked frightening, but when he spoke again there was a kindness in his voice he hadn't heard before. “I'm not going to hurt you” said the old stallion placing one hoof on his shoulder and making eye contact “I want to help.”

“Sh-she's on the other side of the hill.” Before Storm had a chance to react, the supplies he had scattered across the floor quickly began repacking themselves back into the medical bag. The moment it was full, there was a flash and he was standing with the old stallion and the medical bag on the hill about ten yards away from their campsite. The old stallion cantered towards the fire and knelt down in front of Silver Thorn and for the first time Storm got a good look at the stallion's cutie mark. It looked like a gigantic knife!

“Easy lass” instructed the knife stallion as he lit his horn for light and began looking over Silver's injuries, “It's not as bad as it looks.” The bottle of antiseptic popped back out of the medical bag and started to gently splash over some of the worst hit areas. Storm stood a short distance off, watching the knife stallion's every movement as he lifted one Silver's legs, cleaned, dressed and bandaged the lacerations and then set it back down as though he'd done this a hundred times. So far so good, but Storm didn't let his guard down even for an instant. As the knife stallion worked, Storm kept his head tilted, and legs primed, ready to gore the knife stallion through the heart, if he made even one wrong move, unable to shake the idea that he had driven away the dogs, only to bring a wolf to tend to his sister's wounds.

Storm stood there as the hours crawled by; at first Silver looked just as frightened of the stallion as Storm was, (though did a decent job of hiding it), but as her injuries were tended one by one, she slowly began to relax, becoming more cooperative with the knife stallion which enabled him to work faster, until he finished as the first rays of morning began painting the sky. “Your turn lad” he called as he snipped a final length of bandage and wrapped it around Silver's chest.

Storm looked back at his own wounds, (keeping one eye on his sister and the knife stallion as he did so.) By now they really had started to hurt, and standing there had told him that he had more scratches on two of his legs, but he didn't dare to lie down and let that knife stallion touch him. So long as the knife stallion had been tending Silver, he had been ready to fight in case the stallion had tried to hurt her; but if he was getting bandaged and the knife stallion attacked, Silver wasn’t in any condition to help him. “I'm fine” he said firmly.

“Your cuts ain't bad but if we leave them they'll get infected. Come on now, it'll only take a few minutes.”

Storm glared at the knife stallion, but Silver's soft gaze disarmed him. “Let him help B.B.” she said sleepily, “My wounds are feeling better already, and yours will too if you let him help you. Please.”

“Name's Straight Hack. Now that we're acquainted, are you going to let me treat you before your wounds fester and become a real problem?”

Learning the knife stallion's name did nothing to calm Storm's fears, but eventually, after several minutes of coaxing from Silver and the knife stallion, Storm sat down and surrendered one of his hooves for treatment which proceeded faster and less painfully then he had expected.

When Storm's wounds had been dealt with, the knife stallion stood up and began brushing the dirt off his legs and stomach. The patience that had covered his voice for the last hour seemed to have vanished, “You kids should know better than to be camping outside with wild dogs about. Do your parent's let you do this, or did you sneak out?” Storm's silence, and the pebble like tears welling up in Silver's eyes told the knife stallion more then he needed to know. Under the infant sun’s rays he began noticing more than just the foal's injuries; the protruding ribs, more grime stuck into their coats then could ever accumulate during one night outside and eyes too tired to be playing a game. “Hmmm right” the knife stallion muttered, “You kids had better come with me then, I'll make you some breakfast.”

Storm was about to refuse when he saw the way Silver's eyes lit up at the mention of food. She couldn't run far yet with her injuries, he couldn't leave her for long to search for food, so without help they could do little except sit and starve. The orphans let themselves be led by the knife stallion into his warm house and into his kitchen filled with mouth watering smells. The knife stallion worked quickly and prepared a huge pot of a bean and tomato mash of which both siblings gobbled down four helpings. In all that time the knife stallion never once admonished them for eating too much, only to eat slower so they wouldn't make themselves sick.

As the siblings licked their bowls clean for the second time, the knife stallion left them and faint pulses of magic began emanating from down the hallway. Ordinarily Storm would have investigated, but the food held fast his attention. As the orphans were finishing the best early breakfast, (or late dinner as they hadn't eaten the night before), they'd had in months, the knife stallion reappeared and offered to let them stay with him until Silver got better. He showed them two large back bedrooms he had prepared for them and told them to get some rest. Storm pretended to be grateful and comply without complaint, but the moment he felt sure that the knife stallion had left the back of the house, he crept out of his room and curled up next to Silver in case the knife stallion came back. It was early morning and Storm had intended to keep watch through the entire day (or as long as Silver slept) and would have to except... he hadn't expected the pillows to be so soft.

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Shining Armor hadn't fooled Twilight, she knew something was seriously wrong. She'd seen her brother stressed before, she'd seen him get worked up over upcoming exams and then melt down as he waited for the results, but never anything like this. Twilight was starting to feel guilty for pressing him for information about the Rangers the first night when he had obviously wanted to sleep. The more she thought about it the more she remembered how he had forgotten she and Rainbow Dash weren't Rangers, and how he had needed to back trace his own story, things he had almost never done before. Shining Armor was not acting like himself and Twilight was going to find out why; "B.B." she asked slowly as she quickened her pace to walk beside him. Shining Armor kept walking as though he hadn't heard her, "B.B.."

"When you first came to my house, we agreed that I would monitor your condition after your body swap, and keep an eye out for any adverse side effects."

Twilight retrieved her notepad and quill from her saddlebag, "I think now would be a good time to do follow up. How are you feeling?"

Twilight bit down on her lower lip, but didn't back down, "How do your ribs and face feel? Three days ago you said they were hurting."

Shining Armor tripped over a branch but caught himself before he hit the ground, "No, I'm pretty much fine."

Shining Armor stopped mid-stride "Stressed? Well I can't imagine why I'd be stressed; unless it had something to do with the fact that Cadance and Storm have been teleported so far into the territory of one of the worst enemies Equestria has ever known, that it would take an army to get to them, and that I set out to on a rescue mission, during which I may be attacked on sight by the Rangers if word of Storm killing Denorious surpasses us, with sixteen untrained soldiers, thirteen of whom I lost within the first two hours past the first Dragon Wall, against one, terrormonger, because someone you told me I could trust lied to me and almost got us all killed; and now I'm down to just two soldiers, one of whom is the mare in question who almost got us all killed, and the other is my baby sister who should be home reading about war instead of fighting it, who when she's attacked, forgets that she has a belt of knives strapped to her, which I gave her for the express purpose of defending herself with, who I may very well be leading to her death trying to save ponies who might very well already be dead, and is currently wasting time asking questions that aren't critical to the mission at hoof!" Shining Armor took a very deep breath, "Aside from that, I'm as happy as a clam, which is really a very strange thing to say come to think of it, because I really don't know if clams are happy or not, sitting at the bottoms of creeks, rivers and lakes all day doing nothing, but I'm going to say it anyways because that's the simile that ponies use to convey the idea that they are really, really happy. Does that finish answering your questions?"

"Insisting on coming on a mission that you're not prepared for. The only reason I let you come was I knew if I told you to stay home you'd try to follow me anyway."

"This isn't a book Twilight! I wish everything could be a book for you but it's not; this is real life. You've only caught a glimpse of what can happen, it gets worse; much worse."

"But you want me and Rainbow Dash to leave so you can go alone? You keep saying you're trained, but have you ever gone three days without sleep, in the deep forest, alone, after a body swap you did so your mind would have a chance to rest, of which we're still not sure of the possible side effects?" Shining Armor turned silent but at the mention of 'side effects' gave a noticeable flinch. "How have you been sleeping?"

Shining Armor stayed silent and began walking again, Twilight refusing to be left behind trotted to keep up; "Shining Armor" she said softly, "You don't have to carry this all by yourself, you can talk to me about anything, you know that, right?"

Shining Armor turned, and looked her in the eye, showing her such terrible pain mixed with so much affection that it frightened her, yet she didn't look away. "Twilight" he said softly "I love you, but for the moment I'm going to have to ask you to trust me. I swear that I will get us out of this, with Cadance and Storm, and then I will try to explain what's happened; but in the meantime there are things I simply can't discuss. Please try to understand."

Twilight swallowed back a ball of remorse and nodded; tucking her notebook and quill back into her saddlebags as she followed her brother without another word. She believed him when he said he loved her, she was certain that if at that moment she was attacked, Shining Armor would die to save her without a moment's hesitation, but he was still shutting her out of his life and refusing to trust her.

Twilight and Shining Armor had grown up in a house full of secrets. Their parents had worked together, and still did, in the restricted archives, doing something important that Twilight never really learned the details of. When Shining Armor was born, their mother took time off to care for him, but returned to work just three years later, consigning most of Shining Armor’s early childhood daycare centers.

Twilight had never really considered how she'd never seen Shining Armor until after she was born. All her life, there had been someone else to talk to, turn to, confide in, and depend on; but who did Shining Armor have before her, and what did he learn in those first six years about secrets, family and ‘duty’?

Their parents had both held countless secrets that they kept from the world and even their own children, (the biggest reason Cadance became Twilight's foalsitter was it was considered lower risk if Cadance accidentally saw or overheard something she shouldn't), but even if they shut the rest of the universe out of their lives, they had always had each other. If Shining Armor shut out Cadance, who was left?

If Twilight ever found the right stallion, she'd make sure they could trust each other before moving the relationship forwards. 'Rule forty-three she thought, 'perfect stallion must be trusting, and trustworthy'. Another glance at the wraith of a brother leading her made her reconsider; maybe that rule should be higher up the list.

Storm Of Secrets

by Beware The Carpenter

32 - Pain and Deceit