//------------------------------// // The Hurricane-Pt 4: Invasion of Privacy // Story: Blue Angel // by V-Pony //------------------------------// Small Warning: Dark Tag comes into play! --------------------------------- August 27th, Morning --------------------------------- Why’d you have to be so bucking curious, Twilight Sparkle?! Why?! The young Unicorn panted in a near-panic from the doorway of the guest bedroom, looking back across the hall towards her own room where Volare was waking up from his fitful slumber. Why, why, why, why, why?!?! After she and Spike had returned to the Library with the replacement window pane, she tried to occupy her buzzing mind with how she’d go about repairing the window tomorrow….but of course she already knew how. Spike would use his fire breath to melt the tree sap around the window frame to make it water-tight while she floated it into position. They’d done it twice before… Spike fixed her a simple dinner of oats and fresh produce from the cellar while he himself crunched on a clawful of rubies, oblivious to Twilight’s inner musings and wonderings. He simply took her silent munchings on dinner as a sign that she was either very tired or he’d fixed a pretty mean salad; he opted to think it was the latter. After dinner, she then attempted to occupy herself with packing for the trip on the day after next, but Spike was way ahead of her, and with his help they had the supply list written up and her saddlebags pre-packed within an hour. She then almost absent-mindedly began to re-organize the books of the Library, but Spike noticed that the normally meticulous Unicorn was occasionally mis-placing the books back on the shelf where she’d picked them up from in the first place. Maybe he hadn’t fixed such a mean salad after all… “Hey Twilight,” Spike finally spoke up, startling Twilight from her thoughts. “Huh,” she muttered, shaking her mane slightly. “Are you ok,” he patted her hoof with a claw. “You seem…distracted. Or tired...or both.” “How so, Spike,” she protested, floating a book up and sticking it in the shelf. “You just put that book in the wrong section,” he nodded towards it. “Pages out.” Sure enough, when Twilight looked up at the book, she chuckled slightly at the sight of the book crammed spine-first into the mass of other texts lining the shelves. “Heh, ok, so maybe I am a little,” she agreed, barely having time to stifle the yawn that popped out with her hoof. “Yeah, you need to sleep,” Spike grinned and yawned himself. “Ha, guess yawns are contagious.” “Oh that’s *yawn* ridiculous,” the Unicorn yawned again and giggled. “Uh-huh,” the dragon crossed his arms. “Well either way, we’re obviously both too tired to be sorting these books. So if you were smart like yours truly,” he grinned toothily. “You’d head to bed.” “Oh…fine,” Twilight agreed reluctantly and went about turning down a blanket for the couch for Spike before heading up to the guest bedroom across the hall from her own bedroom. “Good night, Spike.” “Night, Twilight.” But, try as she might and as tired as she was, she just couldn’t focus on sleep. No, unfortunately, Twilight was fighting a losing battle against her fierce curiosity; curiosity over what exactly had the blue Pegasus across the hall spooked badly enough that he was blatantly hiding part of his past from her. She tossed and turned for hours, wracking her brains over what they’d talked about that day, but by 4 in the morning, she’d realized that he’d revealed nothing else that might point back to why he was so afraid to tell her about his military past. Unable to bear it any longer, Twilight had crept from the guest room to her bedroom where Volare was sound asleep, much to her relief. At least he wasn’t in so much discomfort that he couldn’t fall asleep on his own now. She tip-hoofed softly to his bedside and observed him for a few moments before closing her own eyes and leaning her head close to his. Her horn glowed a dim purple as she focused her mind. She’d cast scrying spells before, but nothing quite like this; then again, she’d never had a reason to until now. From what she’d read in her texts, anypony could lie about anything, as well as hide their deepest secrets from anypony else, even from someone as sensitive to the truth as Applejack. However, nopony could truly lie to themselves, especially not when their mind was at its most vulnerable: in their dreams. Yes, she knew it was somewhat unethical to do this, but she just had to know what he was hiding from her in regards to his missions…this was the thought she focused on as she cast the dream scrying spell.* As the tip of her horn touched his forehead, she opened her eyes with a gasp to find herself in a dark and nearly empty space, empty that is except for the long waist-high desk before her. It seemed to be illuminated and encircled by a dim light source from up above, clearly making it the focus of this particular memory she’d forced his dreams into experiencing, although one end of the long desk exited the light and seemed to fade into the infinite shadows that pressed in around it. As she watched, a two-legged figure entered the circle of light from the shadows around it and approached the desk, himself dressed in a blue and yellow flight suit. Although she could only see portions of the side of his face, she could feel from the consciousness around her that this was Volare. She stayed well outside the circle of light as he stood at silent attention beside the desk for a long moment. And that was all he did was stand there, saying nothing, doing nothing but breathing. The suspense was getting to Twilight, but before she could consider saying something to snap Volare into action, a rustling noise from outside the light caused the pilot to look up. From out of the shadows and along the desk slid what looked to be a thick envelope with the bright red words DEBRIEFING clearly printed on the outside of the dull orange parcel. The package skidded to a stop inches away from Volare’s end of the desk, and he reached for it tentatively, his hand visibly shaking as he did so. So this is what he must remember about this, Twilight thought as the pilot plucked the thick envelope from the desk top. He turned it over in his hands and looked up past it, towards the end of the desk where it had slid from. He mumbled something incoherent to the darkness before shaking his head and setting the parcel down again. It gave a more weighty thump upon the desktop than something of that size deserved to, almost as if it were a physical burden within his mind. He pushed it away with some effort and began to step away from the desk. No, I want to see it! Twilight’s mind cried, her horn lighting up the space around her. Volare immediately noticed the new light source, and his head pivoted on his neck until he faced her, his face hidden in the shadows cast by the light above them. Crap! she thought and extinguished her horn quickly. The pilot shook his head slowly and then turned back to the desk, the dream altered by the Unicorn’s intervention. He reached back down for the parcel with what seemed to be a new resolve and without hesitation, tore open the seal and dumped out the contents upon the desk. A horrified Twilight immediately wished he hadn’t… Instead of papers or files spilling from the mouth of the manila folder, a torrent of ludicrously bright crimson blood poured out, splattering all over the desk and running off onto the floor and covering Volare’s shiny boots. Accompanying the flood were the sounds of children laughing and woman screaming as wave after wave of blood splashed against the desk. Even in an unconscious state of mind like this, Twilight felt the bile rise in her throat, and the only thought in her head was to get the buck out of Volare’s head! The light from her horn cleared away the shadows around her like a broom would sweep filth from the floorboards, but in the process revealed something even more disturbing. All around her were the bones of hundreds of humans, piled as high as her flanks and glistening with the same color blood that continued to drip from the envelope in Volare’s hands. This was no longer a dream…she’d stumbled into a nightmare of the worst kind. She gasped and turned back to the pilot at the desk, who finally dropped the envelope into the puddle of scarlet dribbling off the desktop. As the parcel splashed down into the liquid, he looked back up at her, and the shadows finally fled away from his face. But it was no longer his face…it was a burnt, bloody, grinning skull. Twilight screamed… …and then found herself back in her bedroom, gasping for breath mere inches from Volare’s face which was illuminated by the early dawn light peeking in over the window sill. The blue Pegasus groaned in his slumber and his eyelids fluttered slightly as he frowned. A drop of sweat clung to Twilight’s muzzle, threatening to splash down on his face and reveal the Unicorn standing above him, invading his dreams and secrets. Without a second thought, Twilight scooted backwards away from him and slipped out the bedroom door and back into the guest room before realizing she’d been holding her breath the entire time. She released it with a gasp and pulled breath after breath into her searing lungs. She was hyperventilating…she couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t done this since she was a little filly. Get a hold of yourself, Twilight!! She finally calmed down and leaned against the doorframe, her mind a jumble of thoughts. What had she been thinking? She’d just violated the sanctity of Volare’s mind and for what; to learn only a symbolic hint of what scared Volare the most? Well, you’ve certainly succeeded in that regard, and probably ruined any sleep you might have had planned for days to come! Why’d you have to be so bucking curious Twilight Sparkle?! Why?! Why, why, why, why, why?! -------------------------------- “Ugh, what a dream,” Volare mumbled as he turned over and felt a sharp pain in his right side. His eyes snapped open and he stared directly into the dawn sun. “AH!!” He cried and instinctively flopped over again, getting entangled in his bedsheets in the process. The nightmare he’d been experiencing suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks, and he cried out loudly, unable to move his entangled legs. “Agh, help!” he yelled before he could stop himself, and just as he fell out of the bed on his head, left wing flapping wildly and his right wing hanging painfully, Twilight burst into his room. “Volare, Volare, are you alright?!” She cried, her horn glowing as she untangled the bedsheets from around his hooves. “What happened?” Oh please don’t have seen me… “Ow,” Volare rubbed his sore forehead with a hoof, actually rather thankful that his right wing was dangling over his face; at least it was hiding the blush that crept across it as he realized he’d woken up screaming from a bad dream…and Twilight had walked right in on him during it. “Oh…bad dream to say the least,” he grinned sheepishly as he sat up next to the bed. As he looked up at the Unicorn, a look of realization crept into his expression. “And…I think I saw you in it, of all people, er, ponies.” He shook his head a bit helplessly. “Heh, I’ll get that down eventually; the whole ‘ponies’ instead of ‘people’ phrases.” “Oh, it’s no big deal Volare,” Twilight replied. She avoided looking him in the face for a while, expecting to see a skull in its place before she realized just how dumb that was…even so…“What was the dream about and why do you suppose I was in it?” Moment of truth… “I…I dunno, really,” he blinked his eyes and yawned. “I can’t say for sure why I saw you there, but…let’s just say it was a pretty nasty nightmare and leave it at that.” You can say that again...I think I'll just wait for him to tell me about that stuff himself...poor guy. “Are you gonna be ok?” “Yeah, yeah, I’ve had it before…just been a while,” the Pegasus shook his head again before struggling to his feet. “Heh, actually, if you don’t mind, I’d like to try tackling the stairs,” he nodded towards the flight leading up to the room above them. “Why’s that-oh,” Twilight turned away quickly, pink in her cheeks. “Right, um, you go on and do that and I’ll go get Spike up and get breakfast ready.” “Heh, sounds good,” Volare nodded and limped slowly up the short flight of stairs. Above them lay yet another small study-like area and just off to the side was indeed a bathroom like she'd said. And to his surprise, they had running water not unlike that on Earth. He did his business in the appropriate basin and ran the water by pulling a cord that read PULL TO FLUSH. Again, surprisingly simple, so much so that Volare laughed and pulled the cord twice more before realizing how silly he must look standing there and flushing a toilet like a little kid. He quickly washed his face in the sink and got the first really good look at himself in the mirror above the sink. His yellow spiky mane was matted all over the place, his blue fur was crusted in blood from the surgery, and his silver-blue eyes were bloodshot and had dark bags sitting beneath them. He grimaced and then made a face before laughing at himself. “Boy Volare, you sure look like hell.” He did his best to scrub some of the blood from his mane and neck before giving up when he realized he was just going to have to shower to get the rest of the mess off of himself. Still chuckling to himself, he limped out of the bathroom and began to make his way down the stairs. He got about two steps down before his head started to spin, and it was all he could do to catch the wall with a hoof and weakly cry out for help. Within 30 seconds, Twilight was at his side, and she helped him back to her bed and tucked him back in. “Ugh, Volare, you’re still too weak to be stressing yourself like this”- Twilight began to gently scold him before she was cut off by a shriek from outside the Library. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH” a normally cultured voice rang out and woke half of Ponyville. Twilight trotted to the window and unlatched it curiously to see what all the commotion was about. “I’LL DESTROY THE BOTH OF YOU!!!” “What in Celestia’s mane…” Twilight breathed before catching her breath at the sight in the street below her. Pelting across the road were Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, giggling so hard they could barely run. But it was a good thing they could, because right on their hooves was a veritable storm of indigo mane, white fur, gritting teeth, and…a green blur? “Pinkie and Rainbow, get back here this instant!!!!” The scream of rage that could only belong to Rarity rang out again, piercing its way through Twilight’s eardrums and making her head ring. But she quickly saw the reason for Rarity’s distress: her tail had been dyed lime green...and she only needed one guess as to who was responsible. “Run Pinkie, run!!” Dash laughed, causing Volare’s ears to perk forward and his left wing to flare slightly at her voice, though his right wing still hung limply at his side. “What’s going on out there, Twilight?” That screaming voice sounded familiar. “It’s my friend Rarity…let’s just say she’s not too pleased with Dash and Pinkie at the moment,” Twilight suppressed a giggle as the prankster duo suddenly split up and ran down opposite streets, leaving the white Unicorn below out of breath and leaning against the outside of the Library. Rarity…oh yeah, the drama-queen pony…good lord, what did you do to her, Dashie? Volare thought. “I’ll…get…you…*huff huff*,” Rarity moaned as she realized that although few ponies were actually out in the street at such an early hour, many were peering at her from their bedroom windows, wanting to know the reason for being woken up at dawn. “Um, I-er…you see…” she seemed rooted to the spot in embarrassment. “Rarity, get inside,” Twilight called out and unlocked front door with a flash of her horn, snapping her out of her funk. “Twilight, I,” she started to protest, but nodded instead. “R-right.” She quickly ran in the front door and shut it behind her, cutting her off from the stares of the sleepy townsponies. “Wha-Rarity?!” Volare heard Spike cry out in surprise before falling off the couch downstairs. He then heard hoofsteps on the staircase before the Unicorn they belonged to entered Twilight’s bedroom. Volare could see why Spike fancied her on the show; even with a lime green tail and somewhat unkempt mane, she was quite striking to behold up close. “T-thank you for helping me out there, darling,” Rarity began as she looked back down the stairs, as if she expected to be followed. “I was just about petrified in embarrassment with what those two charlatans Pinkie and Dash had done to my poor tail…and then I’d realized I’d run out of the house without at least brushing the bed tangles from my mane…oh, the horror!” “Oh, it’s not so bad, Rarity,” Twilight remarked, grimacing a bit all the same. “You wouldn’t happen to have a brush suitable for manes around, would you darling,” Rarity asked as she shut the door. “I just couldn’t bear it again if somepony saw me with a green tail and unkempt mane and-WHO IN EQUESTRIA IS THAT?!” The white Unicorn practically leaped back against the bedroom door as she turned around and spotted the blue Pegasus sitting up in Twilight’s bed. “Oh, hi,” Volare gave a small wave somewhat embarrassed. Apparently, nopony had yet to tell Rarity about him. “Name’s Volare. And I take it your name is Rarity?” “Why yes, it is,” Rarity looked from Volare to Twilight and back again before a small smirk formed on her lips. “Well, well, Twilight. Forgive me if I seem forward, but I never knew you fancied Pegasi stallions.” “What…NO!” Twilight shook her head while Volare facehoofed. “Rarity, I’ll get you a manebrush if you’ll just sit down; let’s just say it’s really not what you think.” The purple Unicorn headed downstairs, nearly running over Spike in the process. “Agh, Spike, what’re you doing?!” “Nothing, just wondering why you left Rarity in there with Volare…alone.” “Oh, you’re impossible.” “So, um,” Rarity searched for the correct words to say to a stallion sitting in her friend’s bed early in the morning…a bed that looked fairly well-used. “Have you known Twilight long; I haven’t seen you in town yet.” “Not too long, about 3 days,” Volare replied. “Oh,” Rarity’s eyes widened a bit. “I see…she must have warmed up quite quickly to you, then?” “Heh, I guess you could say that,” Volare smiled, a tad oblivious. “Hrm, you must think I’m quite the sight,” she said to change the subject, not wanting to get too deep into Twilight’s personal taste in relationship etiquette. “What,” Volare looked up, misunderstanding her for a moment before he realized she was doing her best to hide her green tail and tangled mane from him. “Oh, no, not like that; I mean, you look good Rarity,” Volare sputtered, he too searching for the right words to make her feel better without sounding like a jackass himself. “I heard that,” Spike growled, arms crossed as he leaned against the doorframe. “Oh, morning Spikey,” Rarity nodded at the small dragon. “Sorry you have to see me like this so early in the morning.” “Nah, it’s totally fine, Rarity,” Spike walked over and sat beside her before giving Volare a look that said this is how it’s done. “You look good to me rain or shine, day or night, dusk or dawn.” “Aww, you’re so sweet,” she leaned down and gave him a quick peck on his head spines, making him go limp and lean against the wall with a goofy look on his face as Volare hid a laugh behind his hooves. “So, what happened to your tail,” Volare asked, nodding at the green hair she was still attempting to shield with her body. She sighed and let it fall in front of her. “Well, if you must know, it seems that Pinkie and Rainbow Dash-you do know who they are, don’t you?” she interrupted herself, to which Volare nodded. “Oh, right...yes, those two have a habit of pulling jokes on everypony, and apparently, I was their newest victim.” "You don’t say,” Volare rubbed his chin with a hoof. “And so they dyed your tail green?” “Yes, while I was asleep of all things! Such an invasion of privacy," she swooned a bit. "Ugh, doesn’t it just clash appallingly with my mane,” she whimpered slightly. “Oh, I’m sure there’re worse combinations out there. I mean heck; look at this nasty animal sitting on my head,” Volare laughed sincerely at his own messy mane, trying a little self-deprecating humor to cheer her up. “Heh, you’re too kind,” Rarity sniffed slightly. “In any case, those two hoodlums waited around outside my front door until just a few minutes ago, and if it weren’t for them laughing at my clashing fashion, I might have walked into town like this, Celestia forbid! So, here I am…and there you are…and quite honestly, you really could do something with your own mane, darling…your whole self, honestly; no offense.” “None taken; I know I look like crap,” Volare laughed. “I haven’t showered in days,” his statement caused the white Unicorn’s jaw to drop in shock. “Finally found it,” Twilight announced as she re-entered the room with the brush, which Rarity promptly took and began attending to her mane with. “Whoa, what happened to Spike,” she giggled as she inquired of the young dragon slumped against the wall. “He couldn’t handle Rarity’s charms,” Volare piped up, causing the white Unicorn to pause in her brushing and look at him for a long moment. “Twilight, you simply must tell me where you picked up such a strange yet charismatic stallion,” Rarity’s amused smile faded a bit as she cocked an eyebrow. “But if I were you, I’d at least bathe him before letting him sleep in my bed.” “…yeah, you’ve really got some catching up to do,” Twilight’s horn glowed with a slight crackling noise as she turned Rarity’s tail back to its usual indigo. The fashionista grinned her thanks. “Well, I wasn’t really intending to be up nearly this early this morning, so I suppose I have the time,” Rarity replied and sat the brush down, her mane back to its former glory. “Ah, much better! So, please tell me about this…Volare, was it darling?” “Yes ma’am,” the blue Pegasus nodded as he and Twilight disclosed the full story behind how he’d come to be there in Twilight’s bedroom. --------------------------------------------