• Published 25th May 2018
  • 4,648 Views, 1,168 Comments

Little Consequences - Skijarama



Princess Rainbow Dash and her friends have found themselves in the newly restored Crystal Empire, and now struggle against the forces of Queen Chrysalis and the enigmatic King Sombra in an effort to reclaim Canterlot and save Equestria.

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To Work

Maybe an hour later, Rainbow Dash finished her explanation of the situation to the rest of her friends, all of them gathered around a circular table in a spare, mostly empty room. With her expositing over, she leaned back and looked at each one of them in turn, assessing their reactions. Fluttershy was trembling slightly and had started doing so when the fact that Chrysalis was on her way reached her ears. Applejack was doing her best to offer comfort to the uneasy pegasus while Rarity and Pinkie Pie both shared anxious glances. Thorax was looking down at the floor, hiding his face from the others while Wind Whisper stood next to him, her eyes looking up at him with concern. Starlight Glimmer merely eyed Rainbow from across the table with a thoughtful look on her face, although Rainbow did her best to not look back at her. Spike, who was to Rainbow’s left, looked around at all of them while tapping his index claws over his chest nervously.

And, of course, there was Twilight, who stood to Rainbow’s immediate right. She raised a hoof to rub at her chin with a quiet, thoughtful hum. She was silent for a moment before she looked at Rainbow directly and set her jaw. “We don’t have any time to waste, then. I’ll go back to the book and see what I can find out.”

“I’ll help you,” Starlight offered with a sort of eagerness in her voice, trotting around the table to join Twilight. “Two pairs of eyes are better than one and all that.”

Rainbow, for a moment, looked distinctly uncomfortable with the notion, but when she shifted her attention from Starlight to Twilight, she gave a solemn nod. “Alright, you two get on that. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie? I need you three to go out into the city and start asking around. If somepony remembered that they worked here, maybe the others are starting to remember things too.”

“Oki Doki Loki,” Pinkie Pie confirmed with a big grin. She ducked below the table and then came back up with a brand new pair of night-vision goggles over her eyes. “Operation ‘ask the amnesiac’ is a go.”

Applejack, unfazed by Pinkie’s powers of random item conjuration, gave a curt not to Rainbow. “Alrighty, Rainbow. We’ll see what we can do.”

“I’m sure the darlings have remembered something useful,” Rarity added with a small smile. “We just have to look.”

“What about me?” Fluttershy asked, though she almost instantly regretted it due to all of the others looking her way. She shrunk back slightly from the attention before swallowing a lump in her throat and trying to look brave.

In response to her question, Rainbow pointed plainly at Thorax. “Thorax is still hurt after his little spat with his brother,” she explained before then looking to the drone in question, who had lifted his gaze to meet hers at the mentioning of his name. “Thorax, you’ll be staying here with me. I’m going to want to know everything you know about changeling tactics and strategy; every last maneuver you can think of, every formation, tactic… everything.”

Thorax gave a slow nod, his eyes not quite able to meet Rainbow’s. “Uh… right. I’ll see what I can do…” he said in a hesitant voice. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow in response to his reluctance but chose to ignore it for now.

She wouldn’t have gotten a chance to voice her question, anyway. She felt Spike’s claw tapping against her shoulder and glanced down to see him looking back up at her. There was an eager, determined and hopeful fire in his eyes. “What about me?” he asked, ready to do his part.

Rainbow smiled and reached down to pat him on the head. “You are gonna help me send some messages to Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and the Wonderbolts. If the whole swarm’s coming here, we’ll need to capitalize on that and hit ‘em in Canterlot and bust mom, aunt Luna and Cadance out.”

Spike nodded and gave a sharp salute. “Aye-aye, Princess!” he declared loudly, smirking only slightly at the annoyed pout Rainbow shot his way. “I’ll go get some parchment!”

While Spike scampered off, Rainbow turned back to the rest of them. “We don’t have a lot of time, so let’s hop to it!” she ordered before slapping one hoof against the table. A loud and resounding smack was accompanied by a general vocalization of enthusiasm and agreement before each group splintered off to carry out their respective orders. Although, as Starlight went for one of the doors with Twilight by her side, the latter paused and glanced back at Rainbow uneasily.

Rainbow looked her way as well. She took note of Twilight’s expression and frowned, turning to look at her more fully. “Something wrong?” she asked with mild concern.

Twilight flinched and looked down at the ground for a moment. Her ears drooped and she visibly shuddered before she spoke up. “Y-yeah… we still have to tackle Discord’s spell in your head.”

Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat, and her blood began to run cold. She visibly tensed and looked down at the ground with her ears drooping. “Oh… y-yeah, that is still a thing we gotta deal with, huh?” she mumbled, anxiety and dread dripping from her every word.

Starlight glanced over at the two from the doorway, an unreadable look on her face. She looked first at Twilight, then Rainbow Dash, before a small smile formed on her face. She shifted back from the door, cleared her throat and spoke up in a reassuring voice. “Twilight, you go ahead and help her with that, okay? I can get a start on the book and you can join me when you’re done.”

Twilight perked up slightly and looked at the other unicorn quizzically. “Are you sure?” she asked, clearly anxious at the prospect.

“I am,” Starlight responded with a curt nod. “Plus, if you can get it done quickly, it’ll make it a lot easier for Rainbow Dash and I to work together through all of this. And like she keeps telling us...” her eyes drifted from Twilight to the cyan mare in question. “...We all have to be at our best.”

Rainbow didn’t miss the slightly bitter edge that came into Starlight’s voice, and despite the irritation that formed in the back of her skull, she knew that, deep down, Starlight had every reason to be a little bitter. She forced down her anger and nodded slowly. “A-alright… you’ve got a point. Twilight, we can do that just as soon as Spike and I have sent out our messages.”

Twilight gave a slow nod, her eyes already showing with a degree of regret for what she would have to do later on. “Okay…”

Starlight watched them for a moment before, with a slow exhale, she departed through the door, plunging the room into a cold, awkward silence.

Luckily, the silence would be short-lived, as Thorax chose this moment to cut in by clearing his throat. All eyes turned to him and he spoke up. “If you’re going to do that, then it might be for the best if we wait until after that’s done to talk about the Changelings. I can go talk to Pharynx in the dungeon in the meantime… maybe I can sway him to our side.”

Wind Whisper looked up at Thorax and visibly wilted at the idea. “Do you have to?” she asked him nervously. “He’s really mean…”

Thorax nodded solemnly while looking down at her, his eyes pleading with her to understand. “He kinda is, yeah… but he’s my big brother. I know I can talk some sense into him.”

Wind Whisper deflated somewhat and side-stepped to be closer to Thorax, although she twitched slightly in discomfort when her soft fur met his hard chitin. He went to wrap a hoof over her but hesitated. He began to return it to its place, but Wind reached out to it with her own hoof and guided it to one of her shoulders, eliciting a questioning look from him.

After watching that little exchange, Rainbow gave a slow nod. “Kay, fair enough. See what you can do,” she gestured at Thorax with her hoof swinging in a ‘go do your thing’ motion before turning back to the door Spike had run out of, waiting for his return.

Thorax nodded, then looked down at Wind Whisper. “You stay with them, okay? I don’t want Pharynx to hurt you if he tries anything,” he asked her in a quiet whisper.

To his surprise, she vehemently shook her head. “Nuh-uh. I’m going with you,” she replied resolutely while pawing one of her hooves against his own.

Thorax blinked incredulously. “But… why? Why do you want to come with me if he was so mean?” he asked in disbelief, shifting to look at her more directly.

She looked down at the floor while putting a hoof on her chest, clearly struggling to hold something in. A shaky sound slipped out of her throat, almost inaudible. “He was mean to me… but so were you,” she finally said in a tiny voice. When she looked back up into Thorax’s eyes, there were the beginnings of tears forming in hers. “But then you protected me… you promised me you would keep me safe. And you promised me you would do that until you could bring S-squall back…”

Thorax saw the look in her eyes, heard the emotion in her voice, and was quick to sit down in front of her. Hesitantly, he reached one of his hooves out to her, although he hesitated mere inches from her shoulder. “Wind…”

“You promised me,” Wind reiterated, her voice gaining some volume. She then took her hoof from her chest and planted it on his. “You protected me… just like Squall would have. So, maybe... maybe your big brother just needs somepony to protect, too.”

Thorax leaned back slightly in surprise from the contact, his eyes widening. A small smile appeared on his face after a moment, though, and he reached both of hooves up to hold her own, pressing it gently into his chitin. “Maybe you’re right…” he acknowledged in a quiet voice of his own.

A loud cough snapped the two of them out of their little moment, and they both looked over to see Twilight looking at them with an enormous, warm smile. Rainbow Dash just looked up at nothing, whistling innocently. Fluttershy, who had been largely quiet the whole time, looked on with a similarly warm smile to Twilight’s, her hooves tightly clutching to her chest as if to cuddle a small critter. In one of the doorways, Spike stood with a small stack of parchment, a quill, and a sealed inkwell held under one of his arms. He had been the one to cough. “So, uh… did I miss something?”

Fluttershy let out a delighted giggle under her breath and nodded to Thorax and Wind. “No, Spike. These two were just about to go, right?”

Wind Whisper visibly blushed at the way they were all looking at them, “H-hey! No spying on other ponies!” she whined out in an adorable display of complete, childish indignation. “It’s rude!”

Rainbow burst out laughing at that. “Yeah, well, heh, maybe you shouldn’t have your super sappy moments in the middle of a room filled with other ponies,” she replied with jovial sarcasm, all of the tension from a minute ago having been washed away. “Kinda hard not to watch.”

Wind Whisper flapped her wings and blushed even more, spluttering incoherently in an effort to come up with a witty retort. “Wha- but, you- uh… Y-you, shoulda just walked out of the room, then!”

“That’s kind of inconvenient on them, dont’cha think?” Thorax joined in on the teasing with a playful look of his own.

“Thooorrrraaaax!”

Fluttershy nodded along and chose that moment to add her own two-bits. “He has a point. Imagine if we all had to leave the room every time Twilight and Rainbow gave each other those lovey-dovey looks.”

“Hey!” Rainbow’s amusement at the situation quickly turned to indignation and embarrassment. “What the hay, Fluttershy?! I thought we were friends! Don’t turn this around on me!”

Wind Whisper looked over at Rainbow’s slightly blushing face and how it had contorted with embarrassment. Her wings had snapped open and, from a little ways behind her, Twilight could be seen blushing, but giggling behind a hoof at Rainbow’s expense. The look in her eyes was one of absolute mirth and delight. Wind looked between the two for a moment, then looked up at Thorax again. “I think we need to leave the room…” she said in a whisper that everypony managed to hear anyway.

Thorax chuckled heartily, ruffled her mane with a hoof, and then winked at Rainbow Dash. With that done, the changeling drone and thestral filly stood and trotted side-by-side out of the room, leaving behind the very flustered princess, the amused unicorn and Pegasus, and the supremely bemused baby dragon to their own devices.

Rainbow slowly turned to glare at Fluttershy. “I hate you, Flutters,” she said in a deadpan.

Twilight rolled her eyes and playfully punched Rainbow in the shoulder. “Oh, hush. No, you don’t.”

“I hate you, too!” Rainbow countered before turning away, sitting on her haunches and crossing her forelegs with a huff.

Twilight tittered before leaning over and wrapping Rainbow up in a hug from behind, nuzzling into the pegasus’ neck. “Well, that’s okay… because I love you,” she whispered into Rainbow’s ear so only she could hear.

Her blush intensified many times over. “Uh… uh-huh…” she replied in a slightly stunned voice before glancing over her shoulder at Twilight. “Heh… haven’t heard you say that one, yet.”

Twilight shrugged and made a non-committal ‘eh’ sound.

“Okay, as adorable as all of this is,” Spike finally decided to cut in with an impatient voice. “But don’t we have work to do? C’mon, my arms are getting tired here.”

Twilight nodded slowly and pulled away from Rainbow Dash, who visibly wilted with the realization that they still had a full day ahead of them. Twilight then turned back to Fluttershy with a more serious look on her face. “He’s right. Fluttershy, you should probably go catch up with Wind and Thorax. Both him and his brother might still need medical treatment.”

Fluttershy perked up as if in alarm, a strand of her long mane falling in front of her eyes. “Oh! Right. Okay,” she nodded sharply before brushing the offending lock aside, turning and cantering out of the room after Thorax and Wind. Once her hoof-falls were out of earshot, Rainbow turned back to Spike.

“Alright… let’s get to work."

Author's Note:

Fun Fact: That whole sequence with Rainbow becoming flustered? Yeah, that entire chunk of this chapter was completely ad-libbed. I hope you enjoyed it.

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