Tale of Soarin McLighting
Chapter 15: Only Want a Shower
“Thanks miss, the food looks great, leave it over there and I'll wake sleepy head.”
“Of cause ma'am, hope you had a nice rest in our hotel and hope you and your brother enjoy the breakfast before you leave. Please come to our hotel again if you come to the Crystal Empire, we always guarantee the best sleep you ever have when staying in the Crystal Empire.”
“Nice bloody sale pitch miss. Have to say it working!”
“I didn't...”
“Only teasing, it in the job for you to say it.”
The stallion slowly half open eyes groan as the sound of the door closes. He sat up rubbing his head and froze at the touch of a hoof on an- “Horn!” He quickly snap his eyes open and saw a mirror over a table looking back in reflection of an brown stallion with two shades of blue mane with amber eyes returning the gaze. “I-I...”
Mist using her wings pick up the tray and place it on the table and lifting up the pans over the top of it to reveal two plates of toast, eggs, greens and hay bacon. She poured milk and tea into both cups adding sugar into hers. “One or two?”
“Huh?”
“One or two sugars sleepy head.”
“Erm... Two...”
Mist add two spoons in and stirs it. “Wings are pretty neat, get the hang of using them almost like hands.” She chuckled softly. “So how do you feel?”
She passed over the tea, using his magic, the amber aura takes it and brings it over to him. “Free.”
Mist taking hers with her wings blowing it and took a sip. “Not bad tea. Doesn't beat good old British tea though, PG tips for the win.” Mist turned to him after gazing at the light brown liquid. “So my horn head, explain to me when getting rid of that horrible paint job and leafy dress up you had going that you changed not only in fur colour but got an horn to boot? It bloody weird.”
The stallion sip the tea and started at the cup in his aura. “It hard to explain, best I can say is that the paint is more like a magical field that turns you into whatever the user wants you to become, in my case an Earth Pony tribal...” He glance at her. “How did you remove it? It suppose to be periment. Not even Princess Celestia's magic can remove it!”
Mist shrugs, “Not sure who this Princess Celestia person is, but I can say thi-”
“Wh-what... You don't know who Princess Celestia is?”
“Nope and don't care. So as I was saying.” She drunk some more tea. “Eat while I talk to twit.”
He blinked and got out of bed noticing his cutie mark of a shield and blue flame in front of it but choose to wait to say anything and do as she told him. “Ok...”
Mist chuckled waving her hoof around in a circle. “All I did was put you into the bathtub while you was out like a light. Put some soap on my hooves and cleared the shit off you.”
“Soap doesn't work either...” He muttered with a mouth full of food.
Mist slap her hoof on her head. “Then tell me this Mr. flame shield ass! How did I fucking remove it?”
He choked on his food swallowing hard and coughing a few more times. “I-I don't know... But it been five years since I been stuck like that.” He stared at himself in the Mirror. “And miss my name is Flame Shield.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“Jezz what is it with you ponies and crazy stupid bloody names. Crystal Arrow, Click Clack...urg...somepony just bloody wake me from this horrible names!” Mist complains and eats her toast and eggs.
Flame Shield decided to ask, “Since you freed me from Ahuizotl's magical control, may I ask the name of the red lightning swirling cloud ass Mare?” He grinned.
Mist chuckled lightly. “Nice try hot shot. Name's Mist Dangerfield, and to let you know I got a boyfriend already.”
“Coltfriend you mean?”
“Yeah yeah whatever Flame. Now tell me this do you remember everything in the last five years?” Mist asked and continued to eat.
Flame Shield nodded. “Everything, all the times Ahuizotl monologued his plans to Daring Do to getting his and our butts kicked by her more times I like to count.” Flame Shield replied. “He's after the other half of the artifact that a mare by the name of Zealous has. He has one half and she has the other.”
“And how exactly do I fall into all this?”
“Zealous seem to be very interested in you, and finding you inside a falling metal bird also added to Ahuizotl's plans. He planning on double crossing her too.” Flame Shield explained. “Ahuizotl always wants to get his paws on anything to finally take over the world and defeat Daring Do.”
Mist rolled her eyes. “What am I in? A world with villains and heroes? This sound like some cheesy children’s comic book or cartoon they watch every morning with some crazed villain always trying to do one up on a hero and have to monologue everything with an evil laughter... No wonder I escaped with such ease. It's a massive plot hole.” She laughed at the silliness she'd been put through and went back to drinking some more of her tea.
Flame Shield thought about it and laughed, “When you put it like that it does sound stupid. He does the evil laughter too and his personal guards are a lot bunch of cats.”
“Well I got to say this Flame Shield, while finding Blue I am sure not going to find anything dull in this place.”
“What, British?”
“Oh that what I am. I am from Great Britain or also known as the United Kingdom. I'm a Brit and bloody proud of it.” Mist replied with a mock salute. “Well with all the information I got off you Flame, you're free to go where ever you like.”
Flame Shield blinked. “Just like that?”
“Why not? This world most likely works on harmony and pretty friendly crap stuff.”
“World? You're from another world!?”
“Give the knight a medal, you got it right!” She sarcastically replied clopping her hooves together in an clapping fashion.
Flame Shield shook his head a little. “Fair enough I deserved that sassy remark.” Flame Shield stood up from the table and saluted her. “As of this moment, till my debt is repaid I will be in service to you as your personal guard.”
Mist spits out her tea swaying him with it. “S-say what!? You gotta be fucking kidding me! All I did was remove the stupid paint!” Then it dawn on her. “Please don't tell me you're some fucking royal guard before Freakshow turned you into an tribal disaster...”
“Then I won't Miss Dangerfield.”
Mist groaned slamming her underside of her snout against the table with a thud. “Just great...” She stares at him as he cleans himself up from the tea she swayed on him. “And don't call me miss you fucking twit. I'm not some odd hag ya know! Just Mist will do! Call me Miss again and you're going to see how far you can fly when I kick you square in that plot of yours!”
Flame Shield gulped loudly. “Y-yes Mist...”
“Since you decided to so on purposely piss me off with the whole personal guard crap! I am going to go in the bathroom and get myself washed! So stay out here and no bloody peeking!” Mist throws off her jacket landing on the bed and with an mighty slam of the door.
Flame Shield rub the back of his neck. “Guess you can't be choosy with those that saved your plot from an lifetime of magical slavery from an freakshow like Ahuizotl.” He muttered to himself. “Still it good to finally think for myself again and see myself once more.”
An knock came at the door. “Fucking great! When I want to have an bloody shower some-”
Flame Shield got up. “Ma'am I'll answer it, continue with your shower.”
“Fine! But this doesn't make us even!”
“Of course ma'am.” Flame Shield went up to the door and open it with his magic.
Upon opening it the shock filled his eyes, somepony he haven't seen in five years suddenly was before him and the same shock filled the eyes of the white stallion with blue mane, tail and hooves, silence filled the room and corridor only the sound of water running in the bathroom.
“Hey Shining Armor is this the room the mare maid pointed to or what?” Coming into view of Flame Shield was a rainbow mane mare and an orange one with an stetson and blonde mane.
The orange one now wave her hoof in front of him. “Sugarcube what the hay the matter with ya?”
Flame snaps out of it blinking a few times. “That would be something to do with me...” He to a look from both of them. “We haven't seen each other for over five years since the part of the unit of guard which I was part of got separated from the rest during a jungle track as newly recruited guards.”
“Really?”
Shining Armor came out of his trance shocked state shaking his head and answering. “It true but I thought you and the others gone for good, we found nothing but your armour all those years ago!”
Flame Shield waved them to come in. The three ponies entered and he closed the door with his magic.
“Flame this is Applejack and Rainbow Dash.” Shining Armor introduced them to him.
He turning around to them he listen for a second to the sound of Mist. “Damn I really needed this! Bloody great!”
“Who the mare friend?” Applejack asked.
Flame Shield knew what she was getting at. “Mist Dangerfield and not one to be tested. She KO'd me in one swift blow.”
Shining Armor look to the door to the bathroom and back at him. “Mist in as in this picture?”
He took a look at it from Shining Armor showing him. “Yep that her. I own her big, she not only beat the living flank out of me but freed me from the accursed magical paint that left me trapped within a body of some tribal pony working for Ahuizotl without question-”
“Whoa whoa whoa! You worked for Ahuizotl!?” Rainbow Dash waving her hooves for a time out and point at him. “Then how can we trust you!? All we know you're still working for him!”
Flame Shield tap his horn with his hoof. “Do you think Ahuizotl has any pegasi or unicorns in his ranks?”
“No...”
“I can't prove other than that. Mist is the only other to prove it since she the one that washed off the magic paint off me and restored me to what I really am. Can't say that I am lucky, the other four guards that was with me are still part of his troop and not really sure which one of them is them.” Flame Shield gave them the best answer and shared with them a little bit of what happened.
“Ah believe ya sugarcube. So tell us. What is exactly is this magic paint yer talkin' about?”
Flame Shield try to think about it and recalled what happened. “Soon after the landside and we fell as well cut off from the others we found ourselves tied up and held at spear point by tribal stallions though we thought at first.”
Shining Armor decided to speak. “After all these years and being freed by an alien pony your just going to sit there and tell us just like that?”
“Erm... Yes. It not every day that something not even Daring Do knows about Ahuizotl can come to the surface like this. And rather do say something now before I might end up like one of-” The door opens for a second and he gets hit in the face by a sponge.
“Didn't you bloody just tell me that you now my personal guard!? So start acting like it and tell these bloody idiots instead of being all melodramatic and make it happen to you!” Shining Armor cover his eyes instantly seeing her standing in the shower glaring at now a very red in the face stallion his right eye twitching.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash just staring, AJ right eye twitching. “Seriously!? You ponies are always naked so what does it matter if you see me soaking wet in a shower!?” Mist snaps at all the frozen expressions she could see. “Gah! Fine you fucking twats! I shut the damn bloody door!” With an mighty slam the door was closed.
“Did that just-” Rainbow Dash begins.
“Sugarcube as yer was sayin'!”
Flame Shield quickly turn to her. “Oh right! Ahuizotl capturing us! Of course!” Flame Shield removes the sponge from his snout and quickly goes back to talking about what happened. Shining Armor lowering his foreleg trying to get what he saw for a second out of his mind, no telling what Cadance would think.
“As I was saying! Ahuizotl had captured us and during the time we was out cold he had our armour removed. He held this weird looking jar and drip his right paw finger in it and explains that before his first running with Daring do he had taken many artefacts and destroyed the places so what he took would never be discovered. One being from a place that a mare who made all the stallions in her little kingdom would control them all with this creamy like paint, it true colour is whatever the user would wish it upon the stallion.”
“You're telling us that this paint stuff only works on stallions? Isn't that a little sexist?”
He shrugged at the comment Rainbow Dash made. “Tell that to the mare that made it with her magic, she did it to control all the stallions in her kingdom. That was long gone but how to make it wasn't. Ahuizotl took it and made changes to the mix so it would work for him on stallions as it did for Queen Teihoof. That the pony that made the paint.”
“And he paint it all over ya?”Applejack asked. “And that it yer under his spell?”
Flame Shield lower his gaze from them. “No, you try to fight the magic soon as one drop hits you, I watched all the others change before me into Earth Tribal Ponies... They fought it as it spread over them until they only believed they was always what they became, to serve him as their will.” Flame Shield turn to Shining Armor. “I fought so hard and I couldn't stop it. I felt my horn pull into my own skull the fur change colour, my mane and tail change in size and my cutie mark changed to match what an tribal pony is... I was trapped inside my own pony and dreams. It makes you unable to do anything but watch.”
Shining Armor put his hoof to his shoulder. “It wasn't your fault, no pony knew Ahuizotl was real, we all thought he was fictional.”
“I don't know. I thought everypony knew he was real. Why did you think he was fictional?”
“Yer don't know about the books?”
“What books?”
“You don't really know do you?” Shining Armor now asked and a shake of the head came in reply. “Daring Do till yesterday I thought was fictional and now I am finding out Ahuizotl is real too. This just getting weirder by the day...”
Flame rubbing his head. “You're telling me. I am still trying to figure out about these books of fiction of Daring Do and Ahuizotl. No wonder Princess Celestia never dealt with it personally. Guess getting into a good book really can pull the wool over your eyes.” Flame Shield chuckled lightly.
Rainbow Dash got everything he said. “So after all that you just going to be her guard? Not even checking up on if she evil or something?”
“She saved my life from being a puppet to Ahuizotl so... Yes.” He replied.
“Wow that pretty neat, especially about something no pony even know! Not even Twilight! She will flip when she'd find out that her brother could have been in your position all those years ago!”
Applejack turn to Shining Armor. “Yer ok?”
“No... Because Rainbow Dash is right. Because Flame Shield push me with his magic away from it I never ended up in that very position...” Shining Armor glance at Flame Shield. “I can never imagine what happened to you at all this time...”
Flame Shield sighed. “I had to tell you because I couldn't let this happen to any pony else. Because he might know and send somepony to-”
A stallion kick down the door with a pot in one hoof. Shining Armor got his shield up. “Magic wont work against those pots!” Rainbow Dash instantly said. “They magic proof! I read it in one of the Daring Do books. It usually has sleeping gas or stun gas in it!”
“Paint for me...” Flame replied.
Applejack got her rope out and Rainbow Dash stood ready to charge him. “Not with us bein' here sugarcube.”
“Yeah! We will kick his-” Rainbow Dash eyes turn to the left and her wings was locked. Shining Armor's shield popped, Flame Shield jaw hanging and Applejack lasso fell on top of her head and around her neck.
“It is and another stallion to join the ranks.” But before he could throw it there was a tap on his left, slowly turning he look directly into the eyes of an very anger soaking wet pegasi. He dropped the pot as he froze at the sight before him, face flustered, Mist caught it with a right hoof lower it to the ground.
She grabbed him by the ear with her mouth pulling him. “Yussh fusshinssh no goosssh fosssh bloossshy prisshh. I wilssh shoshh ya whassh I wilsshh do to yoshhh.”
He was let go and with a roundhouse kick knocked into the bath tub with water falling from the show onto him. “Give me the bloody sponge Flame Shield and close that bloody jaw of yours!”
Flame Shield closed his mouth and not looking any more gave it via magic. “Thank you! It time to give this asshole a good cleaning!”
“No you can't I live to serve Ahuizotl! You can't do this to me!”
“Just watch me buster! I been trying to have a bloody shower and all I get is one stupid thing after another!”
“Ok this is seriously the most ruddiest thing anypony could be doing now!” Rainbow Dash snapped out of her shock.
“Ah've given up sugarcube. She just now doin' this without a care in the world.”
Shining Armor cover his head with a pillow. “I am so in for it with Cadance!”
“Don't worry we'll back you up!” Rainbow Dash pat him on the back gentle. “Seriously I know we don't wear anything but seeing another pony showering is like seeing two ponies having-”
Applejack put her lasso around Rainbow Dash snout and pulled. “Ah get it! Ah don't need that in mah head!”
“Sorry...” Rainbow Dash squeaked.
Flame Shield shook his head looking to the floor. “What did I get myself into...”
“DONE!” The stallion get kicked out of the bathroom. “Now do something about that stupid pot and let me have a...” A pause glaring at all of them. “FUCKING SHOWER IN PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The door slammed harder this time and caused the room to shake.
The now white pegasi with short blue mane and tail groans lying upside down against the wall looking at each of them. “Please tell me what just happened was a dream...”
“Sorry it wasn't...” Shining Armor replied.
“ Ahuizotl was one thing but that! I can't-”
Flame Shield used his magic and sealed his lips. “No pony going to speak of this ever, got it?” He gave a good hard look at each of them.
Shining Armor sighed. “Only Cadance...”
“What!?” They all looked at him.
“She will know, trust me she has ways of knowing!”
“Ok but not to Twilight and specially Rarity! we won't hear the end of it”
“Agreed.” The ponies nod together.
The white pegasi turn himself over to a sitting position. “Can somepony tell me what happened in the last 15 years? Being stuck as Ahuizotl's slave since a colt doesn't really help...” They looked at he had no cutie mark.
Rainbow Dash saw red. “He took a colt and turn him into a slave!?”
“Erm... Does it help I don't know my name anymore?”
“That does it!” Rainbow Dash about to storm out but Applejack stops her.
“Rainbow Ah know yer upset. Ah am too! But gettin' all wind up isn't gonna help!”
The white stallion look to each of them. “I know it rude when mares bathing and I do understand now but I only known a life working for Ahuizotl, he mean but I don't know what I am going to do... I'm scared...”
Rainbow Dash walk up to him wrapping a wing around him. “It's ok kid.”
“RD his-”
“I know. So what do you remember about working for Ahuizotl?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“No-not much. I trying to remember but it almost all a blur...”
“Guess changing somepony at a really young age would do that.” Flame Shield rubbing his snout a little. “Wish I could easily forget the last five years...”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No kid you're not.” Rainbow Dash said to him calmly. “Just relax you're safe now. I am sure Princess Cadance can help you more I can.”
“Thank you miss...” He closed his eyes drifting into a sleep.
Rainbow Dash sighed letting him rest against her. “I hate to say this but...”
“ Ahuizotl need to be stopped once and for all...” Shining Armor looked over at them with a new goal in mind. “Doing this to children is overstepping their bounds. No pony or creation should have the right...”
No pony said anything else silently looking at each other while the white stallion slept and Mist had a shower, outside across the view of the window on the room a dragon and pony stood watching what had unfolded on the pad between the claws of the dragon.
Flame right eye twitching at what happened with Mist. “Did I have to really see and hear all that?”
Zealous chuckled lightly. “Oh please... You seen me soaking wet from a shower plenty of times.”
“That you! You're like a mother to me! She! Well you know!” Flame growled under his breath.
Zealous shrugs. “Did everything we planned work though even you did see more to another mare?”
Flame slap himself. “You're never going to let that go are you?”
“For a plot of a view?” She grinned. “Nope never.” Zealous look to the screen. “It worked wonderfully did it not?”
Flame press a few buttons and the drone comes to an landing on his right claw, closing it up he put it away in the bag he carried. “It did, more then we hopped for. Now we got a prince on our side to take out Ahuizotl.”
“Slipping that little message to him worked so perfectly well against his own anger.” Zealous ow turn to the Crystal Empire. “Now we and the empire got a new mutual enemy to deal with it time for the past to finally catch up to poor sweet Celestia.” She chuckled with her horn glowing.
Flame glance over to the hotel once more. “What of the child within the stallion body?”
Zealous held off teleporting and glance to the hotel. “After this is over we'll take him back and give him all the help he needs. It will take time but leaving him with these ponies and risk him being sheltered and put in the corner somewhere isn't what I like to see. Ahuizotl indeed has over step his bounds, this now came personal.”
“I am on the same page with you Zealous, he need to be taught a lesson, one that will wipe that ugly mug for good.” With those words from Flare they vanished in a flash as she teleports both of them to the front of the Crystal Empire Palace.