//------------------------------//
// Chasing Rainbows 
// Story: The Mixer Chronicles 
// by Mixer 
//------------------------------//


The Mixer Chronicles

Book Twenty Two:
Chasing Rainbows












It was the day after Discord was reformed and I was on my way to the workshop when Soulless stopped me.
“You said that you wanted to see me?” he asked.
“Yes, you have an meeting with Rainbow Dash by Saddle Lake later,” I said.
“Wait, what?” he asked, stopping in his tracks.
“Oh, and I have a little surprise for you,” I said, opening the workshop.
“What?” he asked following me in.
I went into the back room and slid a hoverboard across the floor.
“This should allow you to fly with Rainbow Dash, and possibly show off a bit,” I said.
The board was made of laminated wood, with three crystals embedded into the bottom with levitations enchantments. The board had a base coat of white, with two red stripes running down it with black lines bordering them.
“How do I use it?” he asked.
If you want to go up higher, then channel magic into the crystals, and it will rise. If you let it go, it will go back to hovering height,” I said.
“Any more surprises you’d like to throw at me?” he asked, picking up the board.
“No, now, take off your cloak and give me your hidden blade,” I said.
“Ok...” he said weakly, undoing the straps and handing the mechanism to me.
“Wow, this is remarkable,” I said.
“Well, don’t go fiddling with it while I’m gone,” he said, taking off his cloak.
“Alright, I won’t tinker with it,” I said.
“You better not,” he said, folding his cloak and setting it down on a table.
“Well, you better go, don’t want to be late for the first date do we,” I said, pushing him towards the door.
“It’s not a date,” he complained heading out the door.
After he was gone I went back and examined the mechanism.
It was simple sheath with a blade that locked into position when fully extended. There was no visible mechanism to extend the blade so I assumed he did it through magic. At the base of the blade there was a small dull gem socketed into the blade.
“Hmm, I’ll have to take a closer look at this later,” I said, putting it aside.
I planned on watching him test out my newest invention from Canterlot with a telescope.
I went up to the surface and set it up near the edge closest to Ponyville and watched as the train steamed towards it.
I turned the telescope towards Saddle Lake and searched for Soulless or Rainbow Dash.
--
Soulless had been a little concerned ever since he left his hidden blade with me, but he was confident enough in his abilities that he could handle most situations. Talking to Rainbow Dash, however was not one of those situations.
Rainbow Dash was there before he was, and had set up a chair and was soaking up some rays.
“Heh, I was wondering if you were going to show up,” she said, looking over at him.
“Well, I had to get this from Mixer, he wants me to test it,” he said, laying the board down.
“Why does he need you to test a surfboard? There aren’t even any waves today,” Rainbow said.
As soon as she finished, Soulless let the board hover a foot off the ground.
“Because, this is a hoverboard,” he said.
He attempted to get on it, but found that every time he tried to put his weight on it, the board would slide away from him.
Rainbow snickered as he attempted this a few more times.
Finally, he held it in place with magic while he got on it.
“So, you finally got on it. Now what?” Rainbow asked.
Soulless cast a spell to keep his hooves attached to the board before making it rise up a few feet.
“So, you think you can fly now huh?” Rainbow asked.
“Well, I don’t think ‘flying’ is the right term, but yes,” he said, leaning forward, making the board move forward.
After getting the hang of the movement of the board, Soulless came back to a rest by Rainbow Dash.
“Think you can keep up?” Rainbow Dash asked, stretching her wings.
“We shall see,” he said before raising the board another foot.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you,” she said preparing to take off.
They both got into a starting position by the lake.
“On your mark,” Rainbow said.
“Get set...” Soulless said.
“GO!” they said in unison, taking off over the lake.
Rainbow led with Soulless not too far behind her, keeping the board at a steady altitude.
She did a shallow banking turn and Soulless followed easily.
“Ready to kick it up a notch?” she called behind her, gaining speed.
Soulless leaned farther forward to keep up.
Rainbow Dash decided to put him through his paces, slowly at first, then quickly changing altitude.
Souless was able to keep up with the changes in altitude, but was slower than Rainbow at turning.
“Still back there?” she asked, turning around and flying backwards.
Soulless took that opportunity to put on some extra speed and pass under her.
“Hey!” she said, turning around and giving chase.
Soulless had to put more power into the board to keep it stable at high speed, but managed to stay just ahead of Rainbow Dash.
“What’s wrong, can’t keep up?” he called back.
--
“What’cha doing?” Silverwing asked me.
“Watching a test,” I said, keeping the telescope trained on the pair of aerial acrobats.
“A test?” she asked.
“Yes, I gave Soulless a gift, and ‘m watching it in action,” I said.
I created a crystal spyglass and handed it to her.
“Look,” I said.
--
Souless and Rainbow Dash were starting to do some aerial maneuvers now. Barrel rolls, corkscrews, dives and climbs, even a few stall drops. 
“You’re pretty good, I’ll have to admit,” Rainbow said, flying next to Soulless during a straight away.
“You’re not bad yourself,” he said, doing a roll over to her other side.
“You ready to show what you’ve got?” she asked.
“See if you can keep up,” he said, going into a steep climb.
Rainbow Dash met his climb, and the two of them started spiraling around each other.
After climbing far up into the clouds, Soulless let go of the spell keeping him planted to the board and dropped.
He dropped in freefall, the board slightly ahead of him, while Rainbow Trailed behind, trying to catch him. He did a few spins while he was falling and Rainbow started to get more speed, leaving a telltale rainbow trail behind her. As the water approached, Soulless reconnected with his board, and pulled up just above the water, sending up water on either side of him while Rainbow Dash followed behind him.
The end result was a trio of rainbows just over the lake, ending at the shore where the two of them were now resting.
“You sure got some moves kid,” Rainbow huffed.
“You too,” he said, only slightly winded.
“I misjudged you Soul, you’re pretty cool,” she said.
“Thanks,” he said.
“We should do this again sometime,” she said, sitting down in the chair she had left before.
“Whenever you want to,” he said.
Rainbow Gave a yawn and reclined in her chair.
“Well, it’s been fun, but I’m gonna catch some sleep now,” she said.
“Ok then,” Soulless said and left.
--
“Well, I think that went well,” I said to Silverwing, leaving the telescope.
“Wow,” she said.
“I know, the board was a resounding success,” I said.
“That wasn’t what I was talking about,” she said.
“Oh, that. I suppose that their meeting went swimmingly as well,” I said.
“Do you really think that they will work out?” she asked.
“Anything is possible,” I said, packing up the telescope.
“That’s it?” she asked.
“Well, I hope it works out. He really needs something like this to help him get used to how society works,” I said.
“So what now?” Silverwing asked.
“Now, I have to go prepare for his return,” I said, walking away.
I went to the caverns and immediately went to the workshop.
I started hastily drawing the mechanism for the hidden blade, keeping it for later.
Just as I finished putting it away, Soulless walked through the door.
“So, how’d it go?” I asked, pretending like I didn’t already know.
“It went well,” he said, setting the board down on the table. “This preformed great,”
“Great. Now, here are your things back,” I said, handing him the cloak and hidden blade.
“Thank you,” he said, strapping the blade on and throwing the cloak over his shoulders.
“You’re welcome,” I said.
“I’ll see you later I guess,” he said.
“Sure,” I said, looking around for some spare parts.

It was a week after Soulless and Rainbow Dash had met at Saddle lake. He had made significant improvements to his attitude and was starting to warm up to everypony. 
That made that night even harder. Celestia came to me while Soulless was out with Rainbow Dash.
“Mixer, we have to talk,” she said.
“About what?” I asked.
“About dealing with Soulless,” she said.
I sighed, “I’ll take care of it tonight. You know, it would be nice to have more time, but I have enough in place to minimize the repercussions.”
“See to it that you do,” she said and left.
I was waiting in one of the courtyards in the castle just after dark.
“You wanted to see me?” Soulless asked, almost invisible in the gloom.
“Yeah, Luna wanted me to go on a patrol around the mountain tonight, and I wanted to bring you along,” I said.
“Why would you need to patrol?” he asked.
“There was a report of possible parasprites in the forest at the base of the mountain. If they are true, then we need to get rid of them before they become a nuisance,” I said.
“So why us?” he asked.
“Because, parasprites are easier to find at night because they’re inactive. Plus, you probably are better at seeing in the dark than I am,” I said.
“So let’s go then,” he said.
I created a crystal board and we started our “search”.
We were just getting out of view of Canterlot when I created a crystal to store the soul.
“What’s that for?” he asked.
“I’m sorry,” I said, as I started the drain, casting a sleep spell at the same time to lessen the pain.
He let out a small grunt before passing out.
“I’m sorry...” I said again once the drain was complete.
I flew us to the open hangar door where Ivy and Trottson were waiting for me.
“Is it done?” Trottson asked.
“Yes,” I said getting of the board, but leaving Soulless laying on it.
“I can’t imagine that he will take this well,” Ivy said.
I took the hidden blade off of him, “Take him to the barracks. Ivy, when he wakes up, don’t let on that you know anything, but tell us as soon as you can. Oh, and don’t stop him if he wants to leave,” I said.
“Alright,” she said, picking him up gently.
“Trottson, you go tell Luna and Celestia that it’s done,” I said.
“Right,” he said, trotting towards the lift.
“What about you and the others?” Ivy asked.
“I’ll be in the workshop for a while, the others are not to be let into the barracks until Soulless is out of there,” I said.
“Ok,” she said, carrying Soulless towards the barracks.
I went to the workshop and began disassembling the hidden blade, separating the parts and putting them into a saddle bag. I took special care with the hidden blade, encasing it in crystal.
After I had the blade all in pieces, I double checked the lock on my house before heading up the lift to meet Luna.
When I approached, I saw Brick and Phalanx guarding the door.
“Luna’s expecting you,” Phalanx said, motioning to the door.
I entered and saw that Star Shine, Rose, Trottson and Thunderlane were with Luna and Sombra.
“There you are,” Luna said.
“I see everypony is here,” I said.
“Yes, Ivy sent us here,” Rose said.
“Good,” I said.
“So what is this all about?” Star Shine asked.
“As you know, Soulless was part of that group that I got rid of,” I stared. “He had an augmentation, but until now I let it go. Tonight I drained his augmentation, and now he’s asleep in the barracks.”
These was silence, coupled with some uncomfortable shifting.
“What are you going to do when he wakes up?” Rose asked.
“That all depends on what he does,” I said.
“Well, he won’t be awake until tomorrow, correct?” Luna asked.
“Right, the spell and the fatigue from the drain should keep him out for a while,” I said. 
“Then you all may stay here for the night. There’s no sense in you all staying up all night,” Luna said.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes. I wouldn't mind some company for the night,” she said.
“Alright,” I said.
“I suppose I should get some pillows and blankets for all of you,” Sombra said, going off to another room.
“So... are we sleeping in a group or something?” Thunderlane asked.
“Whatever you want to do I guess,” I said.
“Ok, this is what we’ve got,” Sombra said, lugging a large bundle of pillows and blankets in with him.
We each took a blanket and a pillow and split off. Star Shine and Rose curled up together, sharing a large blanket. Thunderlane and Trottson each took one and chose separate ends of the room to sleep in. Sombra and Luna got the bed, while I took my blanket and pillow and went to the balcony.
I checked the components for the hidden blade before going to sleep in the cool night air.
--
Soulless woke with a start.
He felt sore all over from the drain.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” Ivy said from a table a short distance away.
Soulless sat up and looked around the barracks.
“You should lie down,” Ivy said, grabbing a bowl with some cereal in it.
He got up and took another look around.
“What’s going on?” he asked sharply.
“Mixer brought you back from patrol last night. He said there was some kind of accident,” Ivy bluffed.
“Where are my things?” he asked again, declining the bowl.
“I think Mixer has them,” Ivy said, setting the bowl down.
Soulless got a dark look in his eye.
“You should get some more rest, you were pretty banged up,” Ivy said, trying to get him to calm down a bit.
“No, it’s better if I stretch my legs,” he said forcefully.
Ivy stood aside as he stalked out of the barracks.
Soulless went to the lift and rode up it, making himself invisible.
--
I was one of the first awake.
Brick and Phalanx were now where Trottson and Thunderlane had been. Rose and Star Shine were both still curled up together, while Luna and Sombra were both on the bed snoring.
I didn’t want to wake them up, so I quietly opened the door, meeting Trottson and Thunderlane.
“You’re up,” Trottson said.
“Yeah, I didn’t want to wake any of the others,” I said.
“Well, we just got a note from Ivy saying that he’s awake,” Thunderlane said.
“Well, I guess we’ll be dealing with him soon then,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m just worried about what he’ll do,” Trottson said.
“Well, he is a highly skilled ex assassin,” I said.
I could've sworn at that moment I felt something brush my flank.
“But I don’t think that he can do much damage without his hidden blade,” I finished.
“Um, what did you say you did with that again,” Thunderlane said, leaning slightly to the right.
“I put it in my...” I trailed off, feeling my saddle bag get lighter. “No you don’t,” I said, snatching the blade with magic.
Thunderlane started to go after the retreating hoovesteps but I stopped him.
“Let him go. The last thing we want is to have a fight with him,” I said.
“Are you sure?” Trottson asked.
“Yes. I’m sure we’ll see him again soon,” I said.