Invincible

The walk to Ponyville was unexpectedly longer than Nimbus had accounted for. Normally he would have easily made it there and back by now if he was flying, but that would just be rude to Pinkie Pie. Although, he didn't understand how she could keeping bouncing the entire way there and speak/sing throughout the entire trip without breaking a sweat. The endurance of her leg muscles and stamina had to be insane. Rainbow Dash had some weird friends, if Nimbus could say so relatively.

Like Pinkie Pie standardly did with everypony she met for the first time, she asked Nimbus, "When's your birthday." To Nimbus' surprise, this was the first time he had ever been asked that question. It had been so long since he celebrated anypony's birthday, even his own, he almost forgot they existed.

Dragging his hooves across the ground the dirt as a result of not noticing the immediate change of texture on the road, Nimbus picked up his legs up higher, looking like he was trying to avoid accidentally stepping on something.  "To be honest, Blinkie."

"Pinkie." Pinkie Pie positively corrected with a smile on her face, not at all aware that Nimbus had purposely mispronounced her name for kicks and giggles.

Picking up where he left off, talking over Pinkie Pie properly pronouncing her name, Nimbus continued to speak, "I honestly don't know my birthday."

A sudden deep gasp came from Pinkie Pie. Nimbus snapped his head back and ran towards her to see what was wrong. Nothing seemed to be wrong with her. Maybe she saw something? Nimbus thought to himself. She was staring in his  general direction with her mouth hung open widely. He turned back in the direction they were walking and saw nothing.

"What is it? What do you see?" Nimbus finally asked, whipping his head back around and now taking notice of the wild critters in trees behind her who had frozen as well. Nopony or creature for that matter was moving.  Did I miss something? WHAT is going on?Nimbus thought to himself.

"You don't know your own birthday?" Pinkie Pie shrieked louder than the loudest she ever had today. Her mane was just as surprised she was. It had bounced a good three inches off her head when she asked the question. Nimbus didn't dare question the logic behind it since he had seen her pull a freshly baked cupcake out of her mane an hour earlier this morning.

Nimbus scratched his head nervously. Pinkie Pie might have as well accused Nimbus of a felony for not knowing his own birthday, judging by her reaction (along with all the animals behind her). "To be fully honest, P.P." Nimbus started to say, but then realized the nickname he just made for her was an accidental innuendo. "I've never really..." Nimbus shrugged and mumbled a couple words that were incomprehensible, even to him.

"What?" Pinkie asked, leaning her head in closer to Nimbus.

"I've.." As politely as Pinkie Pie was asking, Nimbus felt he was being interrogated for something he didn't know was illegal. "...never known my birthday, much less celebrated it." Nimbus shut his eyes and held his wing over his head, expecting to getting slapped or smacked, like Rainbow Dash always did to him when he said something stupid. He waited until nothing happened, half expecting Pinkie Pie to have a fist in the air waiting to crash into his face as soon as he felt safe...like Rainbow Dash always did to him.

Being on the safe side, Nimbus opened his left eye only and looked at Pinkie Pie. She looked like she hadn't moved a muscle in the past few seconds, or stopped to take a breath for that matter.

"Pinkie Pie?" Nimbus tapped her in the shoulder and caught her before she tipped over. "Hey! Pinkie!" Nimbus yelled at her then peered behind her to look at the animals behind her. "Guys?" Asking the critters for help. After he asked, one of the squirrels stayed frozen as it fell out of tree and got picked up the jaws of a stray dog.

"Great." Nimbus threw his wings up and fell over on his back. "I killed somepony else Rainbow Dash cares about in less than  twenty four hours of being back." He moaned and casually added, "Rainbow Dash is gonna bury me alive." ...like she always did.

***

Rainbow Dash was sitting at a steel table, waiting for her mother to finally arrive. She had been there for the past fifteen minutes watching everypony else get reconnected with their loved ones. You'd think someone in prison would want to get out of their cell and have as many visitors as possible. She drew several circles with her hoof in the middle of the table and groaned louder as they progressed larger and larger with time.

Scaring Rainbow Dash nearly out of her hide, Rainbow Shine dropped into the steel chair across from her daughter. Rainbow Dash jumped and slid back in her steel chair, making a screeching noise that tore everypony elses ear drums in the visiting room.

Holding her hooves up in the air, Rainbow Shine said, "It's my fault, my daughter's really skittish. It won't happen again."

"I'm not skittish!" Rainbow Dash argued, but she jumped again when her mother tipped the steel table towards her and caught it before it dropped on her lap.

"Could have fooled me." Rainbow Shine laughed, pulling the table back flat on the ground and covering the last few seconds of her laugh with her hooves.

Rainbow Dash brushed the top her chest and readjusted the hairs on her coat. "I'd ask how you've been, but given where you are at the moment..." With the table tipping back towards her again, Rainbow Dash jumped and yelled at her mom one last time. "Stop doing that!"

Rainbow Shine laughed again and brought table back down. "Oh, I'm just having fun." She watched as Rainbow Dash leaned over to the middle of the table so it wouldn't tip again. "So, how you been?" She tilted her head when she noticed a distinct amount of a different shade of yellow and blue hair on Rainbow Dash's shoulder that was absolutely different from her own. "What'd you do last night?"

Lying, Rainbow Dash leaned her head on her left front leg and said, "Meh, me and the girls just went out last night."

"One of Pinkie Pie's parties?"

Rainbow Dash waved her hoof disapprovingly, "No, it was just some...place we went to. A really nice restaurant Rarity picked out for us." Even at the age of an adult when her mother was locked up for years, Rainbow Dash still couldn't lie, but even if she couldn't, how would her mom know? She couldn't prove it.

Looking harder and picking up on a few other things she didn't notice before, Rainbow Shine could smell that Rainbow Dash had been drinking Cider and hadn't showered since then. Her breath was stronger than the amount of sweat fuming off her coat. She looked up at Rainbow Dash and asked, "Formal?"

"What?" Rainbow Dash didn't fully understand what her mom was asking.

"The restaurant, was it a formal one, a five star? It would make since if Rarity picked it out, based on what you've told me about her."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Rainbow Dash nodded. Real convincing. Rainbow Dash said to herself.

"Rainbow, if something's wrong, you can tell me. I"m your mom."

"Nothing's wrong!" Rainbow Dash confessed.

Contemplating whether or not she should keep prying, Rainbow Shine put all her chips on the table. "Okay, I'm just going to say it..."

Whenever a parent said that to their own children, it was never good, and Rainbow Dash was more than familiar with that phrase. Her ears stretched out a bit farther from the sides of her head, waiting to hear what her mom was about to say.

"If this about a stallion you're trying to be discreet with..."

For the love of Celestia. "This isn't about a stallion, mom!" Rainbow Dash was getting fed up with her mom bringing up the same subject over and over each time she visited. She knew her mom worried about her being alone, but geez, did she always have to jump to her getting hitched?

Telling herself Screw It, Rainbow Shine leaned over towards Rainbow Dash and picked off the different colored hair she noticed earlier on Rainbow Dash's shoulder. She pinched the hair in her hoof and held it up to Rainbow Dash's face, moving and waving the hairs so she knew what they were. "If you're going to try and be discreet, especially from me, would you mind bathing after you have sex? You reek  of cider and sweat. "

Rainbow Dash watched the hairs mockingly dance in front of her. Son of...Oh, she was going to kill Nimbus for sure when she got back...wait, did her mom just say sex?

"Please tell me you used protection. I don't want my first trip out of prison to be at your shotgun wedding, despite how happy I would be."

"Mom, shut up." Rainbow Dash begged with a whisper, She leaned over across the table, swiping the hairs off her coat and throwing them on the ground. "It's not what you think it is." It actually wasn't for the first time.

"Then why did you lie?" Rainbow Shine leaned back in her chair and waited for an answer.

Rainbow Dash leaned back down into her chair. There was no telling how Rainbow Shine would react to hear Nimbus was back. She loved thinking her mom would be happy to hear it, but.... She knew her mom looked at Nimbus like a son she never had at times, which made it feel like incest when they used to date way back. He was the reason she was here in the first place though. Rainbow Shine lied and confessed she had killed that colt all those years ago out of revenge. There was no need for anypony to dig any further since they caught the pony they were after, except for Slash.

"Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash had forgotten where she was after being lost in her train of thought. How long had she been sitting silently to herself before her mom said something? Hopefully Rainbow Shine didn't take as an act of hatred towards her.

"I don't care if you're dating again. I would just like to know, I worry about you."

"Moooom.." Rainbow Dash groaned, slamming her head into the table, embarrassing herself and Rainbow Shine.

And Rarity's the drama queen, apparently. Rainbow Shine rolled her eyes and picked her daughter's head up off the dirty table where she had seen somepony's head get smashed two days ago. "Sooo" Rainbow Shine started with a hug peak of interest about who Rainbow Dash was seeing. "Who is he?" Please, Celestia, let be a he. Though at this point, Rainbow Shine wouldn't be surprised or upset. "And how did you two meet?" She asked with a smile.

Boosting herself up back on the chair and lightly brushing her mom's hoof off her head, Rainbow Dash crossed her front legs across her chest and said with a chuckle, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Rainbow Shine snorted. "Oh, please, with the stuff you and Nimbus" She usually tried to avoid mentioning him for the sake of sending Rainbow Dash into a flashback of emotions, but it had accidentally slipped out. "used to get into, I seen things they don't tell you in any parenting books." She set her hind legs on the table top. She wasn't supposed to set her hooves like that on the property, but she was already in prison. What were they going to do? Send her to extra prison? With the "Just bring it" gesture of her hoof, Rainbow Shine said, "Come on, surprise me."

Oh, the irony. Rainbow Dash smiled and leaned her hooves on the back of her head. "Funny that you mentioned Nimbus."

Left on a cliffhanger, Rainbow Shine stretched her neck out, expecting Rainbow Dash to dish out more details. "Are you going to tell me or..." Then it donned on her why Rainbow Dash was looking at her with a smirk. "Are you freaking kidding me?!"

***

It took Nimbus lying about having a box of cupcakes to finally get Pinkie Pie moving again. As for the other animals who had been frozen with surprise, Nimbus was going to let nature take it's course. She still questioned him how he had never celebrated his birthday and Nimbus told her how he was an orphan and they didn't really celebrate birthdays since ponies like him arrived to the orphanage without any date of birth.

He also told her that the orphanage did that so no ponies felt left out.

Once they finally reached the bridge over the river in front of Ponyville, Nimbus heard somepony singing randomly with their very own creative melody. At first, he thought it was Pinkie Pie. She had already sang about four songs on the way over here. At least that's how many he counted when he was paying attention. The first two songs were cool and fun to listen to but after that, he preferred a nice conversation or just complete silence. He had tuned her out after the third song about the birds and the bees or something like that.

With his wing over his head, Nimbus politely said to Pinkie Pie, "Pinkie, we're in town now. I don't think you should be signing in public. Ponies tend to avoid other ponies who sing in public." Nimbus tried to say as politely as he could. There was nothing wrong with Pinkie Pie at all. He just couldn't take another random five minutes of her singing about absolutely nothing.

Pinkie Pie shook her head and pointed down at the river, bouncing in place and cheerfully saying, "That's not me, that's them."

At this point, Nimbus half expected a group of frogs to be singing. Everypony sang around here. Even the stranger he and Pinkie Pie both walked by joined in on Pinkie Pie's random singing for a quick verse. Somehow Nimbus had missed the memo where he needed to learn how to sing before going into town.

Nimbus stood up on his hind legs, held himself up by grabbing the railing and  looking down at a small school of seaponies sticking their heads out of the water who were staring back at him. He had never come across seaponies before, but they're weren't exactly uncommon to see in rivers or ponds. Which, now that Nimbus thought about it, kinda made the name "seaponies" kind of invalid.  They were all unique in their own way, each one was distinctly colored like the ponies of Equestria and every one had scales that shined like the coats of Crystal Ponies.  "There's no pony here, Pinkie Pie. Except these dumb looking-"

Then, the shiniest of the seaponies jump up onto a rock (in a way Nimbus didn't know was possible) as it broke into song with an incredibly high note while two others sang bass in deep voices behind her.

You look and see us singing (singing)

We promise your'e not smoking seaweed (we promise)

But if you just give us a chance-

"I'm done here." Nimbus let go of the side rails and dropped back down to all fours. "Nope." Nimbus continued to shake his head "Nope, nope, nope. Not dealing with you guys, see ya!" He could still hear the seaponies singing the song specifically intended for him, but he couldn't deal with anymore singing for today, especially one from a group of fish about doing underwater drugs. "Let's just keep going to the Carousel Boutique." Nimbus begged as he walked past Pinkie Pie at the speed of a slow jog.

Pinkie Pie bounced to Nimbus' pace and giggled "What's the hurry? There's no pony there anyways until 1pm!" She bounced past Nimbus as he digested that bit of information.

"Wait" He stopped and pondered on what Pinkie Pie meant. "What do you mean 'there's no pony there?'" Pinkie Pie just smiled and giggled at him instead of actually responding.  "Then why did you bring me out here?" Nimbus' wings flared up after the question. "I could be...." At that moment, Nimbus remembered he was supposed to check out the farm called 'Sweet Apple Acres' this morning. If Nora found out he had ditched the gig, she would have his head on a silver patter once she could afford one.

Thankfully, he didn't have to appear as Dark Wing for this one. He had completely forgotten his mask at home. Nimbus hadn't expected to end the night at Rainbow Dash's, or even be there in the first place...or see her at the club...the same time as he met Talitha, Gunilda, and all the other crazy ponies (and changeling) that were there.

"A lot of stuff went down yesterday." Nimbus admitted to himself. It was definitely one of the most eventful days he had in awhile. The last time that happened he was with Rainbow Dash. He found it ironically funny how that seemed to play out.

He snapped his head up to the watch tower further inside Ponyville to check the time. Thankfully, he wasn't too far away to tell the time. "It's 07:30. I still have half an hour to get there." He had no idea where Sweet Apple Acres was anyways, but there was only about four or five farms in Ponyville, so it would just be a process of elimination.

"Hey!" Pinkie screamed at him. "You coming, slow poke?"

Or...He could ask one of the residents of Ponyville standing right in front of him.

"Inkie" Nimbus started.

"Pinkie, Silly." Pinkie Pie corrected him by bopping him softly on the muzzle as punishment.

Nimbus wiggled and rubbed his nose like he had a cold. "What I said. Hey, do you know where a farm called Sweet Apple Acres is located?"

"Yep!" Pinkie answered energetically, bouncing all around Nimbus.

Following her around with his eyes each time she bounced in front of him, Nimbus waited for a more in depth answer. "...you uhh...gonna tell me where?"

"Sure!" Pinkie used the same magnum of enthusiasm as last time.

"Okaaaay, then when?'

"When what?"

"When you gonna tell me where it is?" Even though Nimbus fully supported her endless optimism and cheerful attitude, he was starting to get annoyed. All this time she was spending just bouncing all around him, she could be using to tell him where Sweet Apple Acres was.

"Well, that depends."

"Depends on what?" Nimbus began to loosely kick the dirt in front of him to restrain himself from just flying up and away from Pinkie Pie rudely, but he was highly considering it. He would morally never harm a mare (criminals not included), but this mare, this individually specific mare was teasing him to be the first.

"When do you wanna know?" Pinkie Pie asked Nimbus, after having finally stopped bouncing all around him and came to a complete stop in front of him.

"I WANNA KNOW NOW!" Nimbus hollered. There was no need for all this questioning. All it was doing was driving him crazy.

"Oh, well then just follow me!" Pinkie hopped away happily in the direction Nimbus assumed was leading towards Sweet Apple Acres. Despite having just been screamed at, Pinkie had not changed her optimism one bit, or even been phased by it.

"Finally." Nimbus rolled his eyes and pushed back the part of mane that fell in front of his eyes after he screamed. He put it neatly back in place and trotted up quickly to Pinkie's pace.

No representation could be created to display the vast amount of energy Pinkie possessed inside of herself in order to bounce as much as she did without breaking a sweat. Regardless of the fact she been bouncing from place to place since she woke Nimbus this morning, she had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

"I really think you're going to like it there at the farm." Pinkie said to Nimbus, without twisting her head around to address him directly. "There's no pony there right now, but I'm sure you'll love everypony once they finally come back."

Inhaling a huge amount of air into his lungs in frustration, Nimbus opened up his wings and launched like a throwing dart to place himself in front of Pinkie Pie and stop her in her place. He opened his wings up wide to his sides so she couldn't go around him. "THERE'S NO PONY THERE EITHER? WHERE IS EVERYPONY?" The only pony Nimbus had seen today besides Pinkie Pie was the one they passed on their way to Ponyville.

"At the Trader's Market in the middle of Ponville that happens every Saturday, Silly." Pinkie bopped Nimbus on the muzzle after explaining. "Everypony that's anypony knows that. That's why I came to Rainbow Dash's. We were going to go there this morning, but she wasn't there. You were though, and I knew who you were without ever having met you before. Then you freaked out because you were worried if I knew who you were somepony else might know who you were. That's when I mentioned you should go to Rarity and I could show you the way. You agreed and we made our way to Ponyville, where we met the sea ponies at the bridge who were singing a song about doing sea weed and -"

"Pinkie, I-I was there for the rest of it. You don't need to tell me." Nimbus set his wings back down to his sides after having calmed down. He had them up for so long, they were staring to getting heavy and made him feel like he was going to fall on either side if he didn't balance himself properly.

Breathing in deeply, Nimbus asked Pinkie, "Where is the market?"

Pointing her hoof past Nimbus' head, "Just a couple hundred feet away that way." Pinkie said.

"Awesome!" Nimbus wagged his tail and began walking towards Ponyville, finally happy that he has an idea where to go and start his day.

Pinkie Pie somehow rushed in front of him without him knowing. "Where are you going?"

"To the market."Nimbus gestured his head forward and put some pep to his step as he walked past her. "Just like you said everypony was."

Pinkie Pie fell on her back and laughed, "Silly me, I forgot to mention, the shops at the market won't open for another hour."

Nimbus stammered a few words trying to hold back tears of frustration. Every single word was too baffling to understand. His whole body began to shake. "I-I woke up early for nothing!" Nimbus fell back on his hind legs and pushed his hooves into the ground, grunting and ready to yell at the top of his lungs.

Pinkie Pie giggled when Nimbus turned his head up and screamed for an incredibly drastic amount of time at an extremely alarming volume.

She laughed and tapped on Nimbus' shoulder. "Come on, Nimbus. I'll introduce you to everypony." She walked a few feet forward and stopped to turn back to Nimbus, seeing him still screaming. "Oh, Nimbus, you're funny. I can see why you and Dashie are friends. She loves a good joke."

Pinkie continued to laugh while Nimbus was still unbelievably screaming. "Nimbus, come on, it's right there." Nimbus just remained in place and continued to scream. Pinkie held a helping hoof towards Nimbus, beginning to worry. "N-nimbus?"

***

"How are you feeling?" Talitha asked Sugar Bomb after handing her the unnecessary bandage. Sugar Bomb had woken up a few hours ago. She received no serious injuries, or any at all , but still demanded a bandage. Talitha didn't feel like fighting or arguing with the filly so she just gave it to her.

Applying the bandage to her leg, which again had no visible injuries, Sugar Bomb smiled and optimistically cheered, "Yeah, I feel great, thanks Tali. Buuuut" She smiled and wagged her tail. "You know what would make me feel even better though? A cupcake from-"

"No."

"But you didn't even hear what I was going to say!"

"Yes, I do." Talitha pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just shut up about it. We're not going to Sugar Cube Corner. We need to look for Nimbus. If Said-So is looking for him, it won't be long 'till he finds him."

Sugar Bomb pouted and trotted around in a small circle. "He could be at Sugar Cube Corner. You don't know that."

Moving her hoof from her nose to her forehead, Talitha answered, "I highly doubt he's anywhere near Sugar Cube-"Outside, Talitha could hear a loud noise increasing with volume and time.

Removing her hoof and going to the window, Talitha opened it up and listened closely to the screaming she heard."Celestia's sweet shining ass." Her ers twitched as the screams came from the Market section of Ponyville a few miles away. "What is that?" Whatever was making that noise could have came from the Everfree Forest, but she couldn't think of anything that could be that loud for so long.  "WHAT. The fuck is that?"

Sugar Bomb leaped up to the open window and wagged her tail. "Is it just me or does it kind of sound like Nimbus?" As both her and Talitha listened closely to exactly where the screaming was coming from, Sugar Bomb's smile grew wide as she said, "And it seems like he's at the Ponyville Market." She leaned on Talitha's shoulders and whispered into her ear, "Right next to Sugar Cube Cor-"

Talitha hit Sugar Bomb across the chest and sent her flying in the wall behind her.

***

Rainbow Dash looked at her mom with widened eyes and asked her rather rudely, "What do you mean you don't believe? I saw him, I was with him, I touched him!"

"uhhh" Rainbowshine groaned. She adjusted the sleeves of her jumpsuit around her wrist. "You might want to-"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Geez, mom, does everything I say have to be sexual with you?"

"It does when everything you do behind my back with Nimbus is sexual."

If Rainbow Dash had been drinking water, she would have spewed it out. "Huh?" she asked. "We never snuck behind your back."

Rainbowshine leaned back in her chair and looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a disapproving stare. "Okay, okay." Rainbow Dash groaned, remembering how many times her and Nimbus often got escorted back to school or home by the knights or police. "But we never did anything like that."

A pony who had been overhearing the entire conversation from the beginning coughed, "Bullshit."

"I swear to Celestia." Rainbow Dash growled, baring her non-threathening teeth.

"Oh, shut up, squeaker."

Rainbow Dash blushed and turned redder than any apple on Sweet Apple Acres. She was so caught off guard that her mom had used the same nickname Sky Forge did last night.

"I know what happened in that old club house of yours." Rainbowshine crossed her arms and huffed at her. "You two are nasty. Where did you even learn that from?"

"How does everypony know about that?"Rainbow Dash dropped her head on the table top once again and groaned underneath her mane.

"That thing didn't exactly have windows." Rainbowshine pointed out.

"...this is so embarrassing."

"Pfft." Rainbowshine shook her sleeves loose. "You're embarrassed? You didn't see what I saw in there."

Rainbow Dash yelled and got a dizzy for a few seconds after picking her head up so fast. "Mom!"

Getting passively defensive, Rainbowshine explained, "Hey, I thought one of you were hurt. I heard screaming."

Right on cue, Nimbus' scream from Ponyville could be heard from the outskirts where the prison was located.

"Kind of like that, ironically." Rainbowshine's chair squeaked as she turned around in it. "Is that Nimbus?"

Oh, I'm so going to kill him when I get home. Rainbow Dash kicked her mom's leg underneath the table. "Oh, now you believe me." Rainbow Dash's ear twisted in the direction of Nimbus' scream and listened closer. "It's sounds like he might be in trouble..."

Rainbowshine tilted the table towards Rainbow Dash one last time, wanting to see her jump out of her skin again before she left for the day. "It's Nimbus, he's always in trouble."

***

"Stop being uptight, Nora, it's a party. Hehehe." Nora repeated to herself in a hilarious squeaky voice. She angrily twisted the cold water knob and waited for the water to fill the cup she was holding. "Bite me." she growled to herself, pouring what had to be about the twenty seventh glass of water she'd gotten for Gunilda since last night, and it had to be a glass, not a cup. "All these ponies can drop dead right now for all I care, Nimbus and Rainbow Dash too."

Her ear twitched when she heard a delicate, "Ohh..." from behind her. She turned around to see Flower Butt was hanging quietly in a corner to herself on the ceiling. "I saw you were mad and hid here, but I can move, it's no problem." She started to help herself down until Nora used her claw spell as further assistance.

"No, don't, it's fine." Nora calmed herself down by patting herself on the head with her claw spell. Especially for being a batpony, Flower Butt was a pretty fragile pony. Typically batponies...vamponies...(or whichever she was, Nora didn't know the difference) were supposed to pose a very "intimidating" personality, from what Nora heard and read about them. This one was terribly timid.

"Find out anything about Nimbus, Flower?" Nora asked her calmly and setting down the glass. She was going to have to think of a more appropriate name for her to replace the derogatory one Nimbus gave the poor creature.

"I know where he's at, if that helps."

"Wait, what?!" Nora screeched. "Since when?"

Flower Butt ducked and hid behind her wings. "Since he left with the other mare last night."She could see Nora about to blow another gasket. "Please, don't be mad." She sounded like a child who's parents found her hidden stash of magazines underneath her bed.

"No, just..." Nora was trying hard not to shout for the lack of information. She used her claw spell to rub her temples. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Flower Butt was too nervous to answer and shook her head.

"Flower, come on, we need him right now." Nora turned her head to check if anypony else was around to listen. "Or else that nasty Princess won't leave."

"Awww" Flower Butt lowered her wings and pouted. "But I like her."

Nora was getting nowhere with this. With a sour tone and through closed teeth, Nora pleaded,  "Just tell me where he is, please."

Without warning, Flower Butt screeched loudly, scaring everypony in the room, the two rooms next door, and the floor below. Nora's mane shook and flew everywhere around her head wildly. A small "Whoa" left her mouth as she tried to fix her mane back properly. While adjusting, Nora asked, "Find him?"

Nodding with a smile, Flower Butt gave an affirmative answer.  "Mmhmm." She twitched her ears and said, "He's over in Ponyville, really close."

"Really? How close?"

Again, Nimbus' scream could be heard throughout all of Ponyville and beyond. Nearly busting Flower Butt's super sensitive ear drums

Flower Butt's ears lied down to the sides of her head. "That close..." Her entire body shook as Nimbus' scream was drilling it's way through her super sensitive ears. "...ow." She squeaked.

***

After watching her look in the mirror for the past forty minutes, Said-So finally addressed Evening Primrose, "I thought you had something important to tell me." He didn't understand why she bothered doing her mane in the mirror. A changeling could just 'change' it to any style they wanted, or he assumed at least something close.

Sighing, Evening Primrose set her mane down and said, "I have sad news."

"Just spit it out." Said-So groaned.

"You might want to sit down." Evening Primrose gestured with her hoof. She was wearing her Octave disguise, which Said-So questioned since he was the only one in the same room as her. He and everypony in the building knew what she looked like and knew she was a changeling. Wearing a disguise just seemed vain, but to each their own.

"I'll stand." Said-So knew better than to give a changeling the upper hoof. Stereotypically, changelings were unloyal  and shouldn't be trusted no matter how long you knew them.

Shaking from the cold breeze blowing in through the window, Evening Primrose went for the window but was stopped by Said-So.

"Leave it." Said-So instructed. He was getting really tired of Evening beating around the bush. "Just turn into a bear or something if you get colder." He said sarcastically with an annoyed look.

She nodded and said, "It's about Bin." Nopony dared called Loony Bin by his full name to Said-So unless they enjoyed a Unicorn summoning a Parasprite inside their stomach. "When we came across Nimbus, the bastard tricked Bin into getting trapped underneath a collapsing piece of the ceiling." Evening faked a few sobbing tears to add to the reason why she could never be a decent actress. "He didn't make it."

"Oh, Evening, you almost sound sincere."

The changeling's eyes popped open just in time to watch everything in front of her get farther away as Loony Bin pinned her to the wall by choking her with his magic.She lifted her hooves up to grab the magic, but Loony Bin trapped them to her sides. Above her head, there was a large beam of energy hovering and aimed right between her eyes. If Loony Bin wanted her dead, he could have done so right there, and probably would have on his own decision. Which meant that there was some interference from Said-So.

Evening looked over to Said-So to see that she was indeed right. He was stopping Loony Bin's magic with some of his own. His horn was glowing in slowly changing colors. He was the only Unicorn she knew of that could change the color of his magic aura. The two brothers were obviously fighting over her life.

"She left me for dead." Loony pushed a bolt of magic from his horn at his brother, only to have it be deflected by Said-So's magical aura.  A beam of magic blasted from Loony Bin's horn and consistently pushed against Said-So's magic aura.  It was no good though, his magic wasn't going to penetrate his brother's anytime soon. "She's unloyal to our cause and friends with the enemy."

Without straining or so much as an effort, Said-So forced Loony Bin's magic back to him and pin him to the wall, as he did to Evening Primrose. Now that his magic was turned against him, Evening Primrose was released from Loony Bin's magic. She fell hard to the ground on her chest and coughed for air.

"Traitor!" Loony Bin shouted at his brother and attempted to conjure another blast of energy from his horn, but Said-So predicted it like a fortune teller reading tarot cards. He caught Loony Bin's energy blast and held it while he talked to him softly.

"Brother, hear me out." Said-So's voice was light, smooth, and calm, completely ignorant to the hostility steaming inside Loony.

Loony growled behind his mask, "Proceed" then added in a twisted sense of humor, "with caution."

Titling his head to Evening and helping her up by levitating and moving a chair towards her, Said-So admitted, "I instructed Evening to leave you behind." He paused and allowed his brother to scream and yell at him.

"You let her?! What was the purpose of teaming us up? Why didn't you tell me?"

After waiting a few seconds, and wiping Loony Bin's spit off his chest, Said-So continued to confess the purpose of Evening Primrose's betrayal. "I needed her to gain Dark Wing's trust, find her name, who she's associated with, and where she hid the wand." He watched her still struggle despite the help he gave her. "Which we were about to discuss before you interrupted." He looked up to Loony Bin and asked him, "Care to listen in?"

Loony Bin grumbled, "With your permission."

"Granted." Said-So dropped Loony Bin and eased him down to the ground, unlike he did with Evening. Massaging his wrist, Loony Bin looked above his head to see that Said-So still held his magic energy blast frozen in the air.

The two of them waited until Evening Primrose sat up on her hindquarters before she spoke. "Well, first of all, Dark Wing is a stallion not a mare."

"Yes, the one you refer to as Dark Wing, brother, is possibly sexually confused."

Closing her eyes and shaking her head, Evening spoke slowly, "No, no, that's...that's not the case at all." She shuddered when she had a flashback of when Nimbus badly attempted to hit on her. "He does it to mislead others."

"Mission accomplished." Loony Bin commented.

"His name is Nimbus and he's been in hiding for years. Went off the grid, granted that he wasn't really on the grid before he left." Evening Primrose changed from her Octave disguise to Nimbus in a split. Using his voice, she spoke, "You're going to want to brace yourself for this next part, Boss." She cleared her throat and coughed once again. "A-about five years ago, he killed a colt not too much older then he is now by pushing him out a window."

Said-So's breathing suddenly picked up in pace and weight.

"Said-So" Evening started, freighted to finish the sentence. "That c-colt's name...was Tall Tale."

Exploding with rage, Said-So finally released Loony Bin's energy bolt from the air and crashed it in his desk, amping up the power of the blast and shattering the desk into tiny smoldering pieces. He continued to release his rage out on all the objects in his office, even smashing the mirror Evening Primrose was standing in front of when he saw Nimbus' reflection. "How sure are you?"

"Positive." Evening quickly turned back to her natural changeling state, in case Said-So decided to take his rage out on her for looking like Nimbus. "It happened on the same night that your son died. Same place. Same situation."

Spinning around and grabbing Loony Bin's throat with his levitation magic, nearly crushing it, Said-So screamed, "The same time you were supposed to be watching him!" Said-So lifted his brother in the air and watched him struggle for air. He slammed him on the ground and began to crush him underneath the weight of his magic. "And now the pony who killed my son is also the pony who's stolen my destiny." He lifted up a gun that had fallen from one of his book cases after he destroyed it and pulled back the hammer, aiming the barrel at Loon Bin's head.

"Said-So, no!" Evening begged. She turned into Said-So's son and spoke in his voice as easily as she could remember it. "Loony Bin's already suffered enough when you had Talitha take away his face. Hasn't he suffered enough already?" Said-So let go of Loony Bin and waved the gun at Evening Primrose. "Just let him go, okay?" she whispered.

Said-So peered down the sight for two more seconds then lowered the gun away from Evening's temple. He waved the gun at her angrily, "Don't. Ever. Impersonate my son again." He had tipped the barrel down and away from his son's face when he waved it around. "Got it?"

Transitioning back to her normal state, Evening nodded, "Yes, Sir."

Throwing the gun back on the ground, Said-So readjusted his mane back to a more proper status and asked, "What else have you gathered? Who are his allies, his enemies?"

Answering quickly to take the conversation to an entirely new subject, Evening leaked new information, "He's strongly hated by the Trotting Talon for some reason, I didn't dig too deep."

Said-So smiled. "Now I have a reason to see Hail Gale on business matters."

Evening hissed with doubt. "Sir, umm, Nimbus has acquired some rather useful allies. Like the Princess of Makar, Gunilda, the detective, Nora, a rather skilled black smith named Sky Forge, and..." Her pause told Said-So he wasn't going to like what she said next. "He's apparently the lost son of Talitha, Aero Dynamic's twin brother."

Said-So grabbed her by her throat with his levitation magic again, and held her up in the air. She kicked her legs violently in the air, hoping to touch the ground, but Said-So just lifted her higher as she tried. Levitating himself up, Said-So came up to Evening Primrose's eye level and shouted, "You're telling me that one of my old Colonels is an ally of his?" Evening just stayed silent and didn't answer the rhetorical question. He dropped her and himself down to the ground before he stomped on the ground to get the attention of his captains in the lower floor.

He huffed and pointed at everyone of them when they all individually walked into his office. Once all five lined up in front of him, side by side along with Loony Bin and Evening Primrose too, he shouted at all of them with every word, "All of you, everypony, I want you to find this stallion named Nimbus. Find him, bring him to me, hurt anypony he cares about and bring them as well. I want him to watch everypony he cares about die right in front of him."

He grabbed Evening Primrose with a levitation spell. She struggled as every part of her body was slowly and forcefully changed to look like Nimbus by Said-So. His magic would have easily overpowered hers if he hadn't let his anger make him so sloppy. He picked her up by her mane and held her up for everypony to see. "This is the son of a bitch. Recognize everything about him, his mane" Said-So shook Evening's mane more violently. "His coat color, his cutie mark, everything! Don't bring me the wrong pony or you'll find yourself on the wrong end of a rope. Do I make myself clear?"

Everypony simultaneously nodded, "Yes, sir."

Evening Primrose reached up high and grabbed her mane. "Y-yes, sir!" Said-So tossed her back on the ground hard, turning her back to a changeling, and with Loony Bin helping her back up. She was surprised that Loony Bin was helping her. Just ten minutes ago, he was trying to kill her. Even underneath his mask, Evening Primrose could see him smiling.

Loony Bin must have read her mind because he quickly told her, "Later", after seeing her confused expression.

One of Said-So's captains, Alloy, spoke up, "Quick question boss, how are we supposed to find this guy? Do we have any leads?"

Said-So shifted his eyes to Evening, "Fill them in." With that, he grunted and teleported out of his own office to a secluded location.

Once it was positive that Said-So wasn't coming back anytime soon, Evening Primrose shook her hood, "I have no idea where to start looking. Every time I met him, he's found me or was scheduled to meet me somewhere."

Alloy rolled his eyes. "Great, so we got nothing except a face."

Scaring them all out of their coat, a scream came out of nowhere from the window Evening Primrose almost closed earlier.

"Take that back..." Evening Primrose said, "I'm certain that's his voice. Nopony else's voice is that significant." Evening Primrose took on her Octave ponysona and shouted, "Boys, we found our stallion!"

***

Meanwhile, at Celestia's castle

Flash Sentry ran into Celestia's throne room and struggled to catch his breath as he finally reached the Princess. "Y-you called me, your-" He breathed in and had  to scream "Highness" in order to get the word out.

Celestia nodded and looked over to her window. "What's that noise?"

Expecting to answer the question before he was even summoned to her presence, Flash answered honestly, "I think it's a pony in peril." He watched as Celestia rubbed her chin at the new fact. Flash tipped back and forth on his hooves for some time before asking her, "How do you wish for us to address it?"

"Hmmm, Send it-hmm no. It's probably nothing, carry on."

Bowing and leaving Princess Celestia's throne properly, Flash waited until he was out of ear shot to say, "This place is so dull, I hope something happens at my next duty station. I don't care what it is, or I'm getting out of the Knight Corps."