Invincible

Wondrous Sentinel, Slash's unicorn daughter, pushed past all the guards that tried to stop her from visiting the sealed padded room they contained her father. The use of her shield barrier spell made it easy to keep them all at a comfortable distance. Each time one of them got touched by the barrier, they instantly got a quick zap of lightning that completely ignored the defense of their own armor.

Dressed in her father's old armor, the very armor he wore when he fought against a great dragon, Wondrous stomped her hoof down hard with every step and stood strong in front of the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, when she finally reached him. Shining Armor was definitely far younger than most of the previous Captains before him, but that by no means made him less responsible or incapable of holding such a high position, and Wondrous held a high amount of respect for him of that . Most, if not everypony, would argue that Shining Armor was the best fitting Captain of the Royal Guard ever, and with all his accomplishments, who would disagree?  However, the decision of keeping Slash locked away like a mad stallion was the only decision in his career that Wondrous disagreed with.

Seeing Wondrous standing before him, Shining asked her, rather aggressively, "Why aren't you at your post, solider?" He knew why she left her post and the reason she was here before he even asked the question. He had intentionally put her on a twenty-four hour duty post so she wouldn't catch word of her fathers sentence. Unfortunately, not everypony in his command could keep their mouth shut, especially Flash Sentry. Good stallion, well rounded solider, and quick on his hooves, but sometimes Flash could be a little too ...easily influenced by a mare's charm.

Still respecting the rank and billet Shining Armor held above her, Wondrous saluted him and reported the status of the post she was supposed to be currently guarding right now. "Sir, I was properly relieved by Flash Sentry when I received word..." She looked past Shining Armor to see Slash looking back at her from the only window he was given in his sealed room. Refocusing back to her commanding officer, she finished her report, "...about my father's current well being. It was Flash's generosity to properly relieve me from my post to check on my father." She cut her salute and asked, "Why IS my father in there?"

Shining Armor rolled eyes and muttered the name "Flash Sentry" behind a few curse words he was too disciplined to say out loud. "He's gone a bit..." Shining Armor carefully chose how to word his sentence. Like Flash Sentry, he knew Wondrous was as just good a solider, except unlike Flash, Wondrous easily lost her bearing and quick to anger under pressure or a time of crisis. "His mental status is being questioned." Shining Armor tried to avoid calling Slash crazy to the best of his abilities for his Lieutenant .

"Horse shit!" Wondrous snapped with a giant hoof stomp, but she got instantly corrected by Shining Armor for her improper tone and use of language.

"Mind your bearing, Lieutenant! You should have more respect and carry yourself with more pride when wearing that uniform." Shinning Armor shouted at her. He understood Wondrous's attitudeand why, but he wasn't going to stand for her unprofessional behavior.

Wondrous looked down at her (father's) armor and remembered why she took the time to undress from her own service uniform and get into this one. Simply nodding, she said "Yes, sir." She looked at the window behind Shining Armor one last time to see her father had left and went into the far corner of his padded room. "Can I see him?"

Hesitant, Shining Armor sighed and answered back, "Yes, but only for five minutes. After that, report back to the barracks and get your rest. I don't need you stressed out when you take Flash's post tomorrow morning." He wasn't going to give her the option to dodge her way out of duty.

It made sense, Flash Sentry took her post on a moment's notice when Wondrous Sentinel asked him to so politely and willingly without any complaints. The least she could do was do the same. She even considered taking Flash up on that drink he offered her for this weekend.  "Yes, Sir. I won't be long."

Before Shining Armor stepped out of Wondrous's way, he pointed a hoof at her chest and politely advised, "You might want to take that off before walking in."

At first, Wondrous thought Shinning Armor was referring to her armor, but that was until she took notice of the blue layer of light that was separating her from Shining Armor,  reminding her that she still had her barrier up. Blushing embarrassingly behind her helmet, Wondrous deactivated her spell and lifted the front of her helmet up. "Yes, Sir."

As soon as Shining Armor opened the door to Slash's confinement, he said, "Commander Slash, you have a visitor." But no response was made.

After closing the door behind her with her magic, Wondrous called out to the old war veteran in front of her. "Father?"

Slash made no physical reaction when his name and rank hadn't been called out, but  he did acknowledge his daughter's own words. "What are they saying about me?" He didn't turn around to face his daughter as he spoke to her, at least not right away. Slash kept his nose in the corner and barely made any movements.

Telling Slash what his superiors thought of him was only going to send him into an even more unhealthier mental state than he already was in, but Wondrous didn't think of the negative impacts their words would have on Slash at all though, she knew he was stronger than that. Since the day she could levitate a dagger, her father taught her that honesty and integrity were something she should never leave home without, no matter what.

"The others are saying that you've gone mad." It felt terrible for Wondrous labeling her father with such a disgusting word. In her own eyes, Slash was everything but mad. "Is it true that you know who Dark Wing is?" She didn't hesitate to ask the question right after her last statement. She wanted to get right down to the name of the pony who had her father locked away, whoever she may be.

"OF COURSE I DO!" Slash snapped at her. It had been years since Slash had raised his voice at Wondrous outside of her training. "You think I would've spent the past three years trying to find out and come up with no results?"

Whatever mistake Wondrous had made to force Slash to yell a her, she took full credit and responsibility for it. "It's just that, the name you gave them was-"

"Nimbus!" Slash stood up excitedly and shouted. He ignored the blood rush he got from standing up so suddenly. Slash's wings were tied too tightly down to his back to express them properly. "He's back, and he's up to something even bigger than last time."

Than last time? Wondrous thought to herself. Nothing Nimbus did last time was even planned, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Everypony knew that, save for Slash. "Father, there's been no reports of Nimbus since he left Cloudsdale. Nopony has seen him, heard of him, or know where he has been." Wondrous was right, no information was ever found on Nimbus. A few sightings sure, but nothing solid to ever go off of.

"That's because he's been hiding behind a mask since then." Slash looked over Wondrous's armored shoulder to see that the guards outside had left. Using his hoof to gesture Wondrous to come close towards him, he told her,  "Come here, I have something to show you."

He slid to the other side of the room and began laughing and speaking to himself like there was two ponies speaking at once in the same body. "I told you she'd come!"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean she'll believe you. Nopony believes you."

"Oh, shut it, you old loaf, she's my daughter."

"Yeah, Celestia and Luna were SISTERS, and look how they turned out."

Wondrous sighed and bowed her head sadly. It was true. Her father had truly lost it. Her head still hung low, she watched as her father pulled and tore at one of the padded pillows attached to the wall. She questioned what he could have been snuck inside his room that could have been so important. and in such little time. A weapon? Some sort of map? Come to think of it, how did  he even sneak it in? Did Shining not search him before they brought him in? As crazy as he was right now, Wondrous's father was still a clever pony.

Slash laughed to himself once the pillow on the wall was fully removed, "I found it! I found it!"

"Idiot, you're the one who put it there."

Wondrous Sentinel clanked her fully armored hoof to her helmet and closed and opened her visor to let some air get to her face. At this point, a pet roach hidden inside the wall wouldn't even surprise her. Celestia, forbid that to be true.

When Slash finally retrieved what he sought after inside the wall, he carried it over to his daughter, tucked inside his wing, and dropped it to her hooves.

With saddened eyes, Wondrous effortlessly dropped her eyes down to what looked like one of the many wands somepony could buy from a local magic shop. "It's", She looked at it closer to find nothing significant about it, "just a wand." Wondrous said slowly. This was what her father was risking extra time for? Some wand that couldn't have cost any more than twenty bits?

Slash negatively shook his head. "Pick it up with your magic and touch it to your cutie mark."

Wondrous sighed again. Maybe this entire visit was in vain. She could have came after her shift ended in the morning to come see her father. It's not like he was going to go anywhere. Still, to quench her curiosity, Wondrous did as she was told. Unfastening one of the buckles in her leg armor, Wondrous exposed her flaming blue horse shoe cutie mark openly to Equestria.

At the time she picked the wand up off the ground, it changed. In a dim flash, the wand quickly transitioned from it's original state to a golden piece singing with a silver aura all around it. Wondrous gasped and dropped the wand back down to the ground, returning it to it's previous appearance.

Wondrous looked behind herself quickly to see if any guards outside were poking their heads in. "W-what was- that?!" Wondrous hiccuped, she had gasped so intensely that she started to hiccup.

"Princess Skylar gave it to me a long time ago. It's how I survived the battle against the dragons." Slash pushed the wand back to her with his muzzle. "This wand unlocks your hidden potential for what it really is, the kind you never knew you had."

If this kind of magic could work so effectively for a Pegasus in the time for battle, there was no telling what it could do for a Unicorn. Naturally, Unicorns reacted strongly to all variations of magic, even classes of magic that were a stranger to them. The kind of power this magic could grant her...

Wondrous quickly lifted the wand up to her cutie mark and touched it gently to her hind quarters. When Wondrous had held the wand there for some time, nothing seemed to happen. She looked up from the wand to her father and asked him, "I thought you said it would unlock my full potential?!"

"He-I did." Slash nodded, "But the wand's not activated. I was able to trick the great dragon I defeated into thinking it worked. He dropped his guard in fear of it's power. That's how I won, that's how you win every battle, make your opp-"

"Make your opponet think they've already lost before the fighting even starts." Wondrous remembered how Slash would repeatedly tell her that through his coaching. Womdrous held the wand in front of her face and focused her eyes on it, titling it at every angle. "How do you activate it then?"

Slash shrugged and flinched when he forgot that both his wings were tied down to his back. "I never found out, but recently, it's been glowing!"

Wondrous didn't know what to say to that. Was there any significance of it glowing? "Had it never done that before?"

"Not since it was united with the five other wands." Slash answered.

He mumbled something under his breath and added, "Don't forget to mention that last happened when Celestia and Luna were first crowned Princesses of Equestria."

Slash bonked himself on the head, quite hard enough to actually make himself quiver a bit from the strike. "Right!" He turned to Wondrous and repeated, " and the wands were united over-"

Holding up a hoof to silence her dad, Wondrous said, "I got dad, thanks. Your "friend" already told me." She had no idea what to call her father's alternative ego. At least, not any pleasant names that is.

"Did she just say we were friends?"

"Oh, shut it, you loaf." Slash shouted at himself. He held a curved hoof up to his face like he was getting ready to fight. "You're lucky if I don't hit you between your teeth."

Slash took a back step in regards of what he just threatened himself with. "You can't punch somepony between the tee-"

Using the wand as a small mace, Wondrous hit her father in the back of the head and watched him fall unconscious. "I'm sorr, father, but you're scaring me, and I been to war." She ducked her head low and kissed her father on the forehead. "Don't worry, father, I'll show everypony that you're not crazy. I'll find Nimbus, but I'll need your help." She picked up her head and looked all around the padded room. She was relieved that whoever was guarding the door was terrible at their job. It was wwell over five minutes.

"Now" Wondrous said to herself, realizing how much she takes after her father, "How can I get you out of here?" The hole Slash had made in the wall was completely visible and would get him in a lot of trouble if Wondrous were to leave it at it's current state. She casually strolled over to it to find a Cock Roach resting on top of a bottle inside the wall. "Damn it, father!" She picked up the bottle with her magic and shook the tiny bug off of it. "Get out!" She shooed away at the bug. Sighing heavily before placing the bottle back. As she was, she noticed that the label on the bottle was personally wrotten on and had no official label on it. It read "Boost: Use sparingly".

Pulling the bottle back out from the hole in the wall, Wondrous spun the bottle around curiously, wonering what it contained. Slash was a Pegasus and had no use for potions. The only reason he'd ever consider buying one would be for her. She couldn't help but think that her father was planning on giving it to her. What other purpose would he need a potion with the word "Boost" on it for? She popped the cork off the bottle and titled it to her lips for a small sip.

Outside of Slash's holding room, two guards were shooting the shit with each other to pass the time. "-And then this kid shakes his ass at me and says, 'It looks like your face' at me, or something like that." The guard removed his helmet to show his comrade the yellow stripe down the middle of his face. "Everypony thinks this is face paint, but it's not, this is my actual natural coat."

"Damn, Chance, you got rotten luck. What are the odds you saw Nimbus the same night he disappeared?"

Chance shrugged inside of his armor and placed his helmet back over his head. "Yea, well, after that night, I swore to myself, I would never let another criminal escape from me again."

"And have they?"

"NOPE!" Chance bragged. "and nopony ever will." There was a sharp pinch of lightning that struck Chance in his shoulder. "Ow, Community!" Chance butted the bottom handle of his sword into the side of Community's shoulder. "What did you do that for?"

Community whined and winced from Chance's heavy strike. "Chance! That really hurt..."

"Well, don't shoot me with spells then." Chance warned. Again, Chance got another spark in the back of his shoulder, this one stronger than the last. "What did I just say?" Chance turned around to grab the front of Community's helmet until he saw her staring directly at the glowing blue light emitting around the door to Slash's room from the inside.

Watching the door lighting up brighter and brighter with the blue light each passing second, the only word Chance could squeeze out was "Whoa."

"umm I'm no architect, but I don't think doors are supposed to do that." Community squeaked. "It sorta looks like burning magnesium." The door began to bend outwards towards them and about to pop like a balloon being pushed past it's max. "Maybe we should stop staring at it and dive for cov-"

The door flew upon, impacting both Community and Chance, pinning them both to the ground. The three inches of the wall around where the door used to be were blasted away to debris. In the middle of the giant hole in the wall, Wondrous hovered a few inches above the ground, with her body glowing with the same blue light that surrounded the door. Her entire magical aura had just become more intense, it kept the same shade of blue she had before whenever she casted a spell, but now it had evolved to an unstable and wild aura. Behind Wondrous, she levitated her father behind her, who had went unconscious with the impact of blast.

Community and Chance both looked at Wondrous in awe, then at each other dumbly, and lastly back at Wondrous with an expression that easily be described with the phrase "Holy Shit."

***

Nora edged close to the door with her horn lit up. The warning tip Flower Butt had given her kept her cautious and on the alert. She didn't know what might have happened if Flower hadn't used her sonar ability. Nora motioned for Sky Forge to stand on the opposite side of the door to throw their intruder off their guard.

Nora nodded at Sky Forge and whispered, "Okay, Sky, on the count of three, swing your hammer. One, two-"

"Wait!" Sky Forge begged, fighting with the metal clasp around the fat handle of the black smith hammer. "It's stuck!" She used both her wings to pull and tear the button clasp off with no success. "Stupid, cheap, piece of-Oh, come on!" She yelled at her pouch.

Nora placed her mystical claw spell over Sky Forge's mouth to shut her up too late. "Quite!" She hissed. "They'll hear you."

"Aye, how day know we both out here?" A voice on the opposite side of the door asked.

Recognizing the voice and structure of the way he spoke, Nora looked at Sky Forge asked her, "Is that Reverb?"

"If they were not alerted of our presence, they do now."

There was a small gap of silence outside the door before Reverb spoke to whoever he was with. "You brought presents? Fo' what?"

"No, OUR presence! YOU and ME!"

"That what I said! PRESENTS!" Reverb repeated, with heavy pronunciation.

"PRESENCE not PRESENTS! I swear you are about as difficult as a-Is that window open?" Gunilda pointed to the window behind Reverb to see the curtain being blown inside the house from the wind. "It is! He must be home." Gunilda hopped in through the window to see Sky Forge wrestling with Nora on top of her with her bottom legs wrapped around her waist in a guard.

Gunilda backed away from the two ponies she was mistaking for being intimate at the moment. "Nevermind. I-I think this is the wrong residence." Right as she was about to jump back right out the window Reverb stuck his head in.

"Frog president? Who dat?" Reverb's attention immediately got diverted away from Gunilda when he saw to two mares lying on the floor in front of the door. "You go." He tapped and grabbed Gunilda's shoulder without taking his eyes off of Nora and Sky Forge. "I wanna watch."

Looking down at the shiny fake diamond watch Reverb had around his ankle/wrist, Gunilda pushed away from him and held his arm to his face. "But you already have one!"

Sky Forge blushed and smiled at the both the Unicorns staring at her and Nora right now. "This is totally not what it looks like." She couldn't help but notice that Reverb's jaw was nearly touching the floor when it dropped.

Dropping her mouth close to Sky Forge's ear, Nora pleaded, "Then let go of me."

Weighing next to nothing, Nora got easily kicked off Sky Forge when she got thrown across the room. Rubbing her horn and readjusting the head band around it when she got back up, she asked, "What are you doing here?" She looked at Reverb specifically. "Reverb, why did you bring her here? You know Nimbus is going to get pissed when he finds out."

Poking her head out of the hole that was made in Nimbus's door from earlier, Flower Butt looked at all the ponies standing around. There was a grievous look of concern on her face when she remembered Nimbus asked her not to be seen by anypony except himself, Nora, and Sky Forge while she was in the apartment.

Looking at Flower Butt's small delicate figure and her large yellow eye, Reverb was instantly attracted to her. "Damn, who dat?!"

Finally unfastening the metal clasp around her hammer, Sky Forge hit Reverb on the top of his head for looking at Flower Butt in such a animalistic manner, figuratively speaking. Reverb fell completely out of the window and into the rest of the apartment with his legs hovering above his head like a yoga class instructor. Sky Forge continued to repeatedly hit Reverb over the head with her hammer over and over again. "No! Bad! That's a bad Reverb! Bad!"

Gunilda took a step away again from the mare beating on the Unicorn in front of her. "My, my, the rumors are true. There IS a strong female dominance over males in this land."

Nora ignored Reverb's screaming and cries of agony when she stepped over him and over to Gunilda. "I'm sorry, for that interruption and for asking again, Princess, but, what are you doing here?"

"Oh!" Gunilda was lead by Nora's claw spell away from Reverb and Sky Forge and into the kitchen. " I seek an audience with Nimbus for strictly business." Gunilda's tone was strong, firm, and hard, like royalty giving commands without the thought of being questioned. She turned her head away from Nora with her nose turned up to the ceiling and her eyes closed. "I will not leave until that is so." Taking a spot on the floor as she pleased, Gunilda advised Nora, in a manner that wasn't very polite, to get her something to drink.

"Excuse me?!" Nora shouted at the Princess from another land. "But this isn't your-"

Before letting Nora finish was she was expecting her to say, Gunilda told her, "This is not your home either, am I right? And as far as i remember, Equestria is known for treating all it's guest in a formerly proper manner, or am I wrong?" Gunilda looked at Nora with her eyes still closed. "Now, about that drink?" She finished her sentence with her muzzle up to the ceiling.

Nora growled and gritted her teeth together. She remembered how Twilight used to set herself on fire whenever she got angry, and regretted not asking her how she did it. "One glass of water coming right up." She said trough clenched teeth that were nearly about to shatter if she pushed them any tighter together.

"No tap, thank you. Only purified."

Nora about near took Sky Forge's hammer by force and threw it at Gunilda if wasn't still being used. "We. Don't. Have. Pure."

Gunilda sighed and walked over to back Nimbus's room and around Flower Butt. "Then I will wait here 'till you fetch some. 'Till then, I will rest here and wait for either my refreshment or Nimbus to arrive."

Flower Butt squeaked and cowered to the kitchen when Gunilda pushed her out of the room with her magic and made herself at home. Before slamming the door shut, Gunilda told everypony "Night", and headed off straight to bed for a well deserved rest.

The steam coming off of Nora's head was so hot it would have burnt the hoof that was trying to boil an egg over it. She couldn't believe how Gunilda, the royal Princess of Makar, just walked in and demanded service form her like she was her...servant!

With Sky Forge walking up to Nora's side, she looked at the door with the blasted hole in it, the bloody mess she made with Reverb, the over turned furniture, and then to Nora. "Ever wonder why Nimbus never invites anypony over?"

"Maybe 'cause yous be messing up his crib?" Reverb squeezed out of what little air he had left in his lungs.

Nora continued to stare at the door Gunilda had just closed and asked Sky Forge, "Your hammer still out?"

"Ayep." Sky Forge said in her favorite accent.

"Can I see it?" Nora conjured her claw spell and held it's palm up, waiting for what she asked.

"Ayep." Sky Forge switched the hammer from her right wing to her left wing and lent it over to Nora's claw.

Grasping the hammer firmly in her claw spell, Nora gratefully said, "Thank you", before lobbing it at Reverb's head and hitting him square in the horn with out aiming. Poor Reverb was knocked out cold before he had to register the pain and scream about it.

"Nice shot." Sky Forge said, before walking over to pick her hammer back up and putting it back in it's proper place.

***

Like after every night of drinking for any pony, beginner or experienced, the sun was brighter than it normally would have been as it shined through the window and right into Rainbow Dash's eyes. She had forgotten to close the curtains before going to bed, completely ignoring the purpose and intended design of them. She yawned and stretched her wings out across her bed until they hit something she didn't know was there.

The object she hit was pretty solid, and it moved she pushed on it, but it was surprisingly soft! Almost about as soft another pony's coat. Rainbow Dash flipped over to face the other side of her bed to see Nimbus half asleep with his mouth hanging open. She gasped and clasped her hooves over her mouth before making a sound.

She didn't realize his wing over her until she tried to get out of the bed. Careful not to wake him, she used her left foreleg to lift his wing up off of her slowly and relax it back down on the pillow. She remembered inviting him over to stay the night, but not in the same bed! Watching Nimbus scratch his belly in his sleep, she did admit that this wasn't the first time it happened. It was still a bit unexpected...kinda like the first time.

Looking on the bright side, she was grateful to have him back for the most part. She edged toward him and took a curious sniff at him. He didn't really smell like booze at all. Thinking back on it, she couldn't remember seeing him take a sip of cider last night. Though, that could be a bad thing.

Hesitantly, Rainbow Dash lifted her wings to smell underneath to come up with the scent of...the perfume she got from Rarity that she never used. She pressed her muzzle into her wing pit and sniffed harder. The smell was undoubtedly the perfume and unappreciatedly potent.

Looking like a dog chasing it's tail, Rainbow Dash shook her head and sniffed all around herself. Did she drink so much that she emptied the entire unopened bottle in one session? After catching a slight headache from spinning around, she stopped and gave herself a break. Looking over at Nimbus, she couldn't help but wonder if he had...but why?!

She tip hoofed back to the side of the bed Nimbus was laying on. "Hey." She poked him in the back. Nimbus pulled away from her and scooted over to the middle of the bed. Rainbow Dash grunted and crawled on top of covers, pulling them off of him. "Nimbus!" She picked up her voice to about the level of a normal inside volume.

There was a three second smacking of Nimbus's lips before he spoke to her without trying to wake up fully.

Rainbow Dash kept out of range of Nimbus's saliva. "I need to go to work in about an hour." Trying to hide a hangover at work wasn't going to be easy, but at least she got the smell taken care of, or Nimbus did for her.

Nimbus nodded and hummed at Rainbow Dash as a response.

"So, yeah...you can stay here if you like, but ugh yeah." Rainbow Dash was trying to be as a good friend as she could without being a complete sap about it. "There's ...STUFF in the fridge if you get hungry." Telling Nimbus she had food would be a complete lie.

She didn't have to look far to see that her weather goggles were right where she left them. Tucking part of her mane under the goggles to make them sit on her head easier, Rainbow Dash was just about ready to go. It was only about a ten minute flight to work from where she lived. There was no reason to go right now.

"Last night" She started to say. "You came...back. You came back!" Rainbow Dash quickly finished the rest of her sentence before it could be taken out of perspective.

"Yeppers." Yeppers, the first actual verbal response she gotten from Nimbus all morning.

Rainbow Dash rocked back and forth on her hooves awkwardly before saying "Yeeaaah." She couldn't get a read on Nimbus. Was he just tired, or did he not want to deal with her right now. If that was the case why would he agree to stay? Well, admittedly, Rainbow Dash did remember being a little persistent, but she couldn't have been that persuasive. Why was she even over thinking this right now? Nimbus was her best friend! It's not like they-

"I'm still hurting from last night." Nimbus said to Rainbow Dash before his wings reached low down his body underneath his blankets.

Yep. Rainbow Dash should have known. They had sex, and by the way Nimbus was shaking, some intense sex. Wait, if Nimbus was in pain, why wasn't she? She looked down at herself. She sure didn't feel like anything happened last night, much less see anything as evidence to prove that, thank Celestia. There was nothing to be ashamed about, Rainbow Dash just didn't want this to make things complicated between her and Nimbus.

Groaning again, Nimbus pulled the blankets off of him to expose the giant ice bag placed carefully between his legs. "You could have just told me to move over." Nimbus whined as he tried to move his legs over and around the ice in a more comfortable position.

Rainbow Dash had to do a double take before she said, "Okay, I'm confused." she lifted her goggles off her head to scratch at an itch. "Did anything happen...between you and me?"

"You mean besides your legs going into my little Nimby's?"

...his little what? Rainbow Dash put her goggles back comfortably back on her head. "Wait, we didn't have sex?" She asked relieved.

"WHAT?! No! Can you even see me trying to..." Nimbus looked down at the bag of ice. "...trying to do ANYTHING in this condition?"

"Whew!" Rainbow Dash lend on the door frame between her room and the living room.  She fanned herself with her wing and blew a breath of relief. "Okay, this makes everything so much less awkward." She was afraid she was going to have to come back home to see Nimbus moving his stuff in.

Nimbus pressed the bag of ice closer to his crotch. The cold  ice was shrinking his genitals to an embarrassing level, he was just grateful that Rainbow Dash had no desire to look right now. "You're seriously the most weirdest pony trying to have sex with anyways."

Rainbow Dash snapped her head up, stood herself back up straight, and shouted, "You tried?!" She couldn't believe that Nimbus would try to make an attempt while she was drunk!

"No." Nimbus answered truthfully, shutting his eyes tighter when the bag of ice began to pinch as he tried to pull it away. "YOU, Rainbow Dash, tried."

Nothing but incoherent hurried speaking babble came from Rainbow Dash's mouth after that. Nimbus was lying, he had to be. She hadn't had any desires like that since....the last time she did!

"You drank so much your coat was nearly soaked in everything you drank." Nimbus took one hoof off the bag of ice and pointed to the bottle of perfume Rarity had given Rainbow Dash. "Had to spray you with that before I could even get close to you."

Coughing her tongue back out of her mouth, Rainbow Dash held her wings out in front of her to express each loud word she spoke. "WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. You're telling me that YOU turned ME down?"

"Dude, you smelled like sweat and alcohol, and not in the hot way either."

Scared to ask how sweat and alcohol could be "hot", Rainbow Dash ignored it and walked closer to Nimbus, setting her elbows on the edge of the bed. "Okay, so what even happened last night?"

***

"How many licks do you think it takes to get to the center of this rainbow?"

Nimbus turned away from Rainbow Dash as quickly as he could before he nearly saw the sexual pose she just made. "Oh, come on! That's not even how that saying goes!" Taking a peak out of his peripheral vision, Nimbus nearly barfed at what he saw. "Celesta's sweet shining ass! Dude, I was going to eat that in the morning." Now Nimbus was going to have to put something else than cream cheese on his bagel tomorrow morning.

Giggling, Rainbow Dash teased, "You're such a sweet guy, you know that?"

"And you only say that when you're drunk."

Rainbow Dash laughed again, and got off her back and rolled onto all fours again. "Why aren't you?"

"Because you drank all the cider before I even finished mine." Nimbus looked down at the mug in front of him. "and this isn't even cider you gave me. It's carrot juice." He held it up to his chin and began to finish the rest of it.

Unable to stop laughing at everything, funny or not, Rainbow Dash tapped at Nimbus's mug, "That's not carrot juice. Or at least only half of it is."

Drinking the last drop of whatever Rainbow Dash gave him, Nimbus set it down hard. "What's the other half? It's got kind of a kick to it."

Falling onto her back and rolling on the floor laughing, Rainbow Dash told Nimbus, "Tranquilizer!"

Choking and coughing, Nimbus beat on his chest. "Tranquilizer?! Dude, that's not funny!"

"Yes it is!" It wasn't Rainbow Dash's fault that she couldn't stop laughing. If anypony was to be blamed, it was 'Drunk Rainbow Dash', a completely different pony from Rainbow Dash.

"Tranquilizer for what? Rabbits?" Putting a rabbit to sleep wouldn't take much effort at all, a lethal dose to rabbit would hardly even be a shot of wild cherry to a pony.

"No!" Rainbow Dash slapped Nimbus's flank. "Bears!"

As soon as Rainbow Dash said that, Nimbus felt funny all over. Everything that was hanging on  the walls started to slide off with the colors melting away. He fell over on top of Rainbow Dash with her still giggling and laughing uncontrollably underneath him.

"Nimbus!" She laughed. "Not so rough!" A swift knee went to Nimbus's crotch by accident when Rainbow Dash tried to playfully fight with him. Immediately, Nimbus brought his knees to his stomach and his front hooves down to his crotch. As he was tossing and turning on the floor, Rainbow Dash was still laughing, not at the pain he was in, but at his reaction to it. "You look like a turtle flipped over on it's shell."

***

Nimbus breathed through his nose and creaked the ice bag from re-positioning his legs again. "What do you need bear tranquillizer for anyways? And why is it in your fridge? I could've died!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and smacked Nimbus in the back of his head. "Oh, shut up. You're being a little filly about it."

"You feed me poison , you mook!"

Bringnig up the only time Rainbow Dash and Nimbus spent Hearts and Hooves day together Rainbow Dash poked Nimbus in the back and said, "I set you on fire again, if you'd like."

Finally facing Rainbow Dash, Nimbus took his hooves off his ice bag and waved them at Rainbow Dash, "NO! Y-you just go to work. I'll watch over the house."

Bringing up the subject of work reminded Rainbow Dash she was needing to go soon. "Shit!" She looked up at the wall to remember she needed to buy a clock to hang up there soon. "I need to go." She pulled the band on her goggles to the back of her head and let it slap her. "Just don't mess the house, okay? I should be back really soon."

"Soon? From work?" Nimbus asked. Who worked on a Saturday morning for only a few hours?

"Not soon, soon, but...I'LL BE BACK, OKAY?" She patted Nimbus on the head and kissed his forehead.

With his eyes widened after the small display of affection Rainbow Dash just showed him, Nimbus froze in the bed, forgetting how much his crotch hurt. "Rainbow Dash",  he started slowly, "I think that's the nicest thing you-"

Before Nimbus could get sappy, Rainbow Dash tapped his ice bag hard back into his groin and sprinted away saying "Love you, Nimbus."

Nimbus fell over and off the bed with the ice bag clutched tightly between his legs. He squeaked the word "Bitch!" before hitting the floor and Rainbow Dash leaving the front door. He reached up and tried to pull himself up only to have pulled the blankets off.

After about thirty minutes of flying in the opposite direction she told Nimbus where she was going, Rainbow Dash finally arrived at the Equestrian asylum, which was an unmarked location on every public map. She landed in front of the entrance, pulling her goggles off over her eyes. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Nimbus or nopony else had gotten the idea to follow her.

She checked in with the gate guard completely dressed in full armor from head to hoof. He recognized her immediately from her laat visit and took notice of her strange behavior. "Is everything alright, Ms. Rainbow Dash?" He asked her.

"Yeah, yeah." Rainbow Dash answered excitedly. "I'm not late, am I, Chance?"

Chance answered no with a shake if his head. "You're actually early, but expect your time to be cut chort today. We had a breakout last night."

It wasn't until Chance mentioned it that Rainbow Dash saw the small destruction in the side of the facility. "Who? What happened?"

Chance looked hesitant to answer before saying a word. "Slash, a very well respected war hero in our time. We think somepony put him up to-"

"Oh, that lame? He was a loony when I was in flight school. I'm amazed he they just barely threw him in. If you ask me, they should have done that a long time-" Rainbow Dash stopped her rant when she saw chance peering at her with dagger shaped eyes.

"I'll just go inside now." Rainbow Dash said before awkwardly trotting around Chance.

"Please" Chance begged before he had to deny her access.

***

The fridge door rattled when Nimbus ripped it open. The ice in his bag had finally melted but fortunately no longer needed it. He came in the fridge to grab something to eat but found out that Rainbow Dash had nothing but ice cubes and stale hay fries. "Great..."Nimbus rolled his eyes and slammed the door open and shut repeatedly. "What's the point of a fridge if you don't have food?!" After closing the door for the last time, Nimbus noticed somepony standing next to hiim. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he recognized Storm, Rainbow Dash's father.

Storm said nothing as Nimbus fell over and screamed. He continued to stare at Nimbus until he got back up.

"Dad..." Nimbus knew he shouldn't be here, he shouldn't be seeing Storm right now. Storm has been dead for the past six years. There was even a huge funeral and everything Nimbus had missed because Rainbow Shine wanted him gone, but somehow Storm was here.

"Dad." Nimbus repeated, not getting an answer last time. "W-where have you been?" He had so much he wanted to say, before he could though, he had to tell Storm something he never got a chance to say. "Dad, for so long, I-I've wanted to tell you-"

There was a loud bang at the window behind Nimbus, making him turn around to see what it was. Down below, there a high pitched singing. "Oh, Raaainbooow Daaaash!"

"Huh?" Nimbus ran to the window to see a pink pony waving at him. She was around his age, maybe a little younger, and had a smile only a mother and a dentist could love. Turning around to where Storm was standing, Nimbus saw that he had disappeared. "Dad?" He flinched when Pinkie Pie threw another rock at the window from below.

"Rainbow Daaaaash! I know you're in there!"

Nimbus groaned and went back to the window, opening it above his head. He stuck his head outside and looked down at Pinkie Pie.

"Hey, is Rainbow Dash up there? Can you bring her down here? And how come I don't know who you are?"

"Probably because we never meet?" Nimbus responded.

"No, that can't be it!" Pinkie Pie pulled out a back scratcher from her mane to itch a spot in the back of her neck she couldn't reach by herself.

Watching Pinkie Pie pull an item from her mane, Nimbus stared blankly and told himself, "...I'm not eveb going to ask." Nimbus jumped out of the window and pen dropped down, gliding over the ground inches above it. He landed in front of Pinkie Pie and told her, "Rainbow Dash just left, she won't be back for awhile."

Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin and suspiciously lookined at Nimbus. She was looking at every detail about him, from his cutie mark to his mane style and coat color.

Nimbus groaned again. "Listen, you and I have never met. I think you got me confused for-"

"Somepony called Nimbus, who ran away from Cloudsdale about six years ago after he supposedly pushed somepony out a window but could never be proven, and he hasn't been publicly reported ever since?" Pinkie Pie ended her description with that same smile Nimbus saw earlier.

"...okay, so you DO know me."

Before Nimbus could say another word,  Pinkie Pie got uncomfortably close to him and put her hoof over his mouth. "Shhh." She whispered," Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Completely incognito! "

Nimbus grew nervous as Pinkie Pie began to search the area. "Umm, thanks, uhh, you crazy woman."

"Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie introduced herself to Nimbus. "Not crazy pony! That's just CRAZY!" Pinkie laughed. "You must be a friend of Rainbow Dash's if you were in her house. I never personally met you before though. How long have you known Dashie?"

Nimbus came to like the nickname Dashie and wondered why he never thought of it before. "We've actually known each other for a really long time. It's just the first time we met since I left."

A devastating amount of energy burst from Pinkie Pie. She was always excited to show new ponies around. She bounced behind Nimbus and began pushing towards town. "Well, since I got you here now, how about I show you around?"

"What happened to being incognito?"

Pinkie Pie giggled, "Silly, that's why we 're going to the Carousel Boutique!"

"What's the Carousel Boutique, and what's there?"