//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: The Rundown... // Story: Close Encounters of the Sixty-Third Kind // by Yoshirocks341 //------------------------------// “Where the heck is everyone?” Rainbow Blitz smoothly landed on the ground that was predetermined as the next meeting spot, the same spot where the last meeting took place. “Am I missing something here?” Rainbow thought, “This should be the place…and I think it’s the right time…” Rainbow decided to give his surroundings another check to see if he perhaps missed something. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar face mozing towards him. “Oh, hiya ‘L…Elusive,” Rainbow swallowed his usually nickname. “Hello there darling,” Elusive strolled up to Rainbow Blitz. He gave a quick look around, realizing the same fact that Rainbow had, “Where is everyone?” “I don’t know,” Rainbow replied, “I just got here.” “I see,” Elusive responded, “Oh, by the way, I did not do anything girly while we were all separated.” “Wow, that’s a shocker,” Rainbow said with a grin. Elusive was not happy with this snarky response. Before he could do anything about it however, a familiar voice turned their attention off each other. “Hello guys!” Spines came running over to the two colts. She stopped and looked around. “Where’s everyone else?” Elusive shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they wanted to be a little bit fashionably late.” Rainbow turned and looked at him. “That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.” Elusive twisted his head to meet with Rainbow’s. “Oh, like you have a better idea?” “Of course I do!” Rainbow exclaimed boastfully. “Okay,” Elusive remarked, “what is it then Mr. Smarty-Wings?” Rainbow didn’t think this far ahead. “Ummm,” he stammered, “they probably got held up in some…random things…that are…keeping them from being here!” “Hah…” Elusive stopped mid laugh, “Hey, I’ll actually give you credit. That’s not a horrible idea.” “Of course it wasn’t! I wouldn’t say I had a better idea if I didn’t!” Elusive rolled his eyes. Suddenly, the threesome’s attention was torn and thrown over to a newcomer whose breathing sounded more like a garage disposal then anything. He walked over to them and collapsed onto the ground. “What’s up Dusk?” Rainbow asked the exhausted colt. “Nothing much,” Dusk raised his head up to look at Rainbow, “just, you know, running for my life!” This definitely got everyone’s attention. “What did you get yourself into after I left?” Spines asked with care. “Before I go on,” Dusk sidetracked himself, “I have to tell you something. I’m sorry that I made you upset. You are not lower than me, and I need your assistance. I don’t know what I would do with myself without you around!” “Awww, thanks!” A little redness appeared in her cheeks, “I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier. It was unlike me.” Spines walked over and gave Dusk a hug. Suddenly, a loud “Ehem!” quickly ended their hug. They looked over to see Rainbow tapping his hoof impatiently. “Sorry to break up your wonderful sibling love,” Rainbow interjected, “but I think Dusk was going to tell us a story.” “Oh right,” Dusk shifted his attention back on the whole group. “Well, actually Rainbow, this story sort of involves you.” “Me?” Rainbow exclaimed, pointing at himself. “Yes you,” Dusk replied. “I was going around town and I ended up meeting up with Spines. We sort of had a little argument.” “It was more than just a little argument,” Spines butted in, “and I’m so sorry that I caused that.” “Hey, it’s fine,” Dusk comforted. “Anyways, after Spines left, a mare came down and laughed at me about having bad girl skills.” “Who could be so rude and that!?” Elusive was appalled by that sort of action. “Rainbow,” Dusk made a motion to him. “Well, his mare version that is.” “Well I’m not surprised about that then,” Elusive commented, getting an angry look from Rainbow. “What did she look like?” Spines asked curiously. “Like Rainbow Blitz had been shrunken down and grew longer rainbow hair,” Dusk explained. “Wait a minute! I just realized something!” Elusive whipped around and faced Rainbow. “Your hair is rainbow again! What happened to you?” “Well,” Rainbow began his story, without letting Dusk finish his at all, “I happened to find the Carousel Boutique while wandering around.” “You just happened to find it?” Spines inquired. “Maybe he wanted to get a good luck at his soon-to-be new working place,” Elusive shot him a smile. Rainbow shot him an angry look back. “Anyways…my curiosity forced me to head inside and see…well,” he pointed to Elusive. “You.” “Me?!” Elusive gasped. “Why on earth would you want to see me in mare form?” “Actually, I’m a little curious what you looked like in mare form,” Dusk helped bail out his rainbow friend. “What did she look like?” “Umm,” Rainbow’s eyes went to the ground, “there’s really no good way of putting it.” Elusive raised an eyebrow. “What on earth do you mean about that?” “She was…ummm,” Rainbow looked at the ground, even pawed at it once or twice, “she was…OH FOR PRINCE SOLARIS SAKE, YOU WERE SMOOKIN’ HOT!” Everyone just stared at him with dumbfounded looks. “And I don’t mean sort-of hot,” Rainbow went on explaining, “I mean easily a ten out of ten on the hotness scale!” Rainbow gave a little shiver and the remembrance of that experience. A silence swept over the whole group. “Well,” Elusive broke the silence with a grin and a chuckle, “I’ll take that as a compliment.” “I’m glad you got some enjoyment out of this, because I’m awkwardly scarred for life!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Umm, so what happened when you met her?” Spines asked to move the conversation along. “Don’t want Elusive to think about a pretty mare self, what if they meet…” “She asked if she could make a suit for me,” Rainbow continued. “Something about a colt named Big Macatooshe, or something like that, not being available. She usually made suits for him when she wanted make one.” “Could the name have been ‘Big Macintosh’?” Dusk asked, “You know, the one Bubble and I talked to before.” “Ya, that was it!” Rainbow looked over at Elusive. “Do you make dresses for Macarenia?” “...She prefers to keep that fact a secret,” Elusive explains. “She thinks that it isn’t like a farm pony like her to get glorified with dresses. I think it’s such a shame; she definitely has got a fine body.” Everyone else turned and gave him a bunch of confused expressions. “What?” Elusive went on the defensive, “It’s true! I’ve measured her plenty of times and…” Dusk leaned over to Elusive mid speech and whispered, “You’re only digging yourself into a bigger hole buddy…” Elusive stopped what he was saying, and realized that Dusk was right. He then decided to try to quickly change the subject as fast as he could. “So...,” he turned his attention just to Rainbow, “Did you accept her offer to make a suit or did you reject the poor mare?” “I actually took her request,” Rainbow shot back; “I couldn’t deny a hot mare like that…even if it was you.” A mummer of agreement come from the other two colts. “Then why don’t you have the suit?” Spines wondered out loud. “I flew away as fast as I could after this happened,” Rainbow sharply pointed at his multicolored hair. “It turned back to this after I was forced to use the salon hair thing.” Elusive laughed. “Who would force someone get their hair done?” “Your little br – I mean her little sister, that’s who.” Rainbow replied. “That would be something Sweepy would do…” Elusive agreed, knowing that his little brother commonly tried to be a little too helpful. “Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to just recolor your hair again.” Elusive’s horn glowed as it had before and was shot towards Rainbow. The light was blinding to everyone’s eyes, causing them to shield them with their hooves. When Rainbow emerged from the glow, he had the yellow blonde hair that was donned on him before. “I wish I could keep my rainbow hair,” Rainbow sighed. “It’s 20% cooler than this dull yellow color.” “Hey, if it weren’t for the disguise,” Dusk pointed out, “You probably would have been discovered.” “Ya, ya whatever.” Rainbow didn’t care. He just wanted to keep his rainbow hair again. “You don’t what you truly have until it’s gone. I wonder if I can wash it again when no one’s looking…” “Speaking of being discovered,” Dusk turned his attention to Elusive and Spines. “Did anyone else get discovered?” Spines and Elusive’s eyes looked around at random objects, not making contact with anyone at all. You could even hear some whistling. Dusk gazed at them with a face that screamed “really guys?” Dusk sighed. “Which one of you wants to go first?” “Ladies first,” Elusive stepped aside, leaving Spines by herself. “Huh? Um, okay,” Spines was a tad confused on what just happened, but she started her story anyways. “After meeting up with you Dusk, I ended up walking over to the library. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but then my curiosity got the better of me, and I peeked into the front window to see she-Dusk.” Rainbow snickered. “She-Dusk.” “What caused me to laugh,” Spines used Rainbow’s random laughter as a foothold for her story, “was the sight of her. It looked exactly like Dusk, but in mare form. I don’t how why, but it was just so funny! My laughing must have caused a lot of noise because she came over to the door to see what was going on. Due to my fast thinking skills, I came up with a brilliant plan to get away.” “What was your…” Dusk started to say, but Spines quickly kept on talking. “After using my brilliant plan to get away, the filly version of Applejack’s brother ran into me, literally.” Spines finished. “Speaking of running into literally,” it was Elusive’s turn to take the spotlight, “someone ran into me as well.” “Who?” Dusk questioned. Elusive raised his hoof back behind in his head slowly for dramatic effect and flicked it in the direction of Spines. “Her!” he exclaimed. “That must have been interesting…” Dusk replied. “Why?” Elusive asked; confused about what Dusk was hinting at. “Well, because Spines has a…” Spines ran over, shaking her hands at Dusk and yelling forms of the word “Shh!” as she went. She finally got a hand over his mouth. Dusk tried to say something more, but realized he couldn’t. He then resorted to using his magic to remove his mouth plug. “The cat was let out of the bag a long time ago about Spines,” Dusk told her. Elusive somehow made a snapping noise of realization. “Oh yes, Spines, you do have a crush on me. That might help explain the reason why your doppelganger tried to put an end me…” A harmony of “What?”s came in response. “He tried to bring an old clothing store down on me!” Elusive explained. “Well that’s a little extreme,” Spines stated. “What did you do to him?” “Nothing!” Elusive defended himself. “I just was my wonderful self.” “That’s all it would take for me if I was him,” Rainbow cracked a smile. “Maybe he just got jealous of you,” Dusk tried to connect the dots. “Maybe…he thought you were sent to take your mare self from him.” “I guess it is pretty easy to get jealous of all this,” Elusive gloated. “Rarity,” Rainbow randomly stated. “Yes, I know. I’m one of a kind,” Elusive kept on increasing the size of his ego. “No stupid,” Rainbow replied annoyed, “the name of your mare form, Rarity.” “Oh…” Elusive was taken aback, “Spines, yours was named…what was it again? Oh yes. It was Spike.” “Spike,” Spines repeated to help her remember that, “I didn’t get the name of yours Dusk. I’m sorry.” “Don’t worry about it, I happened to remember it from before,” Dusk comforted her as a smile appeared on his face. “It was Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Blitz, your mare counterpart’s name is Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow thought about this name for a second. “Blitz sounds cooler,” was the conclusion he came up with. “By the way Dusk,” Elusive remember something they had all lost track of, “why were you so tired when you arrived?” “Oh that,” Dusk started to explain, “I was being chased by Rainbow Dash.” “Why would she chase you?” Spines asked. “Well, I ran into two weird colts on the way,” Dusk recalled, “and one of them tricked her into chasing me down for them.” “Tricked?” Rainbow was appalled, “There’s no way you could trick me, even in lower mare form!” “They promised her that if she could chase me down, they would put in a good word for her with the Wondercol...I mean Wonderbolts...” Dusk replied. “Oh,” Rainbow said. “Wellll, I guess that makes some sense. How did you get away? If she has any of my speed, she should have been able to chase you down no problem!” “He probably just out witted her,” Elusive explained. “That was probably not too hard, knowing you…” “Hey!” Rainbow exclaimed as Elusive and Spines enjoyed a little laugh. “How do you know I didn’t just out run her?” Dusk questioned. “Pla-lese Dusk,” Elusive replied, “This is you we are talking about. I’ve seen you sweat looking at a treadmill.” This got another line of laughter out Spines. Dusk just took it in stride. “Ya, ya,” Dusk didn’t doubt the comment though, “I did out smart her. I levitated the lid of a trash can into her pathway and due to her high kinetic energy, she was knocked out.” “Wow, this ‘Rainbow Dash’ must be pretty bad compared to me,” Rainbow tried to keep his ego up, “I would never be fooled like that.” “Ya, right…” Elusive muttered under his breath. Spines suddenly remember something. She searched the surrounding small area in search of certain someones. “They still haven’t come back yet!” Spines yelled to the others. “Who?” Rainbow had completely forgot about what Spines had remembered. “Applejack, Bubble, and Butterscotch!” Spines exclaimed. “You’re right!” Dusk realized that they were indeed still missing. “What’s taking them so long, I wonder,” Elusive pondered out loud. “We should split up again and look for them!” Rainbow commanded. “Elusive, you take the forest area; I wouldn’t be surprised if Butterscotch went and checked in on the animals. Dusk and Spines, you two and search the remaining areas of the town we did not cover, especially anything that has to do with parties, this is Bubble Berry we are talking about. I’ll take the Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack might have gone there. Any objections?” Dusk raised his front hoof in the air like an obedient school student. Rainbow however, didn’t care much for school and Dusk was sadly ignored. “Okay, break!” and Rainbow blasted off in the direction of the farm. Elusive looked over at Dusk, still raising his hoof. Elusive gave a quick shrug and ran off to the area of the woods just outside of town. Spines turned and looked up at Dusk, still holding up his hoof, and gave a soft giggle. Dusk looked down at her and gave a huge sigh. He removed his hoof from the straight up position and gestured to his back. Spines, understanding what that meant, hoped on his back. The duo rode off, back into town, together once again.