Shut Up And Dance

by TheVClaw

Chapter Thirty-Four: Return of the Shim Sham Sisters

Author's Note:

Yeah, I know this update took WAY too long to make. 2020 has been a shitty year for everyone, and that includes myself. Hopefully I can update this story sooner next time~

Much to the benefit of Rainbow Blitz and Elusive, as well as most of their friends, there was a surprising lack of drama that came between the two after they confirmed their relationship. Not only was the realization of their mutual feelings a large weight off their shoulders, but it also helped them work together for a shared goal: Working their butts off for the upcoming finals of the Equestrian National Dance Competition.

Since the news of Elusive and Blitz’s dancing prowess was big enough to be featured in national papers, it wasn’t too hard for Elusive to have his projects put on hold for the following two weeks. Rainbow Blitz was given a lot of support from the Wonderbolts as well, who were ecstatic to see how well one of their best flyers could prevail in such an unorthodox competition. Even Dusk Shine offered his assistance for the two, as he and Barb had a couple of guest rooms set up in the castle for overnight stays. The gesture may have been a little much for them (especially since Elusive’s place was only a few blocks away), but neither of the stallions were going to turn down the lavish accommodations their friend set up for them.

Over those two grueling weeks of practice, Elusive and Blitz ended up spending most of their time in the ballroom of Dusk’s castle. Even Barb wasn’t allowed inside of the room while they worked on their routines, not that she seemed to mind too badly. Dusk Shine was worried at first about his assistant’s behavior, since she became much less vocal and insistent about intruding on their work. However, given how secretive the stallions were getting about their routines -- even reaching the point of them constantly sound-proofing the ballroom so their music couldn’t be heard -- the Prince could only assume that Barb understood their need of privacy as much as he did.

“Hey, Barb?” Dusk made sure to knock a couple times before opening the door to her bedroom. As he poked his head inside, he saw that the drake already had a couple travel bags packed and resting beside her bed. Barb was sitting on top of the comforter, and had her face buried between the pages of the latest issue of Power Ponies Ultimate. He wasn’t sure if she heard him knock, and tried to wave his hoof to catch her attention. “Barb, are you--”

“GNGHHH!!!” She jolted up from the bed like a housecat, and clutched the comic to her chest while blushing profusely. “D-Dusk Shine?! Didn’t you say you were going to knock from now on?!”

“I did!” snapped Dusk, just before he closed his eyes and took a calming breath. “Sorry, sorry… But I technically did knock, Barb. You just didn’t hear me, that’s all.”

“Oh…” Barb eventually settled back down, and ended up looking away from Dusk in embarrassment. She still held onto her comic book as she asked, “Uhhh… what’s up?”

“Well, I noticed that the ballrooms doors were open, but neither of the guys were in there.” Dusk pointed back down the hallway before asking, “Do you know where they went?”

“Ehhh, they probably went out to get takeout or something. I overheard Elusive saying something about getting us dinner as a thank-you.”

“Oh, really?” Dusk’s brows rose up in surprise. “That’s pretty nice of them.”

“Well, what did you expect?” Barb shot a lighthearted shrug back at Dusk Shine. “I mean, you pretty much opened this castle to them for the past week or so. And Elusive is the Element of Generosity. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t order out sooner.”

“Oh, they’re actually doing that?” Starshine was trotting down the hall when he passed Barb’s open doorway, pausing to overhear their conversation. “Oh, thank goodness! I was wondering whether or not we would have to fend for ourselves for dinner again. I swear, those two just go between the ballroom and the guest room every night.”

“Well, what do you expect they do?” asked Dusk with a glance back at him. “They’re set to go to the Canterlot Finals tomorrow, so they need all the practice they can…”

Dusk Shine paused briefly as he processed Starshine’s remark, before narrowing his eyes on him in suspicion. “Wait, did… Did you say guest room? As in, singular? Because I had separate rooms for both of them.”

“Wait, really?” asked Starshine, with neither of the stallions noticing how wide Barb’s eyes got in an instant. “Because I could’ve sworn I’ve seen them walking into the same room multiple nights in a row.”

“UH!” Barb instinctively pulled up her claw, like she was a student desperately wanting to answer a question in class. “I-I think those guest rooms are connected, remember? L-Like… They have a shared closet, don’t they?”

“Ohhhhh…” Dusk Shine rolled his eyes with an approving nod, clearly believing that detail well enough to make Barb sigh in relief. “Yeah, I think that’s right.”

“Wait, why would that make sense?” Starshine still looked rightfully confused as he looked between the two. “If they have separate rooms, why would Rainbow Blitz and Elusive go into the same one?”

“Eh, it’s probably to double-check the outfits Elusive is making,” responded Dusk with a wave of his hoof. “They do have multiple routines to practice, don’t they? I wouldn’t be surprised if Elusive’s been just as busy behind the sewing machine as he is on the dance-floor.”

“Y-Yeah!” blurted Barb, her head bobbing furiously to help verify Dusk’s point. “Uhhh… T-The last time I went to clean their rooms, the closet was filled with outfits for both of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Elusive was busy working on those every night.”

“Hmmm…” Starshine took a moment to stare at Barb with narrowed eyes, which caused her forced smile to appear more nervous. Even though the drake was blushing furiously, the unicorn didn’t say anything by the time he glanced back at Dusk Shine. Since the Prince didn’t seem to find anything too amiss, the last thing that Starshine wanted to do was make any unnecessary waves. So instead of speaking his mind, the stallion merely rolled his eyes before continuing his trot down the hall. “Well… alright then…”

As he left, Starshine muttered under his breath, “Those two certainly sound like they’re getting busy…”

Dusk Shine’s sense of hearing wasn’t as good as Barb’s, so she was the only one to wince worriedly to that remark. Meanwhile, Dusk Shine just looked confused as he glanced back at his protègè. “Uhhh… What was that about?”

“No idea,” she said with another hasty shrug. “But ummm… Maybe you can go and check to see if Elusive and Blitz came back from town? I’m sure they could use some help setting things up.”

“Hmmm… I suppose so…” Dusk Shine felt a distinct grumbling in his stomach, which prompted him to clutch his barrel with a skewed muzzle. He gave Barb a wave of his hoof before heading downstairs, but he made sure to shout out, “Well, be sure to finish up your comic before coming down for dinner!”

“Sure thing!” Barb waved with a thankful smile, waiting until he was out of sight before closing her eyes and sighing once more. When she pulled the comic away from her chest, she felt eternally grateful that he didn’t ask to see what she was reading. Between the open pages, there was a small sketchbook wedged in the middle that was filled with half-drawn sketches of some of the characters. The actual drawings she made weren’t too badly-done; however, the positions she placed Masked Matter-Horn and Saddle Rager were… questionable to say the least.

“Hmmm…” After making sure nopony was by the open doorway, Barb pulled the yaoi drawings from her comic to place under her mattress for safe-keeping. She then made her way out of the bedroom, and muttered to herself, “I really need to talk with those two about how obvious they’re getting around the castle…”

---

The Next Day

As the morning sun began to peek from the eastern horizon, the express train to Canterlot was bellowing steam as it made its descent into the station. For many of the passengers who exited the train, they were carrying tired and groggy expressions as they adjusted to the early morning. However, for the two pairs of dancers who arrived from Ponyville, they were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to take on the day. Apple Buck and Twinkle toes looked especially chipper, and practically leapt off the train to run around the platform giggling. Even though Twinkle’s Dads looked half-comatose while lumbering in tow, Applejack made sure to keep an eye on the kids with a less tiresome smile.

“Jeeze, Ah ain’t never seen Buck that spry in the mornin’ before,” he noted with a shake of his head, just as Prince Dusk Shine hopped off the train to stand beside him. “As swear, Ah once had to pour a bucket of ice water over his head to get him outta bed.”

Dusk chuckled with an understanding nod, and watched as the two kids ran towards some snack machines with their bits. “Yeah, I had to do that before with Barb,” he noted with a slightly guilty shrug. “It didn’t really do much though. She just got really mad at me and slept in even longer out of spite.”

Right at that moment, a groggy-looking Barb exited the train with an ungodly tired groan. She dragged her bare feet across the platform, and wandered between Dusk and AJ like a zombie. Since Twinkle Toes’ Dads were already at a nearby automated coffee machine, Barb lurched towards them and said with a deep moan, “Cooooofffffffeeeeeeee…”

Unlike Press Bar and Curtain Call, Barb forewent the tiny paper cups beside the machine. Instead, the dragon shocked both stallions by getting her face right underneath the steaming nozzle, and poured the near-boiling brew right down her open maw. Applejack gawked at the sight at first in total shock, but was quick to notice how nonchalantly Dusk Shine was looking. In fact, the Prince just sighed with a strong eye-roll before shaking his head. “Darnit, I keep telling her not to do that in public. It’s hard to explain how heat-resistant dragons are to ponies.”

“Right, right…” Applejack may have still looked a little frazzled, but he recalled hearing from Elusive and Rainbow Blitz how she jumped in literal lava like it was a bubble-bath. So unlike Press Bar and Curtain Call, AJ didn’t look completely mortified by the time Barb let out a deep sigh with steam billowing from her throat. Of course, as soon as he was reminded of Blitz and Elusive, he turned back to Dusk Shine and asked, “So, uhhh… you happen to get that thing I asked about a while back?”

“Hmm? Oh! Yeah, I got it…” Dusk’s brows rose up with a look of realization, before he lit up his horn to conjure up his travel bag. With a quick flash of his lavender magic, Dusk’s satchel hovered in the air between the two stallions. The Prince pulled back the front-flap engraved with his cutie mark, and rummaged inside to pull out a vintage-looking record. Aside from the fact that it was an odd-looking bipedal creature on the front cover, who had a thick white beard and was furiously playing the fiddle, the album looked just like any other as he hoofed it to Applejack. “Here you go. Sunset Glare happened to find it at a thrift shop for cheap. But don’t worry, he already made sure it was of good quality.”

Applejack nodded with a gracious smile. And took the album just as the other dancers departed from the train. Elusive and Rainbow noticed the album tucked under AJ’s foreleg, with the former tilting his head confusedly. “What the… what in Equestria is that?”

“None of your business, gentlecolts.” Applejack gave a matter-of-fact tone with that blunt retort, and quickly tucked the unknown album into his duffel bag for safe-keeping. “Since you two were usin’ Dusk’s castle for practicin’, Ah decided to cash in my own favor to help Buck in the competition.”

“Wait, what?!” Blitz may have had some lines under his eyes, but he quickly shot a peeved expression towards Dusk. “Dude, what the heck did you do?!”

“Nothing I wouldn’t have done for either of you.” As the Prince floated the satchel onto his back, he motioned towards Applejack and said, “Apple Buck and Twinkle Toes were needing a song to perform for their freestyle routine for the finals, so Applejack asked me to get an album from Sunset Glare in the Mirror World.”

Both of the stallions’ eyes widened in shock, while Applejack grinned rather cockily from his secret weapon. Even though Dusk Shine had only been in the Mirror World a couple of times, their group was fully aware of how unique their culture could get; more specifically, Dusk managed to bring back enough media from Sunset’s world to better educate his friends about his own experiences. “Wait, you mean they’re doing a song from an alternate universe?!” Elusive looked rightfully stunned while blinking repeatedly as his friend. “Is that even allowed?!”

“Yeah, Ah’m just as shocked as you guys,” noted Applejack, who was still grinning victoriously. “All that Dusk needed was the copyright info on the song, and he’s processin’ the details himself so the ENDC don’t get suspicious.”

“Okay, that sounds a little fishy!” Rainbow narrowed his eyes on Dusk, who didn’t seem too bothered by the strong glare the pegasus was giving him. “Dude, how could you give an advantage like that to Buck and Twinkle?! It’s gonna be hard to compete against a song nopony outside our group ever heard!”

“Wait, do they even know the song?” asked Elusive, who motioned over towards the kids munching on some honey buns. “I thought you said we were supposed to keep that media to ourselves!”

Dusk Shine sighed with his eyes closed, his expression a little less enthused while pointing towards AJ. “Well apparently, Applejack borrowed that MP3 player I brought from the Mirror World, and his whole family absolutely loved one of the songs. They wanted permission to perform it live for the show, so I agreed to get a copy of the album just in case.”

“And might Ah add,” said Applejack as he kept a keen eye on both of the stallions, “both y’all could’ve easily asked for Dusk to do that same thing for your routines. Ah’m just wantin’ to help my brother as much as Ah can for this competition.”

Since Dusk Shine was quick to nod in agreement of AJ’s point, both stallions ended up groaning with matching looks of disappointment. Even though they already had their routines planned out with the songs from Blitz’s playlist, it was obvious that they were mentally kicking themselves for not thinking outside the box like that. However, despite his personal qualms about Applejack’s methods, Rainbow was the first to settle down with a collected sigh. “Well, I mean… I guess I can’t blame you for helping Buck and Twinkle like that.”

“Darn tootin’,” he said with a prideful grin. “We’re expectin’ most of the Apple Family to arrive in Canterlot later today, so y’all better give your best if you got it~”

“Hmph~” With that cocky scoff, Rainbow didn’t show any hesitance as he draped a wing over Elusive’s back to pull him in closer. The unicorn blushed heavily with his eyes wide-open, not expecting for Blitz to do that in front of their friends. “You know what? If you guys really need a song from an alternate universe to give yourself the edge, I don’t think we have much to worry about.”

“Oh yeah?” asked AJ snarkily. “Well, we’ll see ‘bout that~”

With his album safely packed away, Applejack trotted past the couple with a knowing smirk on his face. Dusk Shine couldn’t help staring at Elusive and Blitz puzzledly, which made the unicorn avert his eyes in embarrassment. Rainbow didn’t seem to realize how he was looking, until AJ got up to his ear and whispered, “Pst~ You might wanna be more subtle with yer coltfriend there…”

Rainbow Blitz instantly tensed up with a strong jolt, and took a big step away from Elusive with his wing reverting off of him. As the pegasus was left with a tightly-clenched muzzle, Applejack chuckled to himself while leaving the couple be. Both of the stallions appeared pretty flustered by the time they turned their attention back to Dusk Shine, desperately hoping that he didn’t overhear AJ’s taunting remark. But since Blitz didn’t blow up at Applejack like he usually would’ve done, the Prince looked more confused than anything else.

“Ummm… what was that about?” asked Dusk Shine with a raised brow. “He didn’t say anything inappropriate, did he?”

“N-No!” burted Elusive, his horn brightly lit to keep Blitz’s muzzle clamped shut. He tried to shoot Dusk a forced smile while blushing heavily. “I-It’s just, errrr… Some friendly banter before the competition, that’s all.”

After giving a sharp jab against Rainbow’s side, Elusive was grateful to hear his coltfriend comply after a pained groan. “Nnnghh… Y-Yeah, that’s it…” His answer was much less convincing than the unicorn’s, especially when he shot a warning glare in his direction.

Dusk Shine looked like he was about to say something about their odd behavior; however, his ears perked up when he heard Press Bar shout out, “GAH! Barbara, are you gargling that coffee?!”

“Hey! It’s not ‘Barbara,’ it’s Barb!”

“Ugh!” Dusk held his hoof up to put his question towards the couple on hold. “One second, I have to make sure Barb doesn’t give anypony heart-attacks.”

As soon as the Prince left Elusive and Blitz, the two shared a look before giving a nod of understanding. The couple instantly scampered off, leaving Dusk to deal with Twinkle’s Dads and Barb by himself.

---

Since everypony else was busy with their luggage or finding their hotel rooms, Elusive and Rainbow Blitz were left by themselves as they trotted side-by-side through Canterlot. Both of the stallions were blushing a bit behind their smiles, happy to have a moment to themselves while out in public without any judgement. Unfortunately, since they were well-renowned for both their individual efforts, as well as their reputations as the Elements of Harmony, neither of them tried to replicate Blitz’s moment of closeness back at the train station. Instead, the couple kept a respectable distance as they chatted to one another, even if they kept their conversation fairly casual.

“Honestly, I don’t think we have to worry about Buck and Twinkle’s plans,” noted Elusive with an optimistic smile. “I mean, we’re going a bit out of the box with our routines too.”

Blitz sighed before giving a reluctant nod of his head. “Yeah, that’s true. I’m honestly still kinda shocked you agreed to my suggestions!”

“To be fair, so am I…” Elusive’s muzzle skewed awkwardly, almost as if he was having second-thoughts about their song choices. But after a brief moment of thought, he merely sighed and added, “Still though, it’s not like the songs you chose were profane or anything. They might raise a few brows among the judges, but I think they can give us the edge compared to Applejack’s plans.”

“Yeah, I hope so,” noted Rainbow, before he turned to Elusive and asked, “Hey, did you happen to see what album that was?”

“Sorry, all I saw was the text,” shrugged Elusive apologetically, “and I can’t exactly read that language since it wasn’t in Ponish.”

“Ugh! I swear, that’s the weirdest thing! Why is it that the speaking language is the same in that world, but not written?!”

“Who knows? I’m still trying to contemplate how an Equestrian Ruler is designated to being a high school Principal in the Mirror World. Seems like a rather large step-down if you ask me.”

Blitz gave an indifferent shrug to that point, and paused briefly enough to glance back ahead of them. “Well, whatever it is, Applejack better hope he got something good to compete with…”

As soon as he saw the outside of the convention center connected to their hotel building, Rainbow Blitz stopped dead in his tracks with his eyes widening immensely. Elusive did the same, with his expression becoming downright enraged the moment he saw what his coltfriend was staring at. Just across the street from where they were standing, a very familiar duo were seated behind a vendor stand with “Official” merchandise for sale.

“Come on, come all!” exclaimed Shim, who was standing atop their table and holding up a cheap T-Shirt with the ENDC logo embroidered across the front. “Be the first pony to show your support with an official shirt or hat!”

“We also have collectable bobble heads as well!” Sham was giving a huge smile while holding up a couple of lousy-looking figurines, which had oversized heads resembling Elusive and Rainbow Blitz’s faces held by cheap springs. There were dozens more arranged across the table, which also included bobble heads of the other competing dancers. Sham gave some hard jerks to the figures in her hooves, only to make the heads pop right off and bounce across the street; she instantly hid the headless toys behind her back with a sheepish smile, and gave a nervous chuckle. “Uhhh… heh heh heh… They’re still in patent.”

As the twin mares continued to flaunt their merch for ponies passing by their stand, Elusive and Rainbow Blitz were left standing with livid looks on their faces. Elusive had to bite his tongue, not wanting to blow up after their previous altercation. Unfortunately, Rainbow proved to be much less self-controlling as he stormed across the street. “HEY!!!”

Shim and Sham froze when they saw the technicolor stallion trotting towards them, his furious sneer growing more intense by the second. Elusive quickly rushed after him, and tried to grab hold of his hind-legs with his magic. “Rainbow!” he shouted frantically. “Rainbow, please don’t make a scene!”

“It’s too late for that!”

Despite his magical grip, Elusive ended up skidding across the street as Blitz dragged him from behind. Even though Rainbow looked like he was about to resume his violent tirade against the twins, neither of the mares looked too worried about the couple’s presence. In fact, while Sham glanced around to see how many ponies were within hearing distance, Shim just shot the stallions a wide and smug-looking grin. “Well, what a pleasant surprise,” she said in a sarcastically snide tone. “I must say, it’s nice to see you guys made it to the finals. Our merchandise would’ve been fairly useless if you two lost in Manehattan.”

Rainbow gritted his teeth with a primal growl, but Elusive was able to grab hold of his tail to keep him in place. However, since the couple were now right in front of Shim and Sham’s merchandise stand, both of them were able to get a closer look at the twins. Even though the Shim Sham Sisters were looking rather cocky with their matching grins, Elusive was quick to smirk right back at them before giving a retort. “My goodness, ladies. I have to give you two credit for getting all dolled-up for today. That glitter in your fur is quite noticeable~”

Both of the mares’ expressions instantly soured up, their glares turning straight up murderous at the mention of that G-Word. It may have been several weeks since Bubble Berry’s explosive revenge, but it seemed that the twins were still speckled with enough glitter to resemble characters in a shotty vampire romance novel. As soon as Blitz took notice of his coltfriend’s assessment, his muzzle quickly wrinkled up to form an amused-looking grin. And before either of the Shim Sham Sisters could say anything, Rainbow pointed right at the two to laugh out-loud. “HAAAAAAA, HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! Oh my gosh, you two are still covered in that stuff?! What’s the matter, you girls too cheap to afford a bath?!”

Sham nearly lunged across the table before her sister held her back. “YOU SON OF A BITCH!!”

“Stop it, Sham! STOP IT!!!” Shim managed to pull her twin back to their side of the table, but Sham was eyeing Rainbow with gritted teeth. Of course, her sister looked equally as angry while staring between the two grinning stallions. “You know, we could easily file a lawsuit for the damages you caused us!”

“Oh, like what?” asked Elusive with a confident raise of his brow. “Do you mean the blatant blackmail that got you two arrested in the first place? Or being the victim of a glitter-bomb? Because I highly doubt any judge would be on your side for either of those claims.”

Shim merely huffed before turning her muzzle away from the two, although it did little to conceal her bitter pout. Meanwhile, Sham narrowed her eyes venomously on the couple with a brooding growl. “Nnnnnghhhhhh…”

“You know what?” Rainbow Blitz raised a hoof, and took a calming breath before turning towards Elusive to speak more eloquently. “I think I already said enough the last time we all met up. And since they’re still shimmering like Crystal Ponies, I don’t need to add anything more~”

Elusive gave his coltfriend a thankful smile, and took hold of his hoof to escort them away from the stand. “I think that’s a wonderful idea, Rainbow Blitz.” Ignoring the Shim Sham Sisters’ matching glares, Elusive led the way as he trotted towards the hotel building with a stride in his step. “Hmph~ Hopefully I don’t get any residual glitter on myself…”

Rainbow tried his hardest to hold back a snicker following that remark, which Elusive made sure was loud enough for the twins to overhear. As the mares continued to glare at their backsides, Elusive gave a teasing nudge against Blitz’s side. The pegasus shot him a cheeky little smirk, and did the same with a bump of his hips. Meanwhile, Shim just scoffed and looked away from the two with a shake of her head; unfortunately, Sham was still staring daggers at the two when she decided to throw out one last remark:

“I hope you kill it on the dance floor, Rainbow Blitz! Solaris knows you already have the experience!”

“WHAT WAS THAT?!?” Much to Elusive’s dismay, that cruel jab was just enough to make Rainbow Blitz turn right back around with a furious sneer. The Shim Sham Sisters went right back to grinning all smug, happy to see that they could still press the flyer’s buttons. Sham merely tilted her head while eyeing Rainbow, practically asking for him to turn things physical without even opening her muzzle. Elusive tried to hold his coltfriend back, but Blitz lunged straight at them without warning. “ALRIGHT, THAT’S I--”

“HEYA, GUYS!!!~”

“GAHHH!!!” Shim and Sham fell back from their seats, not expecting for the Element of Laughter to spring out of nowhere and land on top of their table. Rainbow Blitz froze when he saw his bright pink friend, which thankfully gave Elusive enough time to restrain him with his magic. Meanwhile, Bubble Berry was looking extremely chipper as he stood on top of the twins’ merchandise. Since everyone was left stunned silent, Bubble picked up a couple of the bobble heads of Elusive and Blitz excitedly. “Ooh! These look really cute!”

He tapped the two figurines’ heads together repeatedly while making kissy noises. “Muah~ Muah~ Muah~”

“H-HEY!” Shim pointed up at Bubble Berry warningly with a hoof. “Get off our table! We’re trying to make a business here!”

“Oh, are you?” Bubble glanced down at the two with a faux-apologetic look. “I’m sorry, girls! For a second, I thought you two were harassing my friends again.”

Before either of the twins could give a proper response, the stallion hopped off the table to stand across from them. He reached into his thick, poofy mane to pull out a surprisingly large manilla envelope. Elusive and Blitz’s eyes widened in horror, clearly recalling the candid photographs that Bubble and AJ took of them after that drunken tryst together. “Hey, wait a second!” The stallions rushed back towards him in a panic. “Just what in Equestria’s name are you doing?!”

“Oh, just showing them some photographs I took~” Bubble pulled out several lewd photos, which left Elusive and Blitz stunned beyond belief. However, as soon as the pictures were shown to the Shim Sham Sisters, the two gasped with horrified looks on their faces.

“WHAT THE!?!” Sham tried to lunge in and snatch the photographs, only to stumble atop the table when Bubble pulled back at the last second. Several of their bobble heads fell off the stand, shattering like fragile porcelain against the sidewalk. However, Sham just grew a deathly pale look of dread as she stared at the pictures in Bubble’s hoof. “Wh… W-Where did you… WHERE DID YOU TAKE THOSE PICTURES?!?”

“Oh, you mean these?~” Bubble Berry’s grin turned much more mischievous, and he turned to show the pictures to Blitz and Elusive. The twins gasped even louder, while the two stallions covered their mouths in shock. Much to their surprise, it seemed that Bubble didn’t just have questionable photos of them. In the candid photograph, which looked to have been taken from behind a bush, Shim and Sham were shown lounging on a park bench very close together; and judging by where Shim’s hoof was hidden, it seemed that her sister was blushing for a pretty obvious reason.

“WHOA!!!” Rainbow Blitz shot an open-mouthed stare back at the mares, who were looking absolutely mortified by the reveal of Bubble’s photo. Elusive was still staring over at his friend, and gasped the moment Bubble flipped to the next picture in his stack. “Is that friggin’ real?!”

“You tell me~” Bubble Berry showed the twins what else he was holding, which caused the Shim Sham Sisters to literally scream:

In the photo, the twins were holding each other in a passionate embrace. Their mouths weren’t necessarily touching, but Bubble managed to get a prime shot of the strings of saliva connecting their exposed tongues. Elusive had to reel away from that shocking image, his face glowing a furious shade of red in second-hoof embarrassment. The instant Rainbow saw what the photograph revealed, he was too floored to even say anything to the incestuous twins; all he could do was shake his head wide-eyed, and mutter in response, “Hole… Lee… Shit…”

“I know, right?~” Bubble flipped to an even racier photo in his stack, which he refrained from showing to his friends. Instead, he only showed it to the sisters to make them jolt out of their chairs. Shim and Sham shrieked out with their horns lit, but weren’t able to grab hold of the stallion or his defaming pictures. Instead, Bubble Berry did an effortless cartwheel away from their auras, and kept the stack dangling in his hoof teasingly. “Oh, what’s the matter, girls? I thought you liked sharing embarrassing pictures~”

“YOU GIVE THOSE TO US RIGHT NOW!!!” Shim tried to jump across the table, but Elusive used his aura to quickly pin her down. Sham gasped in shock, just before Rainbow Blitz lunged in and held her tightly from behind. “H-HEY!!! LET US G--MMPHHH!!!”

Both of their muzzles were promptly clamped shut by Elusive’s magic, even though he was straining a bit from his horn’s overexertion. Fortunately, nopony seemed to notice the two mares being forcibly restrained before Bubble and his horrifying evidence against them. “Oh, don’t worry guys!” He said with a cheerful smile on his face. “I’m not planning to share these pictures around or anything~”

“Hmph?!” Both of the sisters made muffled grunts of confusion at the same time. Meanwhile, Elusive and Blitz took a moment to glance back at each other, noting Bubble’s sincere tone of voice. As soon as Bubble took a couple steps back, the two let go of the Shim Sham Sisters before anypony took notice. When the twins were freed from their grips, they continued to stare at Bubble with matching looks of worry. “Y… You’re serious?” asked Sham with a fainter and much more fearful tone. “We… We won’t screw with you guys if you mean that.”

“Well, of course I wouldn’t do that!” Bubble tucked the photos back in his folder, but his devilish grin didn’t dissipate in the slightest. In fact, his smile only widened when he tucked the folder back in his mane. He then rummaged through his poofy pink hair, and pulled out a rolled-up newspaper. “After all, why would I do something if I already did it?~”

Bubble Berry unrolled the newspaper, which was revealed to be from the Las Pegasus Tribune. Shin and Sham let out a blood-curdling scream when they saw the picture of themselves on top of the park bench, with one sitting in a censored stance atop the other. Even with the multiple black bars covering their eyes and cutie marks (as well as the large black bar over their crotches, which happened to be in the exact same spot), it was clear as day what the sisters were doing out in the open in a public park. Right above the shocking photo was the boldly-fonted headline: ‘CASINO OWNERS EXPOSED IN INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIP!’

“Oh, will you look at that?~” Bubble’s smile grew much more menacing as he admired the horrifying headline himself. “And just think, these photos were taken in the exact same ‘legal’ means that you two used to blackmail my friends. It’s a shame that you can’t do anything about that, can you?”

He then turned his attention back to the twins, who were left absolutely frozen with their faces as white as statues. Elusive and Blitz looked equally as shocked, and were gawking at Bubble Berry like he was holding a severed head in his hoof. But instead of saying anything to his friends, Bubble narrowed his eyes on the Shim Sham Sisters when he added, “Oh, and just so you know, the newspaper stand for the Canterlot Press is just about to open up down the street. You better go check them out~”

“AAAIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” Instead of lunging in to rightfully murder Bubble Berry, the twins frantically opened up their registers to grab every ill-gotten bit they had. The two ran like mad down the street, completely abandoning their merchandise stand with broken bobble heads rolling down the sidewalk. Their horrified screams could be heard echoing down both ends of the street, while Elusive and Blitz continued to stare at their friend in mortified silence.

“Hehehehehehe~” Before either of the stallions could ask what in Tartarus was wrong with him, Bubble Berry opened up the newspaper to reveal nothing but blank pages. “Oh, don’t worry, guys! The newspaper is fake! I made it myself last night~”

The couple needed a moment to do a double-take, and shook their heads before Blitz blurted out, “W-Wait, WHAT?!”

“What?” repeated Berry, who tucked his fake headline back in his mane. “If I hadn’t showed up, you probably would’ve done something super duper bad to get you two kicked out of the competition! If anything, you should be thanking me for saving your patooties!”

Blitz and Elusive looked back at one another, unable to argue with Bubble’s point. As soon as his hooves were freed, he pointed at the two and added, “Plus, by the time they figure out I was fibbing, they’ll know better than to screw around with you two! Otherwise, those photos of them munching each other’s hay might end up somewhere inappropriate~”

Elusive was still too flabbergasted to give much of a response, and let out a bewildered huff while scratching the back of his neck. After growing a shaky smile, he tried to say in a sincere tone, “W-Well, ummm… Thank you, Bubble Berry. That was… really thoughtful?”

“Uhhh, yeah…” Rainbow looked just as uneasy as his coltfriend, and chuckled nervously as he nodded to Bubble. “Thanks. We… We seriously owe you big-time.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Bubble Berry instantly went in to hug both stallions, squeezing them hard enough to make their eyes nearly bulge out from their skulls. After the couple groaned out in pain, they were lowered back down to meet the excited smile Bubble was sporting. “And don’t worry, I won’t show any of your guys’ photos either. I might be silly sometimes, but I’m not crazy! My parents had me tested to prove it!”

Even though that last part could’ve been highly debated between the two stallions, neither of them said anything by the time Bubble hopped away like a caffeinated bunny. “Okay, seeya guys!” As he happily strided away from the couple, cartoonish ‘boing’ noises could be heard each time he jumped from the cobblestone street. “Good luck in the competition! I’m rooting for you two super hard~”

With that, Bubble Berry left the stallions to stand beside Shim and Sham’s abandoned storefront. A couple Canterlot ponies trotted past them, barely giving much noticed to the discarded merchandise which was open for the taking. By the time Bubble was out of sight, Blitz looked back at Elusive with an uneasy expression. “Uhhhh… Lucy?”

Elusive looked back at him with an equally frazzled expression, not seeming to mind the nickname in that moment. “Y-Yes?”

“... Remind me to never piss off Bubble Berry.”

“... Agreed.”

Comments

[CrackedInkWell]

God I miss this. And also, Berry can be both intimidating and hilarious at the same time.

[Baree]

2020 definitely has been a unique year, and not in a good way. I'm just glad to see an update. Hope that not too many bad things happened to you on top of Covid. Hang in there either way. Good to hear from you again.

[spoonlol]

10531555
Okay cool, just wanted to clarify

[Vectored Thrust]

It’s great to see this update again. It’s wonderful reading this story. I’m amazed how dense and oblivious Dusk Shine is

Also, holy hell what a trump card Berry has and managed to get. Yeah, let’s never piss him off. How the fuck did he even get those photos

[TheVClaw]

10533688

How the fuck did he even get those photos

With a camera, of course!

[EnchantedEyes]

Oh, I’d love to see more of this!