Mind Games

by Brolkier

Change of plans

From atop a cliff in Rainbow Falls.

“My, my, my. There appears to be some show going on over there.” Flam said to his brother.

“Yes indeed dear brother. That’s quite the show going on in Canterlot tonight.” Flim responded.

The Flim Flam brothers looked out from high atop Rainbow Falls, as they watched the light show that was most definitely being caused by the Princesses in Canterlot. They assumed that their plan had been a success, and that Queen Chrysalis was being overthrown as they watched the magic flashes.

However, they didn’t notice the sounds of a pony approaching them from behind them.

“Flim Flam Brothers!” A mare’s voice called out, causing the brothers to jump.

As they turned around to see whom was addressing them, they discovered it was one of their partners in the whole plan, Spitfire.

“Ah, how delightful to see you again Captain Spitfire.” Flim addressed the Wonderbolt Captain.

“What brings you by Rainbow Falls this late at night? Looking to buy something?” Flam asked.

“Cut the hay! What’s going on here!? Why hasn’t Chrysalis drank the love poison yet, and what’s with the light show going on in Canterlot!?” Spitfire demanded.

The brothers looked at each other, confused as to what Spitfire was talking about.

“Why whatever do you mean?” Flim asked, a confused look on his face.

“Yes, from what we can tell, everything looks like its going just fine.” Flam added, a face to match his brother’s.

“Don’t play dumb with me! Why did Trixie ponynap Chrysalis, and what happened to my flyer Soarin!?” Spitfire asked.

The brothers looked at each other once more, trying to piece the puzzle together.

“That’s…most unfortunate on both accounts.” Flim replied.

“We’re not sure why Trixie would want to capture Chrysalis herself.” Flam added.

“As for your flyer, well; didn’t you plan to use him as bait from the beginning? Surely you should have been expecting him to disappear?” Flim added.

“I expected him to go down as the culprit! Not to disappear and leave the chance for them to trace the plot back to one of us!” Spitfire replied.

“Does he know about our plan?” Flim asked.

“No, but he’s always hanging around Scootaloo and I trying to be a Wonderbolt again, so I don’t know if he was ever eavesdropping.” Spitfire responded.

“Sounds like a sneaky partner if you ask me.” Flam told Spitfire.

“But we’ve always been able to trust each other, right?” Flim asked Spitfire.

“I suppose. Not like I don’t know about you two though.” Spitfire replied.

“Well fair enough. But there, you see? We’re still friends.” Flim replied.

“Even assuming that you’re right, and that Chrysalis didn’t drink the love poison, it’s not like this is such a bad thing.” Flam added.

“Quite the contrary. If Chrysalis is indeed gone, then that should solve all matters altogether.” Flim added.

“But we still don’t know WHERE she is. We need to have a Plan B going, if we want to make sure that she stays gone.” Spitfire told the brothers.

“I’m assuming you’ve already got one in mind?” Flim asked.

“I have one for myself, yes. I’m still making sure that things get carried out without too much deviation from the original plan. What about you two?” Spitfire told the brothers.

“We’ve…” Flim started to say, before his brother finished for him.

“We’ve got a Plan B of our own of course.” Flam filled in for his brother, a confident look on his face.

“Yes of course. No need to worry about us.” Flim repeated, a confident look on his face as well.

Unconvinced that the brothers were telling the truth, but realizing that time was short to question them further, Spitfire decided to let them be with their “Plan B.”

“Alright then. As long as we’re able to get rid of that changeling and her entire swarm without any hiccups, then I suppose I can trust whatever your Plan B is.” Spitfire told the brothers.

Happy that Spitfire had bought their lie, the brothers turned to nod their heads in agreement with each other.

“However, just to be on the safe side. I’ll stick around here for the time being, just to make sure that nothing you two do will interfere with my own backup plan.” Spitfire told the brothers, before making her way to their tent.

The brothers waved goodbye to the Pegasus, fake smiles on their faces, before turning back to one-another.

“Well this sure is a predicament. What are we supposed to do now?” Flim asked.

“How should I know? I thought that those flashes of magic over in Canterlot meant everything was just fine, same as you.” Flam replied.

“Well, we’ll probably need to keep an eye on her for now, since she’s most likely doing the same to us.” Flim answered.

“Indeed. Although, now that I think about it; you don’t suppose that Unicorn and her friends have anything to do with this, do you?” Flam asked.

“It’s a possibility. She was the one that found that giant hole in our plan. I wouldn’t be surprised if she found a way to get there in time and change things.” Flim answered.

“So we need to make keeping THEM from interfering any further OUR Plan B?” Flam asked.

“Yes, I’d say that sounds like as good a plan as ever, but we can’t really do much about that, at least not while Ms. Captain over there is watching us.” Flim replied.

“Agreed.” Flam added.

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Meanwhile, now running through the streets of Canterlot.

“Twilight! Twilight slow down!” Spike called after Twilight, trying to keep up with her.

“Yeah! What was all that about!? Why did you teleport us out of there!?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Finally, Twilight stopped running and leaned up against the side of one of the stores, before sliding down to the ground and starting to cry to herself.

“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she approached her friend from back on the ground.

Turning Twilight’s head towards theirs, Rainbow Dash could see Twilight’s face covered in tears, with a painfully hurt look on her face.

“Oh Rainbow Dash!” Twilight told her friend, pulling her in for a comforting hug while still crying. “I didn’t want to do it! I didn’t want to leave her there like that! Even though I know the Princesses would never do anything to hurt us, I…I just still couldn’t stand doing it!” Twilight added, trying to sniff up her tears before speaking again. “But…but I knew that if we didn’t get out of there, then everypony else would be in danger. This…this whole mess is just so confusing, and I want it to be over. I want our friends to go back to the way they used to be, and I want Equestria to go back to normal as well.”

“Well, you were the one that told me not to make any rash decisions, and that one was pretty rash on your part.” Rainbow Dash told her friend.

“I know, and I’m sorry, but there wasn’t any other way that I could see.” Twilight replied.

“It’s alright. I guess if I was in your hooves, I might’ve done the same thing, or at least grabbed Fluttershy too.” Rainbow Dash told Twilight.

“I did think about that after I grabbed your tail, but I’ve never tried teleporting more than one other pony besides myself before. I wasn’t sure what would’ve happened.” Twilight replied.

“Well now that’s out of the way, we should probably get moving again.” Spike spoke.

“You’re right Spike. Fluttershy wouldn’t want us to waste time sobbing over her like this, and I’m sure she can take care of herself.” Twilight responded.

“So where to now?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, we’ll need to find out more behind this whole plot against Chrysalis. The Flim Flam brothers seemed clueless about the repercussions of this plan, and Trixie didn’t seem to have put much thought into it either. Honestly, if you’re going to try to overthrow a Queen, especially a changeling Queen, then you should really put more thought into your plan, and the kinds of repercussions that could stem from it going wrong.” Twilight replied.

“What about that love poison thing? Shouldn’t we still try to find that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“If Chrysalis isn’t even present anymore, then I don’t think we need to worry about it too much. Also, now that we’ve told the Princesses about it, I’m sure they’ll take precautions to make sure that everypony in the palace is careful about what they drink for a while.” Twilight answered.

“So who do we turn to then?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“The Flim Flam brothers mentioned that of all the ponies they know of that weren’t affected by Chrysalis’ mind control, there were themselves, Trixie, and Spitfire.” Twilight answered.

“Wow! I always knew that the Captain of the Wonderbolts couldn’t be tamed by some changeling!” Rainbow Dash replied proudly.

“Even so, she still had a hoof in this whole plan, even if it didn’t go as they thought it would.” Twilight told Rainbow Dash.

“So we need to find Spitfire, right? Soarin was saying that Spitfire sent him to Canterlot for something, so maybe she’ll know a little more about what’s going on, and why Soarin got involved too.” Spike asked.

“Right.” Twilight answered.

“She’s probably still up in Cloudsdale at this hour. I can’t think of any night shows that the Wonderbolts would be doing this time of year, and I know Spitfire doesn’t do a whole lot of night flying anyway.” Rainbow Dash added.

Twilight and Spike both raised an eyebrow to Rainbow Dash, wondering how she knew so much about the Wonderbolts’ personal schedules.

“What? It’s not like I stalk them or anything. I just…you know, follow the news a lot! You know how much I love to read!” Rainbow Dash replied, putting on a cheesy smile.

Twilight and Spike laughed a bit to each other, before getting back to the task at hoof.

“So how are we supposed to get up there?” Spike asked.

“I guess we’ll have to go back to Ponyville first. That’s where my balloon is.” Twilight replied.

“Way ahead of ya Twilight!” Rainbow Dash called down from up in the air.

“Huh?” Twilight and Spike said in unison.

“Follow me!” Rainbow Dash called down, before taking off.

Spike hopped onto Twilight’s back, and the two of them headed off after Rainbow Dash. After a few minutes of running outside of the main hub of Canterlot, they arrived at their destination, and Twilight saw what Rainbow Dash had in mind.

Before them was a giant airship, with a balloon shaped like a whale.

“Yeah! This’ll be perfect!” Spike said aloud.

“Rainbow Dash, how did you…?” Twilight asked.

“I remembered seeing it when I was flying around before your birthday party here a while ago. It should be able to get us up to Cloudsdale in no time!” Rainbow Dash replied.

“You’re right…although, wouldn’t this be stealing?” Twilight asked.

“What are you talking about? Weren’t you the ones that said there weren’t any more fees for transportation since Chrysalis took over?” Rainbow Dash asked back.

“Well, that was for trains and the like I believe. I’m pretty sure this balloon actually belongs to somepony.” Twilight replied.

“Then we’ll just take it up quick, and bring it right back down. It’s still nighttime, so they won’t even notice.” Rainbow Dash answered.

“I don’t know.” Twilight spoke.

“Ah, come on Twilight! You said it yourself that we’re in a hurry, and I’m sure the owner would understand given the circumstances.” Spike told Twilight.

“Well, I guess given the circumstances.” Twilight replied.

“Alright! I call the steering wheel!” Spike called out, as he rushed towards the ship.

“Hey!” Twilight called back, before shaking her head and following Spike.

Twilight prepped the ship as best she could, before giving Rainbow Dash the “Okay!” to push the ship into the sky. Once airborne, the trio set a course for Cloudsdale, unaware that they were being followed.

Comments

[Brolkier]

4722015 Glad you got a laugh.

I think I actually heard Moonbutt before I heard Sunbutt.