Invincible

by Nimbus92

Rating: mature
Tags: Comedy, Random, Adventure, Drama
Length: 60998

It's been five years since Rainbow Dash last saw Nimbus, and after what felt like a lifetime, they're finally reunited

(This story has been revived!) (Even though most of you have read it before, go through it again as a refresh. A bit has changed but not too much. Expect editing changes to this current chapters you're reading.)

Five years after the final events of Vulnerable.

Nimbus finally gets reunited with his old friend Rainbow Dash, but their reunion might have just put the both of them in a peril amount of danger.

Will their reunion smoothly, or will Nimbus end up getting the two of them involved in an unbelievable amount of trouble so vast it will make Rainbow Dash smack him across the face? More than likely so.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-04-16 16:35:50 UTC

Prologue: Dark Wing

After sitting in the dark for what seemed like hours, Candy Apple's eyes were instantly blinded by the invasion of light from a light bulb she didn't even know existed . Granted, the room was so dark she wouldn't have even seen her hoof if she tried to hold it out in front if her face,save the fact both her front hooves were tied behind her back. Candy Apple closed her eyes tightly, facing away from the uncomfortable bright light.

Candy Apple suspected the light was being used to prevent her from seeing the unexpected visitors who's hoof steps she could hear walking in right after she shielded her eyes.  The sound of hooves hitting the ground were too many for only be one pony entering the room."Hey, she's awake!" A voice that echoed with each word said. It had to have came from a female, it's tone was far too sweet to be a male, but too sweet to trust. Her voice was like a rose: beautiful, sweet, desirable, but dangerous if you ignore her hazardous thorns."Yeah, that was the expectation I had when I flipped the switch." A heavier and definitely more masculine voice commented. Being at Manehattan not too long ago, Candy Apple took a wild assumption where the voice hailed from."Will the two of you shut up? Boss said he'll have our heads if we screw this up again." The third and last voice said, echoing it's every word just like the first one, but with a tone that sounded like it would stab you in the heart if you weren't careful enough .Candy Apple, however, couldn't help but snicker at the term "again".  "Ya'll have done this before and failed?" Despite the amount of danger she was possibly in, Candy apple couldn't hold back a laugh. Her eyes were still shut and facing away from the light, but she wished she could see the faces on the incompetent ponies who had captured her."Way to go. Now she knows we suck at our job." The Manehatten accented voice said to the other male. Candy Apple didn't even try to hide her laughter now. The "thugs" who had captured her and taken her as a hostage were no more hostile than a chicken hawk in a griffin's nest.There was a heavy clicking sound that was swiftly identified after the echoing male voice spoke. "In that case, let's just hit the shit out of her and call it a day. I'll go first, if you don't mind."Candy Apple ceased the laughter and wiggled in her chair, taking notice that her hind legs had been tied to the chair as well. "No, no, wait! "Stop! Ah'll talk!"There was a soft slap to Candy Apple's cheek that reminded her of the shape of a pony's hoof, but this hoof was way too... big. "Now that's a good pony." The echoing male voice complimented. "We'll let you out of here as soon as you tell us how we can get the money you owe us."Candy Apple gasped once she realized who these "ponies" were.Several weeks ago, a bunch of parasprites had unfortunately attacked Candy Apple's farm, leaving her with little to almost no business left. Had it not been for the parasprite exterminators how were conveniently driving by her farm, Candy Apple would have lost her entire farm in a matter of just a few more minutes.Sadly, the word humble was not a virtue the exterminators were familiar with, or even cared for. They warned Candy Apple they would collect their full payment in one way or another within the next three weeks. Without a doubt, the ponies in the room with her now were affiliated with the same ones who saved her farm."Those parasprite critters weren't at my farm by accident, were they?" Candy Apple didn't get an answer for quite some time as the others inside the room were too busy exchanging glances."She's quite the brightest apple in the tree, isn't she?" a completely alien voice, that Candy Apple didn't even know was in the room, said.Surprisingly, Candy Apple wasn't the only one who was caught off guard by the new voice. All three heads that were holding Candy Apple hostage turned their heads in the direction of the stranger. "Who in the hive was that?" the female changeling known as Evening Primrose asked."There's not supposed to be anypony else in here!" Jack Knife, the pony with the accent, said."Kill 'em, whoever they are." The male changeling everyone called "Mid-Knight" said. He raised his hoof pistol up to his eye and fired random shots to where he thought the owner of the voice was. Jack Knife assisted in the loose firing with a hoof pistol of his own as well, with Evening firing a single burst of her changeling magic into a dark corner that illuminated the entire room in an eerie green. The heat from Evening's demonic green burst of magic broke everypony in the room into a small sweat.When the firing finally came to a halt and Evening's bright spell died out, the voice came back again in a different location than last time and much closer. "I am the terror that flaps in the night.""We missed?" Mid-Knight stomped down in anger, damaging the expensive lens on the small scope of his hoof pistol. "He's fast as Tartarus!" He and the others spun around the room like tops looking for their intruderThe stranger continued with their trade mark introduction, speaking in a slow dark tone, "I am the red stain on the back of your wedding dress.""....umm eww?' Evening gagged at the visual representation her mind was playing in her head. As hard as she tried, Evening couldn't shake the image of a bride walking down the aisle unaware of the red eye on the back of her white dressing staring at every guest as she passed by them.Falling from the ceiling above, the hidden voice finally revealed itself and came crashing down right next to Candy Apple. The stranger's wings were long and dark enough to recreate the visual of a pony wearing a cloak. The stranger lifted their head and revealed two rows of flawlessly white teeth that pierced the dark easier than the light bulb. "I am Dark Wing!" The intruder introduced, finally revealing himself from the shadows in an intentionally cinematic slow walk.The character known as Dark Wing had a very slender athletic build, not distinctive enough to determine whether Dark Wing was female or male. The question of Dark Wing's gender was even harder to answer by the mix between a male and female's voice each time Dark Wing spoke. Dark Wing's eyes  even shared the same dagger sharp pupils a dragon would have, surrounded by a green iris that could be mistaken for glowing in the dark, narrowly doubting the suspicion that Dark Wing was even a pony.The spark at the tip of Evening's horn faded as she took a better look at Dark Wing. "What are you supposed to be? Nightmare Moon's bastard child? You completely stole her eye style." Evening illuminated her horn further and took a better look at Dark Wing.Dark Wing buffed out her chest and roared, "What?! No, these are completely original." Dark Wing pointed to her face with a sharp hoof, nearly poking herself in the eye. "Nopony else has these eyes!" Dark Wing had went through several eye designs before her costume designer had finally agreed on one, and now this changeling was mocking her outfit.Evening's eyes rolled and drifted down to Dark Wing's wings, taking in the ridiculous unnatural length. Evening snorted a chuckle and bumped her brother, Mid-Knight, in the ribs. "Hey, Mid-Knight." She started before illuminating Dark Wing's wings with light from the direction of her horn. "Think she/he is compensating for something?"Evening and her brother both shared a laugh together as they continued to pick Dark Wing's choice of attire and bad color scheme. Dark Wing's face burned red with steam coming from her rock star green mane.As Evening's laughter began to die down, she couldn't help but notice something incredibly odd about Dark Wing's black coat that seemed a little off. Evening payed closer attention to Dark Wing's face and noticed the mask over their face. "He's wearing an illusion enchantment. Aim for the mask.""Uhh...Look a distraction!" Dark Wing shouted quickly as she ducked down and dive rolled back into the darker back of the room to hide, her deep black coat easily concealing her.Evening shot another green spell in the direction Dark Wing had rolled off to. The impact of the spell impacted the back of Candy Apple's chair, tipping her over in a screaming outburst as she collided to the floor and surprisingly received minor damage. Snapping her head to her brother, Evening shouted, "Mid-Knight, shoot her!"Mid-Knight pulled the magazine out of his pistol and tilted it towards his vision. "I'm out." He tipped the empty magazine in Evening's direction for her to see for herself."Same." Jack Knife nodded. Sliding his hollow magazine back into the pistol, Jack Knife shared an idea, "I say we close the door behind us and trap her inside wi-" The door Jack Knife had just mentioned slammed behind him, with Dark Wing leaning against it.Seeing how quickly Dark Wing could move in the room, Jack Knife doubted that he would survive for much longer, much less the three of them."You guys should really stop saying things like that out loud." Dark Wing said, rubbing her hoof on her chest to rid herself from the dust she collected after sliding from the far wall to the door."Thanks for the advice." Mid-Knight mumbled before placing a curve bladed spell between Jack Knife's eyes and sending it through the back of his head. He gave less than no warning to his co-worker about his mistake before Jack Knife could even see Mid-Knight's spell in his peripheral vision.  Jack Knife fell to the ground, his body splashing into his own pool of blood made by his half severed head. Swinging back to Dark Wing, Mid-Knight admitted, "I always hated him anyways."Dark Wing was caught off guard by the betrayal and jumped in her coat at the sight. It was no surprise that these thugs cared about little else than money and/or power, but not so much so that they'd killed one of their own to show it. Dark Wing felt somewhat responsible for Jack Knife's unfortunate death but in no way disturbed by it. She was by no means saying whether Jack Knife's death was well deserved or not. Silver Lining, Jack Knife's death meant one less pony to deal with and it did make her job easier.Mid-Knight's horn sparked up in sync with Evening's horn as they both fired green spells at Dark Wing.Using her wings to assist her, Dark Wing shot her body upwards and narrowly dodged the two blasts, with her hind legs feeling significantly warmer after the heat emitting from the spells breezed past her. She fell back down hard and used her front legs to pull herself forward, sliding on her chest  in between Mid-Knight and Evening. With her strong wings, Dark Wing tripped over the two changelings easily due to the bad posture both of them had.Dark Wing propped herself back on all four legs and rolled onto Mid-Knight's back, using her weight to pin the changeling to the ground. She stretched out her hoof and grabbed Mid-Knight's right front leg. At the same time, Evening rose up to a knee and aimed a wild shot for Dark Wing.Instead of trying to roll or dodge out of the way of the spell, Dark Wing pulled quickly on Mid-Knight's right leg and threw the changeling's body over her own, turning him in a blanket of safety from Evening's magic.Like all changelings' bodies, Mid-Knight's was a hard shell on the outside, like an ant's, protecting themselves with a small layer of natural armor from minor spells and light impacts.Evening shut her eyes closed from how brightly her spell shinned after the first shot. She continued to fire shot after shot in the same direction, not wanting Dark Wing to get up after she was finished with her. She had know idea that Dark Wing was using her brother as her own personal living shield.When her magic finally tapped out from the consistency of her fired spells, Dark Wing pushed the unconscious Mid-Knight away from herself and stepped up to stand over Evening Primrose in an assertive pose."Wait, wait!" Evening pleaded. She slowly raised her hooves over her face, not realizing how fatigued she was from tapping out her magic. Her legs felt disturbingly heavy as she held them over her head. "I'll let her go. She's free, okay? No debt. She doesn't have to pay anything."Dark Wing titled her head and twitched her ears. "Who?""That'd be me over here, pardner." Candy Apple answered. Her muzzle was in between the floor and the rest of her body as she laid on the floor.Feeling a bit embarrassed from forgetting about the apple pony who needed to be saved, Dark Wing ducked her head between her shoulders and hid her shame behind her wings and away from Candy Apple. "Oh, right, you." Dark Wing took one last look in Candy Apple's direction and brought her lips uncomfortably close to Evening's ear. In a whisper too quiet for Candy Apple to hear, Dark Wing told Evening, "I'm actually here about Said-So. Honestly, I didn't even know about Candy Cane.""Said-So?" Evening repeated. She pulled her hooves to the side of her head and pushed to keep Dark Wing at a more comfortable distance from physically touching her. "You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to tell you where he is."Dark Wing rolled her eyes and offered Evening a suggestion, "I can give you your freedom back, help you go off the grid! Nopony would even remember you.""Lies!" Evening shot down Dark Wing's offer  and pushed herself out from underneath Dark Wing finally. She got up and nearly fell over from the weight she'd put on her legs. Tapping out her magic not only left her defenseless, but it also took it's toll on her entire body. Then again, seeing how quickly Dark Wing moved, she didn't think she would get very far anyways.  "Why should I trust you?", she asked rotating her shoulders.Dark Wing draped her hoof over her mask and pulled it off his face with as much drama and suspense he could, imitating the same way every hero did in the comics. Revealing his true face, the illusion the mask cast over Nimbus left him as fast as a window shattering and falling to pieces. "I"m giving you one last chance to take this offer, or you can go downtown with your brother where you'll be spending a long time at." Nimbus didn't like forcing ponies into interrogation by any aggressive means and always chose to  talk in a calm tone, but he needed to pry what information he needed from Evening. "What's it gonna be? Freedom or your Loyalty?"***Pulling back on the pipe in his mouth, Said-So shifted it to the far left corner of his mouth. "It didn't do anything when you grabbed it?" Said-So asked, referring to the ancient wand wrapped in linen on the table in front of him, "Not even brightened up or made sparkles?""Nothing, sir." All four ponies said together, who he hired to steal the wand from a museum in Manehattan.Said-So's toned frame could be seen as he stood up strongly, leaning forward on his desk. "Then how can I be so sure that you brought me the right one?"The eldest and more experienced pony of the group swallowed hard before speaking and stepped forward. "Well, S-Said-So, we suspected it was the one you mentioned since it was the only thing in the museum that had it's own active security after closing hours."Said-So puckered his lips and shrugged in understanding. In his own opinion,if the museum wanted to keep the secret of the wand discreet, they shouldn't have tempted the value of it by keeping the damn thing guarded heavier than the Canterlot Castle. "Hindsight." Said-So spoke out loudly."Sir?" The eldest pony asked."Nothing." Said-So shook his head. "Ponies are just stupid these days." He reached under his table and began to pull out a saddle bag he struggled to lift onto his table, careful not to place it on top of the wand. "Now we agreed on ten-thousand, correct?""Actually, uhh..the boys and I", The eldest one spoke up again.Said-So's eyes went dark as he slowly lifted them from the saddle bag to the group. His breath could be seen in the cold room as he anticipated what the pony was going to suggest next. Not to his surprise though, the eldest pony kept his mouth shut and chose to speak no more on the subject. The same could not be said for one of his less seasoned comrades though."No, this is bullshit, Said-So!" The more impulsive pony of the group argued. He gestured a rude middle feather at Said-So before pointing at him with the same feather. "Who died and gave you the right to determine how much of our cut you get?""I think my name alone states who was in charge far before you were even born, boy." Said-So mentioned with no intention to fake the smile upon his face."This was a big ass job! You weren't there. Far as I see it, all you do is bark orders and have others do your shit for you. It's about time you step down or step in. You do nothing!"There was no hairs or goose bumps standing on the young pony's body as he called out to Said-So. Respectfully, Said-So was impressed with the stallions courage and bravery. He walked out from behind his desk and around, reaching and grabbing the impulsive young pony's shoulder like a proud father would."You remind me of myself when I was younger. What do they call you?" Said-So now had his leg wrapped around the pony's shoulder, but what the eldest pony could see, Said-So's horn was still glowing brightly."My parents named me Eye Spark, but everypony just calls me Sparky.""Sparky! I like that." Said-So said energetically, rubbing the back of Sparky's neck with the hairs standing up from the static. "Now." Said-So pulled Sparky closer towards him. "You think your "boys"-" Said-So mentioned the word "boys" in a manner some would consider HIP. "-deserve a bigger cut, right?""Without a doubt." Sparky agreed strongly."Well..." Said-So nonchalantly pressed the knife he was floating behind Sparky's head to the side of Sparky's neck. "Like I said, you remind me of myself when I was younger."Sparky finally dropped his dominance act and stared down at the knife pressing his neck in. "H-hey, there's no need-"Before Sparky could finish, Said-So pressed and painted a red smile across his neck from the left to the right using his knife. Sparky's body twitched and spilled across the floor before his blood could leave his body.Looking at the knife he was flicking the blood off of, Said-So told Sparky one last thing. "The only difference was I knew how to keep my mouth shut when I was your age. There's your cut though."A slow heavy clap sounded from the only door way in and out of the room. Standing there was a large framed earth pony whose shoulders were wide enough to hang laundry from. "Very, very original, Said-So, but you forgot to ask him if he was happy after you made the clown smile across his neck.""Talitha" Said-So's pronunciation of Talitha's name was battling between whether or not he should be happy to see her after all this time."The one who taught you that trick? Yeah, that'd be me." Talitha pushed past one of the other two ponies who were closer to the door out of her way."How'd you get in here? How'd you know where to find me?" Said-So's horn was still glowing from holding the knife he still had, but when he tried to reach for the gun behind him he felt a significant amount of weight standing on it. He turned around to see an adorable pink filly with a backwards hat looking him in the face."Hey, how's it going?" the pink filly giggled before bopping his muzzle."That creature behind you is Sugar Bomb. Don't worry though, she's not yours." Talitha reassured Said-So. "The one you WOULD have, if you had one, would be much older." She looked to the three ponies Said-So had with him in the room. "You're really pinching as many bits as you can with these high school drop outs. They can't even lock a door behind them when they walk into a building."Said-So sighed the word "Dumbasses" before addressing Talitha. "I doubt you're here to kiss and make up?""Or small talk" Talitha added."Look, I'd love to play twenty questions, but-"Talitha nodded to Sugar Bomb and gestured her to come to her. Doing as she was told, Sugar Bomb gave a small salute and snatched up the wand wrapped in linen between her teeth before scurrying past the timid thugs who had more fear in them than a mother learning she might have a stillborn."-I've got what I came for." Talitha grabbed the wand from the clutches of Sugar Bomb's jaws. She held it between her hoof and held it up in the air.Just as Said-So was going to deliver a threat to Talitha, gun shots could be heard several floors below them.Talitha stepped closer to the closed window on her left. "Expecting company, or is that a  high-school dropout shooting at soda cans that you call targets?"Said-So ignored Talitha and smashed his hoof down on the intercom that allowed him to speak in the room Mid-Knight should be in. "Mid-Knight, what are you doing down there? It's an interrogation not an execution. If I don't get my money, I'm going to have your a-"More shots were fired, except this time a few pierced the floor below at an angle and catching two of Said So's remaining henchmen in the chest and throat. Both bullets hit vital parts of the body of both ponies, dropping them both to the ground. Another bullet from below hit a soft spot in the ground and ricocheted the steel frame around the window, making it's final hit into Talitha's ribs.Talitha swore loudly as she gripped her right side, dropping her sword on the same side to the ground so she could properly reach the wounded area. She immediately took the stray bullet for hostility and gripped her fallen sword by the handle between her teeth. She took no time to hesitate and charge Said-So with a leaping attack.While Talitha was mid-air, Said-So re-equipped the knife he held earlier and threw it in Talitha's direction, missing her barely. He anticipated the strike from Talitha's sword and flinched. To his relief, Talitha hadn't leaped high enough to get over the table between her and Said-So. Using his magic, Said-So pushed the table and pinned Talitha to the wall. The concrete wall crushed Talitha's back and forced her to grunt in pain and drop her weapon.Without having to be ordered to, Sugar Bomb jumped and reached out for Said-So's knife before he could pick it back up. Even though Sugar Bomb had used her weight to prevent Said-So from picking back up his knife, she had not anticipated him to pick her up as an alternative.Spinning Sugar Bomb in a full circle, Said-So slammed the tiny filly into the wall beside Talitha. Like Talitha, the impact of the wall prohibited Sugar Bomb from holding onto her weapon. Now both ponies were defenseless and cornered. If Talitha's ribs didn't have a bullet between them, she would have already tried and pushed the table away, but she couldn't even hold her front left leg out without retreating it back two seconds later. The bullet had either made a small bone fracture or was stuck in between the bone.Taking advantage of the situation, Said-So picked up both Talitha's sword and his knife, holding the edge of the weapons in both opposing ponies faces. His breathing was heavy from the quick castings of his magic, despite them all being low consuming spells. It could be seen from both sides of the weapons he was wielding that Said-So was struggling to keep them levitated. Thrusting both weapons forward would be an easy and quick task if Said-So had not liked to hear himself talk to his victims before finishing them off."You really thought you could walk into my place-"Before Said-So could even start speaking, he heard another voice, louder and echoing from every side of the room.Hanging outside from a window in the room, Nimbus used one of the various creative spells his friend, Nora, had enchanted on his mask to make his voice sound like he was at multiple places at once. "I am the thing that goes bump in the night."Talitha sucked in her stomach and squeezed herself out from behind the table, while Said-So was too distracted by Nimbus's signature Dark Wing introduction. Unlike Said-So, Talitha was familiar with Dark Wing's childish catch phrase more than she would've wanted to, due to the fact that Dark Wing was a huge inspiration with children. Especially with Sugar Bomb, Dark Wing appealed to the little filly due to the fact that her toy line came with DIY (Do it yourself) kits Sugar Bomb endlessly enjoyed.Sugar Bomb was glowing with absolute delight. Her inspirational role model was going to come in at any moment and beat the crap out of one or out of the three of them...or all."I am the pony at your door at 6 am to tell you the word of Celestia!" Nimbus said before muscling his way up the window and launching himself between and past Said-So and Talitha before realizing he had jumped too far. "I. AM. DARK...."Turning his head left to right and his long fake feminine mane slapping the opposite side of his face with both turns, Nimbus peeked over his shoulder to see Said-So still holding the edge of both his weapons to ponies that weren't there anymore.Nimbus cleared his throat heavily and whispered to himself, "I’m am facing the wrong way." He spun around and caught sight of Talitha sneaking away from Said-So to tend to her wound. "Evil Doer!" Nimbus directed to Said-So, "I am Dark Wing! The gust that busts, the wind of glory, the zero that goes to infinity and beyond!"The fact that a freak wearing a mask and having a ridiculous name had found him so easily didn't put Said-So's mind too much at ease. He blinked slowly, hoping the comic book ripoff vigilante would disappear once he opened them. "I've got bounties on my head from five different major cities, two of them from a different country, and not even twenty four hours of  coming into Canterlot, I'm discovered by Bat Mare."Nimbus's cheeks glowed red beneath his mask and blurted out, "I"m not freakin' Bat Mare!" He flared out his nostrils, bowing his head and adding, "I wish everypony would quit saying that.""I believe in you Dark Wing! Woo Hoo!" Sugar Bomb cheered, flailing her arms in a fashion that made them look broken, now that she was on the opposite side of Said-So and his weapons. The filly jumped down from the book shelf she was standing on and landed near the wand Said-So had dropped off the table. The torn linen exposed the ancient wand underneath and allowed the wood of the wand to show it's permanent shine.Nimbus gasped deeply and barely caught his breath when his eyes locked onto the wand Sugar Bomb was reaching for. It had been years since Nora and he had searched the underground library in Canterlot to find their first wand. Standing in front of a new one now was completely nostalgic and reminded him of the events that occurred later that same night. He hoped nopony, or Said-So at least, could see his knees shaking as he could hear Rainbow Dash's crying going back and forth through his ears. The sounds drove beams into him that uncomfortably increased his heart rate."Nora was right, there ARE others.", Nimbus whispered to himself. This one was shaped differently however, as it was dramatically twisted with three branches that looked like a triple bladed claw at the tip.  He caught Said-So noticing him looking at the wand. Nimbus shook his head and warned Said-So. "Don't, please. I don't want to hurt you.""We all don't get what we want." Said-So said, before reaching behind his back for what looked like a weapon.Like all the times before, whenever Nimbus was in trouble, everything slowed down around him. He still didn't understand why this always happened whenever he needed it most, but he still appreciated it none the less. He breathed in through his nostrils and closed his eyes before looking at what was happening before him. Behind him were the two strange ponies who Said-So was about to deal with before he butted in. Said-So was about to pull a...magical item of some sort. It looked a glass ball of Zebra magic, but it lacked all the "natural spirits" look to it and was made completely out of glass and shiny metal, far too luxurious to be Zebra. Just off to Said-So's left was a giant gap for Nimbus to rush attack Said-So's open defense.Nimbus ducked his head to his shoulders and Zero Shifted over to Said-So faster than a fly could flap it's wing. Right as Nimbus was just about to loop his right arm around Said-So's right arm, Said-So vanished and teleported to the other side of the room. Nimbus lost his balance and fell over, smacking his chin to the floor. His teeth clattered together, making him hiss instead of screaming.The speed at which Said-So had vanished was remarkable. Teleportation must have been second nature for Said-So to have activate and execute the spell so fast. Not only that, but he must have anticipated Nimbus to move quickly before Nimbus even thought about doing so.A burst of magic appeared over Nimbus and brightened. Seeing the connection between the spell and spark above Said-So's horn and the snarl on his face, Nimbus doubted that the spell was going to shoot sunshine and rainbows. He focused on the open area to his right and dodged the spell barely. The heat of Said-So’s spell warmed him only and did nothing more.Nimbus felt a huge rush of blood going back to his legs as he found himself standing back up on all fours and watching Said-So's spell burn a hole into the ground. He panted and turned to see if the unicorn was going to charge up another spell. As he anticipated, Nimbus did see Said-So charging up a spell, though not a hostile one or aimed towards him, fortunately.Said-So was holding the glass magic ball in his yellow glow of magic that emitted from his horn. The ball was held a few inches above the wand before it shined a blue area of light around it and captured the wand inside of it.Rotating his neck and shoulders once around, Nimbus mumbled, "Magic Lock Ball." He huffed and looked at the ball grasped in Said-So's magic. The ball brightened up a blue glow and hummed quietly now that it contained something inside. Nimbus kept his eyes on the ball as he watched Said-So struggling to carry it.Said-So's stamina was low as his magic began to flicker from bright to dim. He knew that he wouldn't be able to make it past the door in a full sprint, not with Dark Wing and Talitha both in the room with him. Not as long as they were both still breathing.Playing the card of chance, Said-So teleported behind Dark Wing, dropping the magic lock ball where it previously was. He tried to pick up the knife he had earlier, but Nimbus caught sight of Said-So's intentions and faced his hind legs towards his chest with a swift donkey kick. All four of Said-So's legs were lifted off the ground as he ascended and crashed into the window behind him.To Said-So's benefit, the frame of the window was small enough to catch and prevent him from falling out of it. At least that would have been the case if Talitha hadn't taken the opportunity to headbutt him right in the chest and push him completely out with the window frame still snug around him.It was too dark and high up to see where Said-So had landed, but Talitha made the assumption that Said-So didn't survive, or at least she hoped. For the time being, this was her only chance to take the wand for herself. She looked behind her at where she last saw it and noticed it had been taken by Dark Wing already. She growled angrily and flinched as she tried to put more weight on the side she got shot. Ignoring the pain while charging a stable target was easy. Trying to put weight on her right side while static, not so much.Nimbus tucked the magic lock ball under his wing. It was cold to the touch between his wing and breast, but it was safe and secure. Once he got far enough and away from Talitha, he could remove his mask and held both the mask and ball between his hooves while flying comfortably.The blood-flow coming from Talitha's open wound was slow, but that was due to the fact that there was a bullet lodged in her. She would need to remove the fragment if she wanted to properly heal. The window behind blew warm air into her mane, something that wasn't there when she was outside earlier. The sun was on the rise soon and it wouldn't be hard for somepony to look up at the broken window in a room full of dead ponies. She needed to get out of here. Talitha searched out for Sugar Bomb and balanced her right leg across the filly's small back before making her way out the door.Sugar Bomb could feel that Talitha had accepted defeat by the way her leg hung loosely on her back. Talitha was good at hiding it in her facial expression though as she still remained to keep the same aggressive look on her face. Talitha had them both moving at an uncomfortable pace so she wouldn't have to look at Dark Wing any longer than she wanted, but before she could lift her hoof to take the stairs down, Dark Wing stood in her path."Who are you?" Nimbus asked Talitha, remaining to keep his mask on unlike he did with Evening Primrose. Unlike Primrose, Nimbus didn't know what Talitha had on the line if she tried to reveal him.Grumbling a few curse words in an order Nimbus had never heard anypony use before, Talitha shoved him out of her way with her good shoulder and breathed the title "Star Killer." That's when Nimbus noticed that the image of her cutie mark was an exploding star. She leaped down each step with a flinch and hiss. When she finally reached down to bottom one, she turned her head to him one last time. "Don't lose that ball. I'll be coming back to get it."***Slash released some of the pressure he was putting on his hooves on top of the table by leaning back. The story Candy Apple had just told him was wild and would sound completely insane if he tried to sum it up. "So," He said, catching a glimpse of Candy Apple picking her head up. "He just...let her walk away?""Yes." Candy Apple nodded. "Or..." Candy Apple looked down to the floor and shrugged lightly. "...at least that's what he told me.""Nimbus, right?" Slash asked specifically.  "Nimbus, the stallion pegasus who disguises himself as the female vigilante Dark Wing?""Ayup". Candy Apple confirmed in her natural accent."Who knew you owed money to-""Actually, no, he didn't know I owed money to them at all. He just happened to be there at the right time. He, he." Candy Apple gave a small laugh as she remembered that Nimbus actually had to come back an hour later once he realized he had forgotten about her a second time.Slash took suspicion to Candy Apple's answer. "You answered that pretty fast, Mrs.Apple.""Oh, well." Candy Apple smiled and slid down in her chair. "Ah just knew what you were going to ask." She couldn't help chewing on the end of her hoof a bit. Like when she was being held hostage a few days earlier, she wanted to get out of this room as quickly as possible. The only difference now was that Slash's room had a table."Right...." Slash replied before taking his hooves off the table completely and walking a path behind Candy Apple. "You haven't asked a thing about the criminals who abducted you."Candy Apple remained in her seat as Slash walked around her like a shark circling it's prey. "What urination would I ask about them? One of them died, one was knocked out, and the other Nimbus let go.""How do you know he let her go?""Umm, Ah was there?!" Candy Apple asked in a aggravated tone. "Seriously, haven't you been listening to what I said?" Candy Apple rose up in her chair and sat straight up. "Now, I want to go back to my farm.""Why?" Slash asked quickly, still circling around her chair with his eyes remaining on her. "Why the hurry?""I don't think you know how much work goes into a farm." Candy Apple said with her arms crossed against her chest. "I have a lot of apples to look-""I was at your farm this morning, Mrs.Apple. You only have three apple trees after the parasprites attacked. When I was there, you had your cousin, Big Macintosh, look after the farm while you were here at the station. I had to ask him a series of questions, like where you were. I found out that you were already here at the station before I had even asked to see you. I can't help but feel that you're hiding something, Mrs.Apple." Slash's steps around Candy Apple were heavier and faster now. She could even feel them rocking her chair a bit.Candy Apple swallowed an apple sized lump of air down her throat. "Ah...Ah just wanna go home now, please. I've answered all your questions-""I don't even think you're who you say you are!" Slash cut off Candy Apple. "And as a matter of fact, I've been listening very closely to every single word you said! Your accent has been coming and going since you started talking. You've forgotten how little apples you have left at your farm." Slash finally walked in front of her and tilted her chair forward to meet eye to eye with her at point blank range.Slash could hear Candy Apple's breathing pick up."And, for the record, the Apple Family says 'what in tarnation' not 'what urination', Miss Primrose." Slash pushed Candy Apple away to watch her change from the farm pony she was trying to impersonate and into her normal changeling self, Evening Primrose. There was only one way out of the room, and that was through the door behind him. He had taken on changeling's before and dragons five times that size. This young little creature before him held no candle to him."I thought you changelings were supposed to be able to impersonate voices perfectly." Slash remarked as he watched Evening Primrose jump down from her chair and onto all fours. "And I thought the Queen was the only female in the hive."Evening Primrose fluttered her wings in the standing position, not moving her body and inch. "In my hive, the majority are female while the king is the only male."Now a new question popped in Slash's head. "What about your brother, Mid-Knight?""He's from another hive, not my actual brother. That's just what we call each other." Evening Primrose fluttered her eyelashes in sync with her wings. "As much as I'd love to talk about changelings and how we live, I made a deal with a friend, and I really need you to turn around.""Pfft." Slash knocked on the breastplate of his armor proudly. "I been doing this for a long time. You're going to have to use a different trick.""Cool." Said a cold voice breathing on Slash's ear. "Let's try one of mine."Slash reacted, drew and slashed his famous green bladed sword behind him to find out there was nothing behind him. "I swear-" His ears twinged when there the sound of something crackling behind him began to grow louder with each second. He switched back to Evening Primrose to find her already throwing a eerie changeling spell at him. "Clever girl." Was the last words Slash said before being knocked out unconscious.The spell was low consuming, but Evening still let a heavy breath once Slash went unconscious. She wasn't expecting Slash to turn back around at the sound of her spell being charged. Her heart had nearly skipped when she saw how quickly he could draw a weapon. The door that Slash was guarding from Evening swung open and revealed Nimbus in his Dark Wing disguise."I didn't think your voice-change thing could be used like that." Evening Primrose commented as she walked and stepped over Slash carefully.Nimbus placed his hoof over his his face and removed his mask. His mane was slick with sweat and his face was just as wet. "It's actually called a voice transmitter. My friend, Nora, made it for me. There's even a feature that let's me-""She's the one who helped you clear my record, right?" Evening asked quickly to avoid hearing Nimbus talk about a spell she really didn't care about."Oh." Nimbus stretched his neck into the bag strapped to his side and pulled out a folder for her. Inside was a completely new identity for Evening to use, birth certificate, and a bonus letter that Nimbus had as a surprise for Evening. "Yeah, uh Nora said everything you need is in here. It's all legitimate." He gave the folder to Evening gently while she looked like a foal pulling a gift from under the tree on Hearth's Warming Eve.Opening the folder quickly, Evening nearly missed the small tiny envelope that fell out. She bent her neck down to look at it and pick it up as she set the folder on the desk behind her. "What's this, and who's Reverb?""Reverb is a good friend of mine. He's the owner of a club between Ponyville and Canterlot. Once you're ready, he said you should come down there and he'll set you up with your own recording."Evening opened up the envelope skeptically without taking a look at Nimbus. "Recording of what exactly?" She wasn't sure what to expect out of this Reverb guy. Not long before Nimbus asked Evening to impersonate Candy Apple, he had taken a very forward approach with asking her out...and then asking her to impersonate Nightmare Moon for reasons she wanted to forget about.As Evening read every word of the letter slowly, she gasped with delight once she understood that Reverb was inviting her to his studio to record her singing. She brought down the letter to her chest and asked Nimbus. "How do you know I sing?! I never talked about it!" Evening had actually made it a priority to avoid talking with Nimbus completely if it didn't involve getting her a new life."Nora read that you and Mid-Knight had taken into hiding as a couple of actors when you fled from your hive. After some digging, she found out you were pretty talented. I talked to Reverb and he said he would totally do it. Oh, and uhh..." Nimbus stumbled around her to point the name on her identification. "I thought it would be fitting to call you something close to what you'll be doing."Evening set the letter to the side to take a look at the birth certificate. Above the line where her new name was it read "Octave". Like Nimbus said, she did find it quite fitting, and it helped her with trying to decide what she should do for a cutie mark since she can't really be walking around as a changeling."I was going to change Octavia, but that was taken. I've never even heard of that mare, but apparently she's a pretty good musician." Nimbus shrugged. By how widely Evening was smiling and the way she was going back from the letter to her new identity, he wasn't sure if she was listening to him."I don't know what to say..." Evening was blinking away tears and fought hard not to stutter her words."Thank you is a good start." Nimbus hinted as he began to brush his chest clean ready for a hug.Evening nodded her head and began to assume a new look. A flash of green light shined her entire body as every part of her body began to change. When she finally finished, Nimbus couldn't recognize who's look she had taken, which was probably best since the last thing Evening needed was to run into the pony she was pretending to be."You're right, Nimbus. I'll tell Nora thank you the next time I see her, and Reverb too when I first see him."Nimbus's ears dropped down along with his wide smile. "Yeah, I'm sure they'd like that." It was hard for Nimbus to say that happily. He would've liked to bring up the fact that if he hadn't brought her to Nora in the first place, or even given Evening a second chance, none of this would have happened, but he didn't feel that would be appropriate or the right thing to do.The last thing Evening asked before putting everything back into her folder was, "How did you break into a police station?"Nimbus flicked his hoof and explained, "Pfft, that was easy. Just wear a mail pony outfit and carry some flowers, they'll think you're somepony delivering flowers for his wife."Wondering where the flowers and costume went, Evening asked Nimbus, "Is that how you plan on getting out of here?"Nimbus shrugged. "Pretty much, except without the flowers this time. You can just walk out of here looking like that. They shouldn't ask questions. Plus, it's lunch time so nopony is in there anyways.""Ah." Was all Evening said. She peered her head out the doorway and looked around to make sure nopony would notice a different looking pony coming out of the room. "You're sure-" She was about to ask Nimbus if she really could walk right out looking the way she did, but he was already gone. There was no clue as to where he had gone. To make matters worse, Slash began to groan and twist a bit. Evening leaped over him one last time, making sure not to drop her folder or anything inside before booking it all the way outside.There really was no direction Evening Primrose was heading at the moment, but she did want to find Reverbs' studio so she could at least express her interest, but she didn't want to stop and ask for directions right in front of the police station.Up above, watching Evening leave, Nimbus was perched on the very top of the police station, low to the ground. If anypony were to look up, he would just look like a strange bump on the roof. They'd have to stare at him directly for a good while to recognize that there was a pony on the roof. He wouldn't be up there too much longer anyways. He just wanted to make sure Evening left the premises safely.Once Evening was out of his eye sight, Nimbus crawled to the back side of the police station, managing to keep a small silhouette before anypony had enough time to see him.  He checked around the area when he finally reached the end of the roof, making sure nopony would see him take off. Nopony was around from what he could see, now he could stand fully and open up his wings.When Nimbus finally did stand at the edge of the roof with his wings fully erect, he leaned forward and dropped himself off. He didn't allow himself to soar until he was a few inches away from the ground. Soaring a few inches above the ground was an adrenaline rush for Nimbus and was a great way for him to keep his reflexes up. There had been many close calls where Nimbus had scraped his chest across the ground and his legs hung too low. He only flew low like this for a few more seconds before pulling up and ascending higher to the clouds where it would less likely for somepony to see him.Despite it being the middle of the day, Canterlot seemed rather quite. Most everypony was probably at the food court area on the other side of Canterlot since it was lunch hour. It would give Nimbus the opportunity to walk around the garden area without his mask for the first time in awhile, as long as he avoided the picnic area. The farthest part of the garden was Princess Luna's section.While Princess Luna's section was open to the public, mostly everypony avoided it since a Nightmare Moon statue had been placed there. The statue was said to be cursed with...something scary, but Nimbus had never come across anything wrong with it. If anything, he felt a bit of a connection with the Nightmare Moon statue. Like her, he felt far from home because of the one mistake he made.Nimbus's mistake was nowhere near as drastic as Nightmare Moon's was, but he did like the isolation it gave him because of it's presence.When he finally did land in Princess Luna's garden area, he immediately removed his mask and casually walked towards his favorite spot underneath the statue. "How's it going?" Nimbus asked the snarling statue. "Oh, yeah...sorry."Talking to statue always put Nimbus at a lower level of stress than when he got there. Sure, he could have talked to Nora or Sky Forge, but Nora would always just pitch in all her problems and make Nimbus feel worse for complaining about his, and Sky Forge would always bring up that he should go see Rainbow Dash. Even though he really wanted to, he was too scared to. It had been so long since he’d seen her, and he didn't know how she would react. He knew she'd be happy to see him again, but...he was too scared that she had moved on, unlike he did.Nimbus looked back up at the Nightmare Moon statue to see it hissing at him. "I know, I know! The longer I wait, the worse it'll be. I just...don't want her to kick me out of her life like Celestia did with you." Nimbus sighed and felt an unexpected strong breeze blowing against the back of his head. There was an ungodly amount of wet leaves slapping him all around his body from trees that came out of nowhere to be seen. He held his hooves up to Nightmare Moon and apologized, "Umm no offense...hee hee."The wind died down immediately to a calm breeze and blew Nimbus's mane barely off his shoulders. Even though the statue could only convey the one same expression, he felt like the snarl had become a little less aggressive. He brushed the leaves that got caught in his mane out and leaned his back at the legs of Nightmare Moon."I wonder how she's doing, though.." Nimbus asked out loudly to the statue, not expecting an actual response. The clouds that once were blocking the sun had moved and the sun now shined warm light onto Nimbus legs outside the shadow of the statue he was resting under. "Yeah, I guess you're right. She's probably doing great." He turned to rest on his side and hugged one of the bottom legs of the statue. "Or at least I hope she’s doing fine."

Chapter 1: The first day of many

*** Three months before the Summer Sun celebration (Nightmare Moon's return)

Since the day that Nimbus left, things had been different for Rainbow Dash, to say the least. She definitely had a whole lot of time to herself and her dedication to become a wonderbolt, but she no longer had that extra push or motivation that Nimbus always provided. Granted, she hardly ever needed it. Training, doing everything herself, and being so independent, Rainbow Dash made quite a name for herself inside and outside of Cloudsdale.

Unfortunately, she dropped out of school her first year without Nimbus by her side. She couldn't find anypony who let her cheat off of them. Fluttershy tried to help Rainbow Dash as much as she could, but she couldn't keep Rainbow Dash's attention on one subject for any longer than a few minutes. Plus, Rainbow Dash sleeping through each class didn't help either.

However, Fluttershy did help Rainbow Dash score an interview and job at the old weather factory. Rainbow Dash's speed more than qualified her for the spot they needed to be filled, so they didn't really say too much when she slept during working hours. She could easily clear the sky by herself in less than one quarter of the time it took her entire team.

On the morning after Nimbus helped Evening Primrose start her new life as Octave, Rainbow Dash woke up to the sound of her alarm at six in the morning. Rarely did she ever wake up at this time on a non-working day, but every now and then she did take the time to get up early and exercise before starting her day. It was going to be a long day: Help Fluttershy bring in a new animal from the post office, help feed the said animal, go to Apple Jack's and make sure no bats were hanging out in the trees again, pick up a dozen cupcakes at Sugar Cube Corner from Pinkie Pie, take those same cupcakes to Rarity's for her sisters party, and then end the day with some apple cider at the old sky tavern in Cloudsdale.

Rainbow Dash only ever went to the tavern to drink cider when she felt like she deserved it or wanted some alone time away from friends, otherwise she would just drop by Apple Jack's and get it for free....sometimes.

The tips of Rainbow Dash's wings reached for the ceiling as she stretched out from underneath her sheets. "I don't want to wake up!" She groaned, flipped over, and buried her face deep into her pillow. "It sucks being the center of attention." Rainbow Dash lied to herself.

"Well, you could always just let somepony else do it."

Rainbow Dash picked her head up to see Sky Forge floating outside her window. Drool hung from the bottom of Rainbow Dash's lip as she waved slowly at the old friend. "Has my window been open this whole time?" Rainbow Dash asked, as she had a temporary lazy eye that complimented the drool she hadn't noticed yet.

Sky Forge nodded and dipped her head inside. "I saw it open and thought somepony broke in." She looked at the unmade bed and all the miscellaneous items that surrounded it. The scratched up and half broken dresser concerned her the most out of the entire mess. "DID somepony break in or..."

"No." Rainbow Dash finally wiped the drool from her lip when she finally looked down at the mess. "My room just always looks like this."

Looking at the half-eaten and melted carton of ice cream next to Rainbow Dash's guitar and amp, Sky Forge asked "Explain to me how stallions find this attractive."

"Pfft." Said Rainbow Dash as she blew her mane out of her eye view and brushed her front lock into her trademark mane-style. "Please, I haven't had a stallion in this place since I moved in, and that's only because he was helping me break the bed apart."

"Break the bed apart, sure. You don't mean breaking it in?" Sky Forge teased.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and finally pulled herself out of the bed. "I swear sometimes you think like a guy."

"I'm a blacksmith, I only have sweaty guys in heat to look at all day. Can you blame me?"

The crack in Rainbow Dash's mirror made her tilt her head back and forth until she had a clear image of her white teeth. She smiled widely to the mirror and kept her mouth shut as she spoke to Sky Forge. "I guess not. I haven't seen you in about two months. I don't think you came by you talk about guys. You know I'm not that kind of mare."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Sky Forge admitted. "But I just wanted to see if you wanted some company at the tavern tonight."

Rainbow Dash stopped smiling at herself and raised her eyebrows at Sky Forge. "How did you know I was going to the tavern tonight?"

"It's the beginning of July, I know what day it is." Sky Forge leaned on and hung off of Rainbow Dash's window seal.

"You don't have to hang out outside the whole time if you don't want to." Rainbow Dash told Sky Forge, giving her an invitation to step hoof inside.

"Thanks." Sky Forge carefully leaped over and made sure not to step on anything lying around on Rainbow Dash's floor that hasn't been broken yet.

Waiting for Sky Forge to explain herself, Rainbow Dash stood on her two back legs and leaned on her half broken dresser with the elbows of her forelegs. "And what day is it?" Rainbow Dash knew the answer to her own question, but only she knew why this day was special to her. Only one other pony, except probably Celestia, would know Rainbow Dash would go out by herself in early July.

"You've been speaking to him to him, haven't you?" Rainbow Dash asked Sky Forge.

Guilty of the answer, Sky Forge flopped her ears down and dropped her wings.

"Even when I asked you if you have, you lied to me and said you didn't, why?"

Sky Forge wanted to answer all of Rainbow Dash's questions truthfully, but she made a promise to Nimbus she would never tell her.

"I think" Rainbow Dash voice went softer "I've always known you kept in contact with Nimbus. Why he doesn't come around to come talk to me or even see me. Wait! Actually, I do know why!" Rainbow Dash looked at the smallest trophy in her wall of accomplishments. It was still a first place trophy, it was just the only one she kept up from one of her flight school races, and the only one that was plastic instead of gold.

"He still blames himself for what happened. I kept telling him it wasn't his fault, but...I let him go because I thought he needed time to think. I didn't know he was going to run away from me." Rainbow Dash picked up the plastic trophy and held it above her head to look at the two names underneath. "You know, he hates this trophy. It was his last race before he had his heart ,or hearts, problem." Rainbow Dash set the trophy back down and placed it back on it's respectful spot. "He thought, and probably still thinks, I don't know about it, but I always have. I just waited for him to tell me, but he never did.

" I don't hate him for it, don't think I ever could hate him. He pissed me off a lot...a lot, a lot." Thinking back on the subject, Rainbow Dash remembered when Nimbus had used her Spitfire signature aviator goggles in a race once and chipped them. "But he's always been my best friend. Sky Forge, please, you don't have to tell me where he's hiding, but could you at least him I said Hi?" Rainbow Dash requested to Sky Forge. "Tell Nimbus, Rainbow Dash said Hi."

Sky Forge looked away from Rainbow Dash the entire time she spoke, too guilty and ashamed to look her in the eye. "IF I see him...I'll let him know." Sky Forge turned her head up to see that Rainbow Dash was looking at a small strip of miniature photos she had safely tucked away in one of her working dresser drawers. "Let's put all these depressing memories behind us, okay? Other than that Tavern, what else are you doing tonight, Rainbow Dash?" Sky Forge knew Nimbus would never forgive her if she told Rainbow Dash where she could find him, but it wouldn't be her fault if they "accidentally" went to the same place at the same time. "There's this place called Club Dub...."

Club Dub was a club Rainbow Dash knew a little too well. "You mean the place where the Wonder Bolts made that vigilante, Dark Wing, an honorary member?"

"YES!" Sky Forge had forgotten that had happened. Maybe if she could get everything to work out, Nimbus might even tell Rainbow Dash that HE was Dark Wing.

Rainbow Dash leaned away from Sky Forge a bit from her over excitement.

"Sorry." Sky Forge squeaked. "There's a V.I.P. only party going on tonight and I can get us both in."

"A V.I.P. only party?" Rainbow Dash had been on some pretty crazy parties with her friend, Pinkie Pie, before, but she had never been to a party at an actual club before. "Okay, I'm sold. I'll be there after I'm done at the Carousel Boutique today."

"No, stay there, I'll meet you there.You're going to need something cute to wear before we go." Everything was going better than planned for Sky Forge, and on such an impulse decision.

"...cute?" Rainbow Dash peered at Sky Forge with a questionable look. "Do you even know who you are talking to?"

"I'm not letting you go looking like..." Sky Forge pointed to Rainbow Dash and said "This."

"What's wrong with" Rainbow Dash made a circle motion around herself with her hoof. "THIS? Ponies line up to see all of THIS."

"That must be one heck of a short line then." Sky Forge told Rainbow Dash with a straight face.

"I'm not wearing anything to that party."

"It's a V.I.P party! You have to!" Sky Forge argued. There was no reason to wear anything at all to the party, it was hardly even V.I.P.! Reverb just called it that so more ponies would want to come in. The only reason Sky Forge wanted Rainbow Dash to wear anything was for Nimbus's sake.

"NO, Sky Forge. I'm not wearing anything, and that's final! I don't do cute."

***

Sugar Bomb laid on Talitha's couch on her back and held the first chapter of IInvincible above her face. "Oooh! This is the part where I come in." Sugar Bomb squinted her eyes at the paper in front of her. "Now what's my line?"

Reading her lines three times back and forth, Sugar Bomb shred the papers in her tiny hooves and hopped onto the top of Talitha's couch and asked her, "So Tali, what's it supposed to do anyways?"

Talitha took her eyes off the target dummy in front of her and spat her sword onto the floor. "What? What's what supposed to do?"

Sugar Bomb removed her cap and pulled and extra copy of chapter one from underneath it. "Wait a minute...I skipped a line....Oh." Sugar Bomb took a giant bite from the first pages of chapter one before asking Talitha "Why did we let Dark Wing take the wand?"

Talitha picked her sword back up and swung it at the target dummy, spinning it and dodging one of the extended arms swinging for her head. "I had gotten shot and Dark Wing still had a lot of energy in her. Besides, I wasn't sure if she knew how to use the wand."

"What's it supposed to do anyways?" Sugar Bomb asked Talitha once again. "Ah, there's that line. Much better!"

Talitha grunted and swung the entire sword through the body of the wooden target dummy, splitting it into two and sending the top half flying into the wall. "Ever heard of anything called the Fellowship Wands?"

Sugar Bomb shook her head. "I read about it briefly in Vulnerable, but the author didn't really talk too much about it." Sugar Bomb jumped off from the arm rest of Talitha's couch and ran to her, hugging her leg tightly like a filly wanting to hear a bed time story. With wide eyes too big for her head, Sugar Bomb said. "Tell me more!"

"The Fellowship wands are said to be what created the Elements of Harmony, but it's rumored that when you have all of them combined, they do something even more."

"So are the wands stronger than the Elements of Harmony?" Sugar Bomb asked, clutching hard to Talitha's leg when she walked over through the double doors that led to her small personal library.

There was no personal reading material for entertainment in Talitha's library. It was too small and important to contain such things. The only subject Talitha kept in her library was anything about the Fellowship Wands, stories or tales about them, and several unlabeled scrolls that only Talitha knew what they were.

"They could if somepony wanted them to, but somepony could use the Elements of Harmony to destroy the wands if they wanted." Talitha explained. "But like the Elements of Harmony, the Wands wouldn't go away forever. They would reappear when they found new pure masters."

"And all the masters of the wands are dead, huh?" Sugar Bomb looked up at Talitha and the book she pulled from one of the top rows.

"Do I look dead to you?" Talitha rhetorically asked Sugar Bomb.

The bottom of Sugar Bomb's jaw literally hit the floor with a clunk. "Whoa, did not see that coming. Wait a minute...how can YOU be a master of one of the wands?"

Talitha stopped immediately what she was doing and held the leg Sugar Bomb was clutching onto over one of the torches that lit up her library. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The fire beneath Sugar Bomb began to singe and burn little hairs off of Sugar Bomb's bum and tail. "Oh, no,no,no,no! I'm not implying anything at all. I'm just saying, you said the masters were pure, and you're so...well...right now, you're holding a child over a fire."

Sugar Bomb whispered to the reader. "Hey, don't worry about me, I'm a main character, and this isn't a George R.R. Martin story. So I won't die yet." Sugar Bomb's face fell after realizing what she just said.  "W-why did I say 'yet'?"

Talitha pulled poor Sugar Bomb to her face and put out a small flame that had started on the tip of her tail. "Oh, but I am pure, pure unadulterated badass."

"...wow, that was cheesy as hell. We stole that from somewhere. I just can't remember where." Sugar Bomb told the reader before turning to face Talitha.

"If you're a master, where's your wand?"

Talitha answered Sugar Bomb's question with a chant to the book she had laid out flat on the table. "Reveal to me that which cannot be seen."

The book went up in grey smoke until it was too thick to see. When the smoke finally cleared, in place of the book was a small skranny stick with a carving of a dragons head at one end and a representation of it's tail throughout the rest of it. The wand lit up in a red light bright as a torch and emitted an eerie red glow around the entire thing.

Sugar Bomb's eyes widened as she glanced at the sheer caliber of awesomeness the wand in Talitha's hoof wielded. "What's it supposed to do?", Sugar Bomb asked again for the second time. She wondered what a battle between Talitha and Dark Wing would be if Dark Wing could use the wand she currently had.

"I don't know", Talitha said, shaking her head. "Each one is unique to it's master, or Wanderer, that's what they're properly called. The wands can't even be used unless you have all of them."

"How did you become a.... Wanderer?", Sugar Bomb put amount of pronunciation to the term.  "What made you designated as this wand's master?"

Talitha crushed Sugar Bomb's cap over her mane and scuffled up her mane style. "It found me a LONG time ago. Back before I even became a mother."

A million more questions popped like popcorn inside of Sugar Bomb's tiny head. "Wait, you're a mother? You never talk about it. How OLD are you even?"

Talitha lowered the wand to Sugar Bomb's throat. "Do I LOOK old to you?"

Swallowing the honest answer down her throat, Sugar Bomb lied and said, "What?! You? No! Other than the scars all around your body, the wrinkle above your forehead, and the crow's feet under your eyes, your skin looks absolutely flawless."

Talitha pulled the wand back and threw on the same saddle bags she wore last night, except leaving her sword behind this time. "That's what I thought. Gear up, Sugar Bomb, we're going to a party." Talitha tossed her wand roughly into her pouch and trotted past Sugar Bomb, who still had a million questions to ask.

"A party?!", Sugar Bomb cheered. "Is there going to be cake? Mmmm I like that ice cream cake I had at Sugar Cube Corner once. Can we stop there on our way? Hey, wait, where are we going anyways? Talitha, stop ignoring me! I'm just a filly! I need attention! Talitha!"

***

"The Club Dub?" , Fluttershy repeated in question to Rainbow Dash as they both pulled her newly acquired goat in a flying carriage behind them.

"Yeah, I know really cheesy name.", Rainbow Dash nodded. "It's supposed to be a huge club, but I've never heard of it."

Fluttershy just nodded in agreement, not knowing how else to respond about the current topic. "It's nice that you have friends that can take you to places like that. I would never go myself, but...it's nice."

"I guess", Rainbow Dash shrugged with a roll of her eyes.

It was easy for Fluttershy to tell when Rainbow Dash was having second thoughts about something she wanted to share but wouldn't say out loud. Taking the bait, Fluttershy asked, "Do you not want to go?"

"It's not that I DON'T want to go", Rainbow Dash began to explain "I just don't want to get all dressed up like she wants me to."

"Oh!" A small spark of excitement lit up in Fluttershy. "I'm sure that will be fun. You should let Rarity help you."

A frown was found on Rainbow Dash's face at the mention of using Rarity's help in finding her something to wear. Rarity had been quite persistent about asking Rainbow Dash to help her model for some more "sportive" attire that  she had the right body build for, and now that she was going to Rarity's this evening....Rainbow Dash shuddered at all the flashy and girly apparel Rarity probably already had in mind.

"Nothing says fun like...dressing up for Rarity.", Rainbow Dash said with a sour tone.

After Rainbow Dash helped Fluttershy with acquiring her new animal, she quickly made way for Sweet Apple Acres where Apple Jack was already preparing an ass chewing for her for being late again. Even with her unbelievable speed, Rainbow Dash was still going to be at the very least twenty minutes late.

Once she got to Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash could already see Big Mac pulling a large cart full of crates of apples stacked on one another with Granny Smith telling Apple Bloom all about the dangers of leaving animals, other than birds, in the trees.

"You see, Apple Bloom", Granny Smith croaked. "You leave one of 'em little critters in one tree then you get the whole lot of them in all of your trees."

"But, Granny Smith", Apple Bloom argued. "Why can't we have them in our trees? We have a whole lot of them." Evicting a poor creature out of all their many tress in Sweet Apple Acres upset Apple Bloom.

Hearing the whole conversation without Granny Smith or Apple Bloom's knowledge of her being there, Rainbow Dash interjected into the conversation. "I won't be throwing the animals out of their homes. I'll just be moving them to another location, where it's better for everypony...or uhh critter."

Coming out of nowhere unexpectedly, nearly scared Granny Smith out of her hide , and she would have to if it wasn't for her "dern hip"!

"Oooohhhh!", Apple Bloom said with surprisingly quick understanding and nodding. "We're not taking homes away from the animals?", Apple Bloom tilted her head at Rainbow Dash. The giant bow on Apple Bloom's head also tilted and waved in the small country breeze.

"Now why in 'Questria would we do that?". Granny Smith picked up Apple Bloom and set her on a higher stack of apple crates. "That there is just wrong."

"Ayep", a single response came from Big Mac, agreeing with Granny Smith by her words.

Not too long after, a familiar voice hollered after Rainbow Dash, "We might jess 'ave to if Rainbow Dash here was any slower."

Oh great, Rainbow Dash thought rolling her eyes just before turning around to face Apple Jack.

"Wha' took ye so long, Rainbow Dash, fastest pony in 'Questria?" Apple Jack announced, doubting Rainbow Dash's rightfully claimed title. "Half 'mah farm could be gone if ye don't put yer rear in gear."

***

At a gliding pace, Rainbow Dash poked her head in every tree, looking for nest of any sort that didn't need to belong there. So far no animals had been seen, not even birds. Most times when Rainbow Dash came over to check the trees, there would be at least two or three families of squirrels, birds, or if not fruit bats, but not today. It was very odd indeed.

Just when Rainbow Dash was going to skip the last section of the farm, she heard a low buzzing sound coming from the top of the trees. It was too loud to be a humming bird at her range, definitely something in the trees though. She poked her head into the low branches and then the buzzing got even louder. Whatever was making the buzzing sound was incredibly close. It obviously hadn't seen Rainbow Dash yet or it would have flown away by now.

Using her impressively convincing Timber Wolf howl, Rainbow Dash roared as loud as she could, in hopes of scaring whatever was in the trees out of the trees. She waited a few seconds as she heard absolutely nothing. She thought the buzzing had gone running for the hills until she heard it going again right above her head.

In one of the higher branches, there was a steel cage with many lines of tiny bars all around it, preventing what was inside from escaping. The space between her and the box was too tight for Rainbow Dash to fly up, so she instead balanced herself and climbed up until she could get a good look inside of the cage.

With a gasp, Rainbow Dash held her breath as she looked inside the cage to find a small family of four Parasprites flying around. There was no handle or traditional key lock on the door of the small cage, but there was indeed a small kitchen typed timer on the door with twenty minutes left on it.

Grabbing the cage in her hooves, Rainbow Dash spun the timer back to an hour and bolted her ways to Apple Jack's house, to inform her of the threat.

When Rainbow Dash told Apple Jack about what she found and showed it to her, Apple Jack grabbed and set the cage on the ground. She crouched down and closed one eye while inspecting the Parasprites with the other. "Now why in 'Questria would anypony put a family Parasprites in mah' farm?"

Shrugging as an answer, Rainbow Dash said, "I don't know, but somepony definitely put that there. Look at the timer on the door though. Whoever did that was planning on attacking your farm."

"And fer what good reason would anypony do that?", Apple Jack asked Rainbow Dash violently.

"Back off, AJ. I'm just doing detective work here...". Rainbow Dash stopped for a moment as she thought about how cool she would look with a smoking pipe right now...even though she didn't smoke. "You don't think somepony, like the Black Ale family, did this to knock you out of the Cider Competition for the Equestia Festival this year, do you?", Rainbow Dash asked, accusing the family that had the largest grudge against Sweet Apple Acres.

"Dag nabbit!", Apple Jack cursed. "Them Black Ale's been sore since we took first fer the past five years. It's no wonder thaid do something like this."

Rainbow Dash pointed her hoof at stamped insignia on the top of of the corner. "Wait, I know that symbol."

Apple Jack gave Rainbow Dash a hard questioning look.

"Well, I don't know it exactly, but I know where this cage came from. There's only one place I know of where you can buy a cage that Parasprites can't get out of."

Picking the cage back up in her hooves, Rainbow Dash told Apple Jack, "This was the only thing in the trees I could find, but I think I could find out who REALLY put this here." She looked out past Apple Jacks door and said, "I'll have to tell Pinkie Pie to hold to those cupcakes a little longer than I thought she would have to and...CRAP!"

"What is it now, Sugar Cube?" , Apple Jack asked.

"I''ll have to tell Rarity that I'm going to be late at her place too.", Rainbow Dash said as she looked down at the cage in her hooves with disgust. "You guys couldn't have arrived at a better time?"

One of the Parasprites looked at Rainbow Dash with it's large eyes and cooed at her.

"Don't you worry about a thang, Rainbow Dash. Ah'll tell everypony that yer helping me on mah' farm.", Apple Jack promised Rainbow Dash. "Jess don't say mah name unless you absolutely have to at wherever it is yer going."

***

The bell above the door rang as Broker, the merchant pony who sold miscellaneous magical items in Trotsylvania( an unmarked city in every major map of Equestria), was just unboxing a new shipment of books, "Hexes (and how to use them)". Broker looked to the door with a smile, welcoming the familiar friendly face that just entered. "Nora, my dear!", he praised.

Nora, the unicorn who was relieved from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns because she couldn't perform a levitation spell, bowed her head slight with a bent knee and conjured the magical claw hand she used as an alternative to the levitation spell. Nora's magic claw hand did a greeting open palm gesture, saying hello to Broker in sequence with her bow.

"Ah, there's no need to bow, I've told you already.", Broker said, waving but ultimately appreciating the amount respect Nora had for him.

Nora didn't apologize, but she did pick herself back up and asked Broker, "Are those the new books on..."

Broker chuckled as held up and faced the front cover of the book in Nora's direction.

Nora squealed like a filly excited for her first day of school. She reached out for the book with her claw grabbing spell, but Broker had tucked the book under his shoulder, away from and out of reach of Nora's spell.

"Nora..." Broker gave her a stern look. "You know better, or you SHOULD know better, than to take something that doesn't belong to you."

Nora made a scrunched expression and apologized quickly. "S-sorry, I just got a little over excited."

The book reappeared back from underneath Broker's shoulder. "It's understandable but completely intolerable."

Nora's ears flopped down as she showed how disappointed in herself she was with a large pouting lip. "C-can I still have the book though?"

Broker saw that Nora had learned her lesson and smiled back at her. "Of course you can, but that's not all you're here for is there?"

A quick reminder in her head told Nora she needed to get a lot of other things she had forgotten to write down. "Yes!" Looking around the shop, Nora knew she'd remember what she was supposed to grab if she saw it. In the middle of a shelf was a green glass tube filled with a potion Nimbus needed for his heart.

Nora pointed at the very green glass tube and said, "I need three of those for this month ...and" Nora clicked open her side saddle and withdrew the magic lock ball Nimbus had asked her to open a few weeks ago. "...if you could open this for me?"

Magic lock balls could be easily open if somepony knew the password need, or if a unicorn had a high enough locksmithing skill. Another way of opening them was using a "skeleton key" that only Broker sold under the table.

There were no windows large enough inside Broker's shop for somepony to see him reaching  behind one of the shelves and opening a safe full of the skeleton keys he had hidden. He took the magic lock ball from Nora and began to enter the key inside of magic lock ball. "Now what's supposed to be in here?", Broker asked. He usually asked other ponies what was inside of the balls before opening them, but he trusted Nora enough to feel safe with opening it.

"I'm not too sure.", Nora admitted, making Broker blame his hindsight for not asking earlier. "A friend of mine...found it in a cave and got ambushed by some mercenaries after the same thing." Nora lied for the sake of Broker opening the magic lock ball for her. If she had told him that there was even a possibility of a Fellowship wand being inside, he would first be down right upset with her for not staying away from the wands like he told her to,  and second refuse all transactions with her for as long as he seemed fit.

"Trotting Talon?", Broker asked, jumping to the conclusion that Nora was trying to bring Trotting Talon to justice again. The ball broke open as Broker turned the key. Lying flat inside the now flattened out ball was a wand that casted a yellow/golden glow to it. The handle was of strong wood carved into flames with a carved sun at the tip and the same yellow/gold glow in the middle of it.

Several items of fortunately no value fell and shattered from the shelf Broker had backed once he recognized the wand. Nora, on the other hoof, had a completely opposite reaction. She was absolutely glowing with excitement. This was the second wand she had come across in the past five years.

Reaching into her seemingly bottomless saddle bag, Nora pulled out a soft and cuddly Ursa Major plush toy on Broker's trading counter. "Knowledge", Nora called to the toy. "I found another one."

"Another one?!", the toy glowed with each word he spoke. Standing up on his squishy cotton filled legs, Knowledge stood up and picked up the wand laying on table.

When Nora found Knowledge as a book, she thought his appearance was a little...disturbing. So in exchange for future guidance and knowledge of the Fellowship Wands, Knowledge told Nora of a spell she could use to give him a new body, thus donning him with his current Ursa Major plush toy look.

"Ohh! This is the Solaris Wand. Very powerful indeed, but of course you know, Nora, you need all six wands in order to fully activate them. With your progress though, you should have them in no time!" Knowledge was more than happy to congratulate Nora on her find.

Shaking his hooves and nearly unintentionally knocking Knowledge off the counter, Broker asked Nora, "No! No wands in my shop. I don't even know who else knows about- those ponies who were after it know you have that!" Broker picked up Knowledge and roughly shoved him back into Nora's saddle, bending his legs backwards.

Before reaching the door, Broker was nice enough to give Nora her book and medicine for Nimbus's heart. He pushed on Nora's back as hard as he could but Nora had stretched out her legs and completely blocked the exit with her body. "Broker, it wasn't Trotting Talon. It was just somepony named Talitha."

"TALITHA?!", Broker shouted in fear, quickly slapping his hooves over his mouth. "She's even worse than the entirety of Trotting Talon! Get out, get out, get out!"

Finally finding the strength within him, Broker was able to push Nora out the door and into the streets where  Rainbow Dash was desperately waiting to walk inside.

Rainbow Dash walked around the fallen Nora and her stuffed  talking Ursa Major toy that popped out of her saddle bag yelling, "How rude!"

The door was shut in Rainbow Dash's face, hitting the very tip of her muzzle. She backed up and rubbed the stricken area. "Hey, what gives?"

Behind his mail slot, Broker's eyes appeared and apologized to Rainbow Dash, "Sorry, we're not open today. Come back never. Good bye." Broker disappeared behind his door and a series of locking and chain sounds were followed right after.

"Oh, come on!" ,Rainbow Dash shouted at the door. "I came all this way from Ponyville and you decide to close early?!" She began to throw her shoulder into the door after setting the cage full of Parasprites down.

Still lying on the floor, Nora looked face to face with one of the Parasprites inside the cage. He smiled back at her after she made a disgusted sound at his revolting sight. Nora looked up at Rainbow Dash, not realizing it was her until she looked at her, and gasped at her sight. It was fortunate for Nimbus that Nora had came to Broker instead of himself.

She knew exactly who Rainbow Dash was, even though she had personally met her. She didn't need to though, Nimbus talked about her enough times for Nora to instantly recognize her by her description. There was no mistaking her unique mane and cutie mark.

Rainbow Dash could see that Nora was staring at her rather hard and with great interest. Intentionally avoiding why Nora was staring at her so hard, Rainbow Dash asked her, "What were you here for?"

Not hearing Rainbow Dash's question, and too focused on the Parasprites in front of her, Nora asked Rainbow Dash a question of her own, "Where did you get this cage at?"

"I didn't.", Rainbow Dash answered, picking up the cage and looking to see how much time she had on the timer. "I found this in my friend's tree. I know it came from this shop because of the symbol on top." Rainbow Dash pointed to the insignia on the cage that matched exactly to the same one on Broker's shop window. "I know somepony put it there as a trap, and I'm trying to find out who.

"I thought coming to the store whoever bought it from would be a good idea to start." , Rainbow Dash said right as she caught a glimpse of Broker peering through the mail slot again, eaves dropping on her conversation. He gasped loudly and hid back behind the door before Rainbow Dash could try to poke his eyes out.

No doubt, Nora had a pretty good idea of who put it there, the same guys Nimbus went after a few weeks ago. Being a, and the only, qualified detective from Ponyville to Canterlot, Nora leaked info about the money sharks she had been a close eye on for some time. They mainly hitting smaller farms or newly born family businesses in the beginning, but they'd never hit anything big like Sweet Apple Acres. If Rainbow Dash had the Parasprites in the tree today, then that meant somepony put it there as of last night or early this morning. The money sharks always planned their operations within twenty-four hours, making them near impossible to track until there was already a victim.

This now meant that Nimbus didn't take care of all of them like he told Nora he did. It was logical to determine either Say-So had survived the fall and recruited new members, or Evening Primrose wasn't as reformed as Nimbus said she was. Nora cursed at herself for taking Nimbus's word so boldly and not confirming the information herself.

After hearing Nora mumble some words to herself, Rainbow Dash grew incredibly concerned with Nora's silence and asked, "You okay? You're acting really weird."

Nora explained herself to Rainbow Dash about how she was a detective and knew exactly who put the Parasprites there.

"Let's go find them then!" Rainbow Dash pounded her left hoof in her right, backing up her fighting words with action.

Nora shook her head at her. "It's not that easy, I have to actually catch them in the act in order to take any action, no matter how much evidence there is..." She bowed her head for how flawed the system was. "It's the law. My hooves are tied."

Setting the timer in the cage back to an hour, Rainbow Dash set the Parasprites right next to Broker's entrance and left them there as she started to walk away from the shop with Nora. "Isn't there anypony doing something about it?" , she asked.

Laughing, thinking of how Nimbus would react if she told him she told Rainbow Dash he was Dark Wing, Nora amusingly asked Rainbow Dash, "You don't read the Equestria Daily much do you?" Nora looked around to see if anypony was within earshot of their conversation before moving forward with it. "Look, I know somepony who can help you and your friend, but it has to be completely discreet."

Rainbow Dash's wing extended out between her and Nora as she increased her distance away from her. "This isn't somepony crazy is it? I don't need Applejack yelling at me for bringing a complete stranger on her farm."

"No, no, don't worry about that. She'll just be watching and patrolling your farm while everypony else is away, you won't even know she's there. Completely discreet."

Rainbow Dash chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, mulling over wether or not she should trust Nora or her "friend". Nora seemed like a pretty straight trust worthy pony, but her friend....Rainbow Dash didn't know what to make of her. Somepony going around Applejack's farm completely unnoticed? Apple Jack sure could use the help, but she wouldn't go out of her way to go and get it.

"Okay", Rainbow Dash gave her answer to Nora. "But just for a week. If Applejack finds out..."

"Trust me.", Nora reassured Rainbow Dash. "Nopony, but a hoof full of ponies even know my friend exist. They're really good at hiding." If Nimbus could hide from his closest friend for five years, with her actively searching for him here and there, nopony could even find him in an empty room.

***

"I can see you hiding behind the curtains, Nimbus", Sky Forge said as she flew into Nimbus's window.

A shuffling sound came from behind the curtain as Nimbus shifted around inside. "Oh, nopony here. Jus' the cleaning mare. You go now.", Nimbus said, using his stereotypical maid voice.

"You're not fooling anypony, I know it's you.",Sky Forge said. She tried to pull the curtain off Nimbus but he pulled away from her and tucked it around himself. A small gasp came from behind Sky Forge when the door to Nimbus's room quickly opened and closed.

Curiosity was now on Sky Forge's mind, wondering what Nimbus was hiding from her. "What did you do, and who did you bring home?"

"Bring home?!", Nimbus cried defensively behind the curtain. "She basically followed me here."

"She?!" Sky Forge grew angry and raised her voice at Nimbus. "THIS IS A ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT! YOU CAN'T HAVE SOMEPONYELSE STAYING HERE!"

Finally revealing himself to Sky Forge, Nimbus pulled the curtain back. "She really needs the help. I couldn't just leave her." Nimbus had a black eye and a large cut, not deep enough to scar over, over his nose.

Frightened at the sight, Sky Forge quickly asked, "What happened to you?"

"Funny story really.", Nimbus said, but looking at Sky Forge's concerned expression, maybe it wasn't the time to amuse her.

"Amuse me.", Sky Forge said, crossing her hooves across her chest after taking a seat on the floor.

Or Perhaps she was.

Nimbus scratched the back of his head, bringing his hoof back in front of him covered in his own blood. "Maybe it's better if I showed you." Nimbus limped his way towards his room and lightly pushed the door open after twisting the knob with his wing. He poked his inside the gap barely large enough for him to fit between the door and the frame. "It's okay. We can trust her."

As soon as Nimbus widened the door open, small fragile creature slowly walked out of Nimbus's room, a Bat Pony. Her facial features were as weak as her fangs were sharp, and her legs were shaking so much it looked like they were going to give out from underneath her anytime now.

Lost for words, Sky Forge didn't know which question to ask first except, "What...in the...freaking name of Tartarus are you doing with her, Nimbus?!"

The Bat Pony flinched and dropped her ears lower than they already were and hid behind Nimbus for safety from Sky Forge.

"It's....well it's actually pretty easy to explain.", Nimbus said before stepping to the side to reveal the Bat Pony to Sky Forge again. "Remember those illegal fish traders Nora was talking about?"

"I'm listening..." Sky Forge vaguely said, urging Nimbus to continue without any interruptions.

"Weeeellll, for staters, those fisher ponies are a lot stronger than they look. They're out of shape but they now how to turn any fishing pole into a deadlier weapon than a sword." Nimbus pointed to the back of his head as part of the result. "After I finished knocking them on their butts and cuffing them to the side of the boat, I heard a crying noise.

"It wasn't a child. I've been to too many infirmaries to figure that out." Nimbus swiped at the dry tear underneath his eye after remembering telling all the colts and fillies who died in hospitals to "hang in there."

Continuing on, Nimbus explained how he got the Bat Pony, "As you probably guessed, it was Flower Butt here." Nimbus pointed to the Bat Pony crouched and hiding behind him. "That's what I decided to call her since she's got a crown made of flowers for a cutie mark."

It was perfectly clear to Sky Forge now why Rainbow Dash used to slap and punch Nimbus around from time to time. "... she doesn't talk?", Sky Forge asked, holding back the comment she wanted to make about the suggestive name Nimbus gave Flower Butt.

"Not yet.", Nimbus answered. "I don't know what she was doing down below the ship with all the food and stuff, but she doesn't like it when you ask, so I didn't pry any further."

"I still don't understand why you took her along with you." Sky Forge said. She stretched her neck out to get a better look at Flower Butt, but she hid to the other side of Nimbus once she saw Sky Forge peering over. Giving up, Sky Forge let Flower Butt continue to hide until she was more comfortable.

Nimbus spread out his wings to his side and turned them long ways so Flower Butt had more room to hide. "and leave her on that ship? Yeah, right! Also, look at how cute she is...", Nimbus turned his head around to smile at Flower Butt, but she had already ran back inside Nimbus's room before he made the generous compliment about her.

"Oh, and I'm letting her sleep in my room."

"YOU'RE SLEEPING WITH HER?!" , Sky Forge raged at Nimbus.

Completely offended by Sky Forge's accusation, Nimbus put his wings to his hips and used a silly voice to say, "Do you really think I'd save a damsel in distress just so I could get her in my bed?"

Sky Forge answered the question with a disappointed stare at Nimbus.

"Well, I'm not!", Nimbus said in full seriousness. Not from lack of trying if I'm going to be completely honest with myself... Nimbus admitted internally.

A quick well coordinated secret knock at Nimbus's door with the sound of somepony panting outside the door.

"Just jump in through the window, Nora, he left it open again." Sky Forge yelled to Nora from inside Nimbus's apartment.

Hopping, skipping, and jumping into Nimbus's apartment from the balcony window, Nora breathed heavily, "What's...the point of...having a secret knock if you're-"

"Just going to leave your window open?", Sky Forge finished for Nora as she paused to take a breath.

Nora leaned against Sky Forge for a moment and used the time to catch her breath by breathing in through her nose and out her mouth. Once she was finally able to talk without gasping for air, Nora pointed at Nimbus with her claw spell and said, "Do I have a job for you!"

Never before had Nora been excited to assign Nimbus with a task, at least not since she told him where he could find one of the Trotting Talon headquarters he eventually shutdown with her help. "You are going to watch over Sweet Apple Acres tonight!"

"....yay?", Nimbus faked is enthusiasm with very little effort. "What's so spe-"

"Tonight?!" Sky Forge butted into Nora and Nimbus's conversation. "H-he can't go tonight, he's got plans!"

"I do?", Nimbus looked to his calender hanging on the wall behind him to see what appointment he could have forgotten about. "It's not Nightmare Night is it?"

"I apologize, Sky Forge." Nora picked up Sky Forge with the ease of her claw grabbing spell. The claw extended from Nora's horn and wrapped a strong grip around Sky Forge's entire body, shutting her wings down to her back and turning her upside down. "But this is a confidential meeting. Dark Wing members only. Key Word: Confidential."

Sky Forge reached her hooves out for Nora and tried to kick her but only ended up looking like a turtle tipped over on it's shell. "I knew he was Dark Wing before he even got the mask! I'm the one who made it!"

"And I'm the one who put the spell on it!", Nora pointed a second pointy claw in Sky Forge's face. "I tell him all the places to go to and who he needs to go after. What do you do?"

"I''m the one who gave him his secret lair!"

Nora turned Sky Forge right side up and had her claw spell face Sky Forge to Nimbus's "secret lair". "You mean his unused kitchen?" A small pile of over piled stack of pots fell over and crashed from the small breeze blowing through the window. There was nothing more or secret in the kitchen except for a table that held Nimbus's Dark Wing mask next to bottle of half used ketchup.

"....a work in progress." Sky Forge was still determined to prove that she was as official a member of Dark Wing as Nora was. "If I'm leaving, then Nimbus's new mare friend has to leave."

"New mare friend?!" Nora dropped Sky Forge and crossed both her claws in front of her, expecting an immediate explanation from Nimbus.

After falling onto the floor face first, Sky Forge picked herself up with a wing on her head and standing in a dizzy posture. "Good point, he never had an old one."

"Where IS this new mare friend of yours?" Nora asked Nimbus, steeping closer to him with her both her magical spell claws out and aimed at Nimbus, pinning him into a corner.

Opening the door slowly as possible, Flower Butt poked her head out of Nimbus's room and weakly waved at Nora with a timid face.

Insulting Nimbus in his face, Nora told him, "You're a real pig, you know that? Don't even know her for a full day and you're sleeping with her."

Nimbus's hooves were thrown out in front of him for the same accusation Sky Forge pinned on him earlier. "Do you two honestly believe I'm that much of a sleaze bag?"

Recovering from her quick headache, Sky Forge exchanged glances with Nora, they both looked towards Flower Butt to make a quick judgment call on her as well, but Flower Butt had already hid back into Nimbus's room and dove into his closet after Nora had accused Nimbus of sleeping with her.

"See? Now look what you done. How am I supposed to help her if you two are going to scare her." Nimbus pushed Nora's spell claws to the side with a strong wave of his wings. He tried to open his door back up but Flower Butt had locked it from inside the room to prevent anypony from coming in.

"You two are legit the worst friends I have.", Nimbus said to Nora and Sky Forge.

"We're the only friends you who have..." , Nora shot back at Nimbus. "Key Word: Only", Nora said twice to remind him.

Sky Forge now took the chance to throw in the plans she had for Nimbus later tonight before Nora cut between her. "Because you never go out, Nimbus, and speaking of that, tonight you're going to Club Dub and try to find somepony to talk to...." Sky Forge looked back to the door that Flower Butt had locked herself behind. "Preferably somepony who can see in the sun properly.", Sky Forge added.

"Club Dub? I don't know. I really don't feel like going all the way over there just to get out. Plus, what if somepony  sees and recognizes me?", Nimbus asked. Nopony except the old War Veteran Knight, Slash, was looking for him now a days, but Nimbus was making excuses not to go out.

Making a motor sound with her lips, Sky Forge gave Nimbus less room to make excuses. "There's going too many flashing lights for anypony to see you properly."

Nimbus looked to Nora for assistance, but she was riding the same boat as Sky Forge. She thought Nimbus needed to go out just as much as Sky Forge thought so. She concluded she could just report the incident to a Knight and hopefully have them watch Sweet Apple Acres for tonight only.

"Come one, Nimbus, you owe Reverb for getting you a once in a lifetime chance to meet the Wonder Bolts. You even got V.I.P. (very important pony) season tickets to all their races personally from Spitfire!"

"Yeah, but I was Dark Wing when I met them, not Nimbus!"

It was now Nora's turn to argue with Nimbus. "It doesn't matter, you owe Reverb. He always asks when you're going to come over one of these weekends, now's the best time!"

"...Alright, but Flower Butt comes too. She could hang out with Reverb the whole night. I just want her to get comfortable around ponies again."

Nodding and agreeing to the terms, Nora told Nimbus, "Deal."

She leaned over to Sky Forge and whispered, "Who's Flower Butt?"

"Bat Pony", Sky Forge whispered just as quietly back and pointing to Nimbus's locked room.

A quick nod from Nora's head came and she leaned away from Sky Forge. "It's settled then. Nimbus, you're going to Club Dub tonight and you're going to have fun. Key Word:..."

"Enough with the Key Word thing, Nora! I'll go if you promise not to do that all night tonight!", Nimbus put his wings over his ears as he spoke. "It drives me crazy."

Before Nora was even given a chance to agree or disagree, Sky Forge slapped her wing over Nora's mouth and answered "DEAL!" for her. She looked into Nora's eyes and whispered tp her, "I have something really big planned for Nimbus tonight. Don't screw this up for me!"

All that could be heard from Nora behind Sky Forge's wing was a questioned muffle.

***

Rainbow Dash was waiting outside the Carousel Boutique for about twenty minutes until she saw Sky Forge flying in towards her from the direction of downtown Ponyville. From the distance that Rainbow Dash was looking at Sky Forge from, she could tell that Sky Forge must have traveled from a great distance or just not a strong flyer in general. She had never really seen her fly before or too often to have really noticed it before now.

"What's with you?" , Rainbow Dash asked Sky Forge after watching her struggle to control her breathing.

Only a few words at a time could be heard from Sky Forge, "I'm a black....smith! I don't nor...mally fly this far...I didn't think my...hotel was that far away.""

From Rainbow Dash's knowledge, Sky Forge had told her earlier that she was staying in a hotel in Ponyville for the weekend. All the hotels in Ponyville were generally in the same area, in the opposite direction of where Sky Forge had flown from. Sky Forge was definitely planning something with vague details to Rainbow Dash other than just a normal night out to the club.

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash looked to the front door of the Carousel Boutique and sighed, thinking of how Rarity was going to act when she told her she needed to get a dress for tonight. "Let's just get this over with..." Rainbow Dash pushed open the door to the Carousel Boutique shortly hitting somepony on the other side and ringing the customer bell twice.

The first thought that came to Rainbow Dash's mind was that something, not somepony, was in the way. So she head butted the door open and sent the poor soul behind the door flying into one of the many,and fortunately naked,  mannequins Rarity had displayed.

Rarity cheered happily with relief as she saw the two Pegasai enter her shop, only recognizing Rainbow Dash. "Oh good, you're finally here, Rainbow Dash." Rarity's eye shifted to Sky Forge, who was standing over the unidentified pony Rainbow Dash had sent across the other side of the room. "and you brought help!", Rarity was blessed to see she had an extra pair of hooves to help her with Sweetie Belle and her friends.

"Don't worry about her, darling." Rarity said to Sky Forge. "Sew-and-So was going to put those away so nopony would get hurt....ironically." Rarity hid a laugh to quiet for Sew-and-So's ears to hear.

Sky Forge helped and let Sew-and-So pick herself back up by using her wing for added balance.

A cupcake from behind Rarity flew through the air and struck Rainbow Dash in the face, sliding down her face and hitting the floor in of her fore legs. "Looks like you've got your hooves full Rarity, but I don't have too much time to hang around too long." Pulling Sky Forge away from Sew-and-So, dropping her into the pile of mannequins again, Rainbow Dash pushed Sky Forge towards Rarity involuntarily. "but my old friend, Sky Forge, has all the time in the world."

"WHAT?!" Sky Forge tried to scurry away from the room full of children, but Rainbow Dash was surprisingly strong enough to keep her in place with her hooves pushing against Sky Forge's chest.

Rainbow Dash glared at Sky Forge and whispered into her ear, "You're making me wear a dress tonight, you owe me!"

Reuniting Rainbow Dash and Nimbus back together tonight was the only intention Sky Forge had in mind. She technically didn't need to be there for them to talk to each other, as much as she wanted to though. Swallowing hard, Sky Forge agreed, "Okay. You know where Club Dub is, right? I'll be there as soon as I can. Kids don't stay up that late anyways, right?"

***

After getting some assistance from Sew-and-So instead of Rarity made the process of dress fitting a little less painful for Rainbow Dash, only a bit though. Sew-and-So was currently in training under Rarity and had a couple problems fitting an outfit on a live model instead of the mannequins like she practiced on. Unlike the mannequins, Rainbow Dash jumped and yelped when Sew-and-So accidentally stabbed her a few times with the clothes pins.

Creatively, Sew-and-So wasn't as strong as Rarity was, but she compensated for it with how fast she could easily tailor and fit an entire outfit. Within the impressive time frame of just over an hour, Sew-and-So was able to perfectly and tailor one of the pre-made  dresses Rarity had and thought Rainbow Dash looked rather "glowing" in. If Rainbow Dash told Rarity she needed a dress with at least a three days notice, Rarity would have made her a completely fresh and unique design, but with the limited time frame she was given, Rarity settled for having and saving Rainbow Dash's measurements for another time.

Down at Club Dub, Octave, formerly Evening Primrose, had just finished her first recording with Reverb. The club was closed to the public for the next two hours, and Octave walked out the front door after thanking Reverb for the opportunity he had given her and for inviting her back later tonight so she could thank Nimbus personally as well.

"I'll see you tonight!", Octave waved at Reverb just before he bowed and shut the front door behind her. As soon as Octave heard the door click locked, she sighed out of irritation and exhaustion, "Stallions are so easy..." She looked down both sides of the street to look for chairot she was expecting to be waiting for her as soon as she finished.

Yesterday, Octave came across a message from Said-So telling her that he had a gig for her that promisingly tripled what he was previously paying her in a months pay for just a bit of information. More surprised at that fact that Said-So was still alive and had survived both encounters from Dark Wing and Talitha, she wanted to see him for herself.

Flaring her nostrils angrily, Octave said to herself, "Take for Said-So not to be on schedule", thinking nopony was around to hear her, but this was not the case.

Waiting for her in the front of the alley beside Club Dub, a pony hissed behind Octave, "My brother sends his apologies, Ms.Primrose."

Octave jumped and quickly turned 180 degrees to face her pursuer, but she was instantly relieved when she recognized the restraint mask over the pony's muzzle. "Oh, Loony Bin, it's just you.", Evening Primrose glowered. "Said-So got you out of Pen Book's Asylum again?"

The mentally dangerous pony Octave referred to as Loony Bin laughed and smiled behind his mask, "No, I simply asked nicely this time."

The broken blooded chained cuff around Loony Bin's right leg told Evening Primrose that the doctors at Pen Book's must have said, "No."

"Looks like you brought back some jewelry this time.", Evening said, referring to Loony's hoof cuff.

"A parting gift!", Loony chirped, his were nearly sparkling as he said it. "We should really take the time to catch back up for lunch, Ms.Primrose, but my brother has sent me here on official business."

No actual intention in Evening's mind wanted to be anywhere alone with Loony, especially for lunch. The mask over Loony's face was there for a reason, as well as the lock on it. "Said-So wants to know my progress on Dark Wing." Evening walked into the alley behind Loony, making sure his mask was actually locked properly when she walked past him. "Tell your brother I've got a name and face on Dark Wing, as well as engagement with 'her' this evening." The more information Evening withheld from Said-So at the moment, the better the rewards he would bribe her with for more information.

"Excellent!", Loony Bin said excitedly, his voice echoing between the nearly empty space in the alley. "Said-So will be much pleased to hear it himself."

Evening Primrose took one concentrated look at Loony Bin, he was distinctively skinnier than the last time she saw him. Of course that was a result of him not sticking to his usual "diet". A sick thought came to Evening's mind as she remembered Said-So telling her he wanted the true face of Dark Wing, fully intact or not.

"Loony" , Evening addressed formerly, "you said you wanted to catch up. How about tonight? I have somepony in mind you would KILL to have for dinner." Evening worded her sentence carefully for Loony to understand perfectly.

Chapter 2 The first night of many

At exactly ten minutes before the doors opened to Club Dub, Talitha and Sugar Bomb were already standing close to the end of a long line waiting outside the building. Sugar Bomb standing to Talitha's left side, bounced up and down persistently, trying to see over all the ponies in front of her.

"Aaaanndd it's my turn again!" , Sugar Bomb squealed happily while reaching a height high enough to fall and land on top of Talitha's head. Sugar Bomb started to wave her hoof back and forth in front of Talitha's face, her fearless boss/leader, who she discreetly looked up to as a rather strange motherly role model since her own parents were both dead.

Both of Sugar Bomb's parents were well renown lawyers, who helped a lot of ponies escape charges for crimes they believed were too minor for imprisonment. They did everything by the book and did everything they could legally to help their clients. Their last case, a pony, by the name of Flint Rock, was being accused of smuggling illegal explosives and artillery.

At first, Sugar Bombs parents believed the whole thing was a huge misunderstanding since Flint Rock was a simple sales pony who made and sold fire works. However, on a strictly business visit to Flint Rock's home, Sugar Bomb's parents brought the barely born Sugar Bomb along with them, since it was SUPPOSED to be a quick in-and-out visit. Sugar Bomb's mother however found a garage full of all the ingredients anypony would need to create the explosives and artillery Flint Rock was being accused of smuggling.

Sugar Bomb's mother went and told her husband what she saw and claimed they should refuse to help fighting for Flint Rock's innocence. Overhearing that his lawyers were going to report him, Flint Rock locked Sugar Bomb and her parents inside of his home and burned all of his merchandise to make it look like it was an accident.

Sadly, unlike Sugar Bomb, her parents didn't survive the series of explosions that inspired Sugar Bomb to become a demolition expert. Talitha was actually on her way to the very location Sugar Bomb's parents died, to purchase some of the artillery. Seeing Sugar Bomb, who had surprisingly left the burnt home completely untouched, Talitha took her as her own since her smile reminded her of the daughter she once used to have.

Talitha never told Sugar Bomb the truth about her parents, and Sugar Bomb was much too young to ever remember that day correctly.

Sugar Bomb began to knock on the top Talitha's head with one of the tiny hammers she had tucked underneath her ball cap. She called Talitha's name after every three knocks until she got a response from her.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Talitha?" No response. Sugar Bomb stayed persistent.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Talitha?" Same results.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Talit-"

"WHAT THE FLYING SHIT DO YOU WANT, SUGAR BOMB?! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M BUSY TRYING TO IGNORE YOU?!" Talitha snapped at the filly, who immediately shut up.

Choking back on the tears she wanted to let out for Talitha yelling at her for no reason, Sugar Bomb pointed at the front of the line and asked, "Why are we standing in line? It's so long!" Sugar Bomb's face fell when she realized the only reason she could see the door from her distance was because of the neon lights around it.

"When you said we were 'going to a party', I thought you were speaking metaphorically.", Sugar Bomb admitted, adding too quietly for anypony to hear her, "And I'm pretty sure the reader thought that too...."

Moving her eyes from looking up and back towards the front of the line, Talitha growled deeply, agitated by Sugar Bomb's impatience and whining voice, "I did."

"...then why are we in line?"

"Because I like getting a good buzz before I work."

"A buzz!", Sugar Bomb's voice went up two octaves higher when she sang with happiness. "Are we getting a pet bee? Bees are cool! They're like changelings, except they take honey instead of happiness....and nopony likes them.....what exactly are we doing her anyways? I can't go in there. I'm barely old enough to ride the tea cups ride. Ohh, Talitha we should go do that again, but this time without the whole you punching that mime in face part. Remember that, Talitha? You thought he was waving at you but he was just doing his act. And then his clown friend came to help him, but you dodged his foam bat and kicked him in the testi-"

The possibility of somepony seeing Talitha throw Sugar Bomb into a wall were pretty slim, save for the crossed eyed pegasus standing behind them. Unfortunately for Talitha's patience, she needed Sugar Bomb as a distraction. Unlike Talitha, most other ponies would "aww" at the sight of Sugar Bomb doing her Princess Celestia impression. It mainly just consisted of Sugar Bomb drawing a sun over her cutie mark area and praising it like the sun, but adorable none the less.

Talitha was going to use the distraction to sneak into the back area of the club. In her theory, somepony back there, more than likely the DJ/Manager, Reverb, knew the true identity of Dark Wing or could at least point her in the direction of somepony who could. There was no guarantee Talitha's plan would even go through flawlessly, but she didn't want to sit around with her hoof up her ass waiting for Dark Wing to appear back up again. The Club Dub was the only public place Dark Wing had ever made a guest appearance at with an invitation.

A little less than an hour after the doors opened, Talitha and Sugar Bomb arrived at the entrance. Talitha was able to "influence" the bouncer at the door to believe Sugar Bomb was a full grown pony with the curse of dwarfism, and using about an extra twenty pieces of golden bits on top of both her and Sugar Bomb's entry fee.

Talitha lead the way past the bouncer when he unhooked the rope blocking her path to the door. At the door inside, a Unicorn held the door open for Talitha and Sugar Bomb using his magic, bowing at them with smile and holding his hoof out towards Talitha. When Talitha didn't seem to capture what the Unicorn was gesturing for, he asked her, "Ma'am, tip, please?"

"Tip? I'll tip you on your ass if you don't get of my way. The hell would you get a tip for anyways?" Talitha asked, holding up the line behind her.

"A-a tip for holding the door, Ma'am?"

"Holding the door open? Fuck that. I'll open the door myself." Talitha pushed and shoved the underweight Unicorn on to the floor with him landing hard on his flank. "Move, bitch!", Talitha barked and kicked at the fallen Unicorn. He scurried away to safety on the other side of the street full of heavy traffic.

If holding a door lead to a few bits as a tip, Talitha was going to take upon herself to use the money to pay for her drinks. Taking the Unicorn's position of holding the door, Talitha bit down on the back of Sugar Bomb's coat collar and placed her at the front of the door as a door stop. The young couple that had been patiently waiting behind Talitha smiled and thanked her for holding the door open for them. Talitha greeted them both back with a polite "Go fuck yourself" before thrusting her hoof at the young stallion's head when he tried to chest up to her.

Kicking Sugar Bomb into the corner of the door, Talitha said to her, "Stay, I'll get you when I need you", and walked into Club Dub without even so much as asking poor Sugar Bomb if she wanted a glass of water or something.

Ponies came by and dropped their pocket change at Sugar Bomb, mistaking her for being the actual door holder. Accepting her fate, Sugar Bomb shrugged and smiled and waved at each couple and group that tipped her generously.

"Aaaand this is where MY part in this chapter ends. See you in chapter 2, reader!", said Sugar Bomb as she waived good bye.

***

Back inside Club Dub, Nimbus was sitting by himself, wearing an uncomfortable silk tie Nora gave him to wear for tonight. He tugged and adjusted the tie more times than several, failing to make it more bearable to wear. The material rubbed uncomfortably against his bare chest and pulled a couple hairs off his coat on the back of his neck. He pulled and loosened the knot at the bottom of his neck until the knot sat a good inch below his collar line. He leaned back in his chair and exhaled a breath of relief when he was finally able to scratch at the itch where the tie was preventing him to reach.

"Thought I'd never get that stupid thing off...Dressing up is dumb. Seriously, why am I wearing this crap?" Nimbus lifted his hooves up in front of him to look at the white shirt cuffs he was forced to wear with a sports coat. He looked to his right at Flower Butt, who was still holding and slowly stirring at the White Russian Nimbus had bought her a few minutes ago.

"You look cool though.", Nimbus told Flower Butt. The compliment was less than flattering to anyponyelse, but Flower Butt noticed Nimbus's intention and gave him the first smile he'd seen from her.

"Oh, thank Celestia's sweet shinning ass." Nimbus said, before taking his third shot in the part thirty minutes he'd arrived at the club, along with a sip from the unrepeatable name of a green glowing mixed drink the bar tender had recommended for him. "I was beginning to think you couldn't understand me." Nimbus watched as Flower Butt's smile faded away she when stared at the three empty shot glasses.

In an effort to save himself from looking like an alcoholic, Nimbus made the excuse, "I'm not a drinker, really!" Nimbus held his hooves up innocently. Denying the habit he was being accused of, Nimbus's glassy look made a completely opposite argument.

The expression on Flower Butt's face was less than convinced.

"This?" Nimbus pointed to the three empty shot glasses. "I'm just doing this to give myself some courage." He leaned the elbows of his fore legs on the counter top of the bar, looking at the fresh cut he had on his neck and the still visible black eye he had from when he saved Flower Butt the night before, in the reflection of one the clear vodka bottles on the opposite side of the bar.

"I can go to a Trotting Talon base and shut it down without as much as a second thought, but I can't go out in public and talk to a mare.", Nimbus said, not expecting a response, but believing that Flower Butt would listen either way. "It's just that, ever since I left Rainbow Dash, I feel like I've forgotten how to talk to them."

"You jus' gotta spit that game, Bruh!"

Confused on how Flower Butt could talk like that, Nimbus quickly spun on his chair to face her, but came to realize it was Reverb who had really been speaking to him. "Oh, hey, Reverb!" Nimbus greeted the DJ warmly while trying to hide the three shot glasses back behind the bar.

"Bruh", Reverb used the magic fro his horn to levitate Flower Butt's drink away from her and clash it with Nimbus's own drink. "Where's that love at? 'Mere and gimme a hug, Bruh!"

Looking at Reverb's open arms, ready for an embracing hug, Nimbus chuckled and tipped his glass against Reverb's. "No offense, but I'm not much of a hugger."

"Horse shit, gimme a hug, Bruh!" Reverb set down Flower Butt's drink back in front of her and wrapped Nimbus in a wrestler's strength bear hug.

"Whoa, okay okay, you're friendly." Nimbus laughed. He knew Reverb was a really social pony and a true stallion to his word. If there was one stallion Nimbus could open up to about a problem or feel comfortable with, it was Reverb. Nimbus hugged Reverb back and repeated, "You're a really guy, you know that?", but when Reverb started to stroke Nimbus's back, Nimbus's added, "Ooookay! A little too friendly..." Nimbus looked at Flower Butt from over Reverb's shoulder and mouthed the words "Save me!" at her, but only got a small laugh out of her instead of her help.

After nearly breaking Nimbus in half with his impressively strong hug, Reverb finally let go of Nimbus and asked him, "Bruh, when did you start playing in the bat cave?"

Thinking Reverb was comparing Nimbus's Dark Wing persona with that of his favorite comic book hero, Nimbus rose his voice at him, "I'm not Bat Mare, damn it! I'm Dark Wing!"

Reverb leaned away from Nimbus a bit, not knowing why he had gotten so worked up or why he had just screamed his alter ego out in the middle of a public area. Reverb knew who Dark Wing was when he first asked her to appear at his club to meet the Wonder Bolts. He had no idea that a stallion would be the true identity of the mysterious masked vigilante, but he welcomed Nimbus back all the same. Though, Reverb DID throw away all the pictures of Dark Wing he had under his bed once he found it she was really a dude.

"Nah, Bruh. I meant: When did you start dating the Bat Pony?" Reverb leaned his head towards Flower Butt.

"Oh." Nimbus blushed embarrassingly. "I thought you meant-" Nimbus looked all around him to notice the immediate crowd that had surrounded him now. "N-never mind, but uhh I'm not dating her.", Nimbus explained  to Reverb. Catching himself from being misunderstood, Nimbus picked up the volume in his voice and said, "Not that I'm not attracted or anything." , when he faced Flower Butt.

Saving herself from having to hear Reverb ask if she was single, Flower Butt lifted herself out of her seat and took off to the ceiling out of sight from anypony and hung there for the remainder of the night.

"...well, that sucks.", Nimbus said, looking up at the section of the ceiling where Flower Butt had flown off to. "So much for taking her out for a nice evening.'

The word evening lit a light bulb in Reverb's mind, forcing him to make a clicking sound with his tongue when he asked Nimbus, "Bruh, you lookin' to talk to a mare tonight, right? That's what Sky Forge told me."

There was no denying or trying to lie his way out of why he had chosen to come out tonight. It wouldn't be surprising that Sky Forge probably told Reverb to find Nimbus tonight. There was nothing really particular wrong with Sky Forge trying to find friends for Nimbus, he just couldn't wrap his head around why she was being so persistent today with him going out.

"Yeah, actually.", Nimbus said in a low tone, hoping the group of mares in the table behind him didn't hear Reverb asking the previous question over the music.

Unexpectedly, Reverb placed a bit too friendly hoof on Nimbus's shoulder and whispered in a manner that was questionably seductive, "I can help you with that tonight." Reverb's smile was just as uncomfortable as his words were.

Swallowing with fear, Nimbus told Reverb, "I don't think I like where this is going." Nimbus tried to remove the arm around his shoulders in a friendly manner, but Reverb was again maintaining his grip around Nimbus.

"Nah, stupid, not me. I was talking about Octave.", Reverb cleared up for Nimbus but still keeping the hoof on his shoulder with circular rubbing motions.

Not sure if Reverb knew Octave's true identity, Nimbus referred to Evening Primrose by her new name, "Oh, right, her." Even as a changeling, Nimbus thought she was pretty attractive, and to his knowledge she was a reformed criminal. It wouldn't hurt to see where things went with her.

The idea in Nimbus's head were spoken out loud from Reverb's mouth when he whispered in Nimbus's ear, "Plus, she's a changeling. So, she could be whoever you want her to be."

The alcohol was kicking into Nimbus's system and enhancing his level of imagination for his lustful fantasy. Nimbus cleared his throat and fixed his low hanging tie tight back around his neck. "W-where is Ev-Octave anyways?" He hoped that if things did go smoothly with Evening Primrose, she wouldn't bring up anything about what happened in Said-So's place.

Reverb had been keeping his eye on Octave since before he started talking to Nimbus. He picked up Flower Butt's untouched drink and tipped  it in Octave's direction before taking a sip. On nearly the opposite side of the club, Octave could be seen talking to a (rather handsome) stallion in the V.I.P. area.

Nodding generously, Nimbus thanked Reverb and walked his way slowly to Octave, who was sitting as far away from the stallion Unicorn she was intentionally avoiding.

The stallion brushed his shoulder against Octave's wing as he tried for the fourth time tonight to hit on her. " You should really consider yourself lucky that I found YOU."

"uh-huh.", was all Octave had to say to the tan colored Unicorn. Sure, he was blessed with incredibly softer features than any other stallions, and smelt  better than most of them too, but his self-absorbed attitude shut Octave's legs just as fast as when she opened them for him at first glance. "Toledo, right?", Octave asked him.

Toledo took a personal offense to Octave's ignorance of his name. "You have to ask? You should already know who I am before I even walked through the door! I'm the number one fencer in seven different countries, including this one. How could you have not heard of me? I have my own line of mane styling products."

Octave continued to refuse looking at Toledo as she mocked his sport, "Fencing? You mean playing tag with sharpless swords? Yeah, that's a real stallion's sport."

Toledo went to grab Octave's foreleg tightly and pull her close to show her what a "real stallion" was, but Nimbus had reached the V.I.P. area just in time to use his quick hoof-eye coordination to detect the grab and slap Toledo's hoof away from Octave before he could even realize somepony was standing beside him.

"Take a hint, Taquito.", Nimbus warned Toledo, pronouncing his name wrong. He glared and flared his wings at the sword fighting professional he knew absolutely nothing about.

Octave didn't know Nimbus had just stopped Toledo from possibly sexually assaulting her,she was even more surprised that Nimbus was here.

"Nimbus?", Octave asked when all she saw was the back of his head. She had been actively looking for him when she first walked into Club Dub about twenty minutes ago but was easily thrown off her concentration when Toledo had approached her about five minutes into her search.

"I been looking for you all night.", Octave said, intentionally looking at Toledo as she did so.

"You know this-" Toledo looked at the rough marks and brusies all around Nimbus's face that were hidden from Octave's perspective. "Hobo?", Toledo added soon after decided what social group to tag Nimbus in.

"Hobo?", Nimbus repeated. Nimbus padded his chest, knocking loose one of the buttons on his sports coat without noticing. "What about me says: Hobo?"

To answer Nimbus's question, Toledo leaned in to sniff what scent Nimbus had placed on his natural coat. "You're wearing Hatchet antiperspirant, popular and targeted towards the young generation in middle school, which obviously you're not." Toledo grabbed and flipped Nimbus's tie to the other side to see what the brand was on the back. "There's no brand on your tie and it's not even custom." Toledo dropped Nimbus's tie back down to his chest and tilted his head at Nimbus's sports coat. "And the buttons on your coat are old used guitar picks...."

Nimbus rub at the top button guitar pick on his coat. "These have sentimental value, you perfume wearing, transvestite looking, narrow faced, toy sword fighter, prince wannabe, prissy, goggle eyed, hamster mother having, mother fu-"

Toledo charged up a spell and lit up everything in a red glow within a one yard radius, despite the flashing rainbow of lights  dancing all around. "I will not be bullied by a low class pegasus who can't even dress himself much less know the difference between cologne and perfume."

A heavy click was heard behind Toledo when somepony threatened him, "Then perhaps you would appreciate a royal audience with somepony more regal?" A Unicorn with a uniquely styled mane aimed a large caliber handgun at Toledo's back, keeping it perfectly out of sight for anypony else to see.

The Unicorn behind Toledo was completely unrecognizable, but she looked at Nimbus and asked him, "Are you okay, Nimbus?"

Nimbus peered at the strange Unicorn, trying to find out if he could recognize her but there was no face or name he could place on her. How she came to know him was a mystery. Another pony who Sky Forge sent to find Nimbus? "Y-yeah, I'm okay, Ms...." Nimbus waited for her to pronounce her name but wasn't granted his wish.

"You have no knowledge of my name nor who I am, Nimbus." the Unicorn told Nimbus, pressing the gun deeper into Toledo's back when he tried to turn around. There was nopony else inside of the V.I.P. except for the three of them and their area was too far for anypony to see what was going on.

"Right..." Nimbus said, leaning on his wing towards Octave's direction and asking her, "Do YOU know who that is?"

Octave shook her head and looked up when she thought she heard some scratching up on the ceiling above her. There was nothing there when she looked, but one of the over head lights above her went out for a quick second when something or somepony zoomed over it. She tapped on Nimbus's shoulder and whispered, "but I don't think she came alone." Octave wasn't at all aware of the bat pony who was following Nimbus the entire time discretely.

The crawling on the ceiling was just Flower Butt using her bat pony abilities to walk around on the ceiling as she checked up on Nimbus.

"That's just Flower Butt, she's with me.", Nimbus told Octave. Nimbus looked up and mouthed the words Come on down to Flower Butt but got a negative response to his invitation.

"Who?", Octave asked, running the name back in forth in her head, questioning as to why anypony would give their child such a name. She looked up again to see a pair a red glowing eyes staring at the direction of Toledo and the strange unicorn behind him. The eyes shifted to Octave quickly, making Octave look back down at the floor in a small panic.

Toledo growled and pushed his way past Nimbus with Flower Butt hissing quietly at him when he did so. "I don't have the time or patience deal with you and your harem, Nimbus, but it'll be a warm day in hell when I catch you by yourself." Toledo left Nimbus with that threat and left the V.I.P

"I'm not the sharpest box in the crayon, but I thought it was a cold day-" Nimbus started to say to Octave, but she immediately walked ear shot away from him before he could finish his predicable lame joke. Watching Octave move away form him, Nimbus pulled his tie up and farther away form his neck. "Tough crowd."

The strange unicorn from earlier took a stance beside Nimbus and holstered her pistol. "Perhaps if I possessed a more violent personality, I would have enjoyed acquainting that pony's face with a brick."

Nimbus turned his head slowly to the gun-wielding pony and asked her, "I'm sorry, who are you?" He squinted his eyes at her as if it would help him identify her.

The gun wielding pony laughed and introduced herself with a strong pose, "It's no surprise you can not indicate who I am, we have never been socially acquitted." She had a saddle that holstered her large caliber pistol that hid her cutie mark fairly well. "I'm Princess Gunilda, from the land of Makar. Please, do not let my crown-less appearance question my royal title, even though I am half Equestrian."

From the looks of it, Gunilda did have a incredibly clean appearance. Her coat was neatly brushed and her mane was carefully cared in just about every aspect. She took a seat and pushed the piece of paper, with Toledo's name on it, on the floor without thinking twice. "Take a seat, Nimbus. I mean to discuss business with you, then I shall be on my way and allow you to continue with your...."Gunilda looked up at Flower Butt, who was still hanging upside on the ceiling above the three of them, but with her wings concealing now, and then Gunilda looked at Octave, who was standing on Nimbus's left side. "Double date", Gunilda said carefully not too sure if Nimbus was seeing the bat pony above her or the pegasus in front of her.

"I'm not with either one of them.", Nimbus said, instantly biting his tongue once he realized he just said that with Octave within ear shot. He planning on trying to get to know her on a more personal level, but he might have just ruined any and every chance of that happening. Trying to rectify his mistake, Nimbus took his seat and motioned for Octave to take a seat beside him, but she gave him a rude look and trotted off to the V.I.P bathroom with her nose up in the air the entire way there.

Gunilda leaned in over the table and apologized to Nimbus, "If I have become a burden to your night tonight, I apologize in advance."

Nimbus waved a hoof Gunilda. "Don't worry about it." Nimbus looked up at Flower Butt who had poked her head out from under her wings and ducked back behind them when she saw Nimbus looking at her. "I promised someponyelse a nice night out anyways.", Nimbus smiled, looking at Flower Butt shivering with embarrassment.

"Charming.", Gunilda said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I understand you're in possession of an item your co-worker, Nora, had asked you to hold on to."

Now that Nimbus remembered, Nora did tell him to look for a visitor tonight, but he had thought Nora was trying to hint that she got a pony for him to hook up with. Obviously, this is not what has happened.

"She said, and I quote, Keyword: Should have it, unquote. ", Gunilda added. She unfastened one of the many pockets on her saddle bag and dropped a small bag of silver coins, which were the common currency in Makar. The coins were dramatically much larger and heavier than the bits in Equestria and definitely held much more value due to the quantity of silver in each coin.

Nimbus looked at the bag of coins and reached into his coat pocket to retrieve the wand he had. He slid it across the table to have Gunilda grab it with her magic before it got half way across. "It is a good idea that you're more reasonable to deal with than your friend, Nora.", Gunilda said, pocketing the wand into her bag.

Before grabbing the bag in both hooves, Nimbus stopped and asked, "Why, what did Nora do?"

Gunilda slid out of the booth and shrugged her saddle bags further up on her shoulders. "She refused to allow me to purchase the wand from her and asked me what my intentions were and how I found out she had one."

Nimbus glided across from his side of the booth and stood in Gunilda's way of her only exit, except for turning around and going into the Mare's bathroom. "Uuumm, I usually leave all the questions to her, but how did you know we had a wand?", Nimbus was watching the position of Gunilda's pistol as he asked.

A small glow of magic surrounded the grip of the gun when Gunilda admitted, "You have been a much more generous audience than your accomplice, so I will tell you. Broker informed me Nora had one and did not want to see her getting herself in trouble in case the pony known as Talitha got a hold of her first."

The music in the club seemed to drastically die down at the mention of Talitha's name again. "What kind of a threat IS Talitha?", Nimbus asked Gunilda. "Just out of curiosity." Nimbus had asked Nora to do some digging on her and see what they could learn about Talitha, but she came up with nothing.

The smile Gunilda gave Nimbus would have have been pleasant if it wasn't for the words that followed right after them, "You mean other than the fact she has been watching you since you started talking to me?"

Sweat dripped down Nimbus's neck as he was too afraid to turn back around to see if Gunilda was telling the truth. There was no possible way she could have known he was coming here tonight, Nimbus didn't even know he was coming here tonight until this afternoon. Even if this was a convenience that she was here the same time he was, why would she possibly be looking directly at him other than all the other ponies in this place? Could she have known that he was Dark Wing? If she did, how?

"Do not worry.", Gunilda reassured Nimbus. "I' will stand by if she decides to approach you. You are-", Gunilda eyed Nimbus up and down before kissing her hoof and placing it on his cheek. "Pleasant company." Gunilda walked past and left Nimbus staring forward blankly, whipping him in the face her soft tail. "I will be on the dance floor if you wish to join me.", Gunilda offered before she disappeared into the crowd.

Nimbus stayed in the same frozen stance from when he found out Talitha was staring at him, but for an entire different reason this time now. The threat of Talitha was no longer on his mind when he had a bat pony up above and a gun wielding Unicorn on the ground covering his six. Seeing his options tonight, Nimbus began to weigh them. "Mysterious mute bat pony." Nimbus looked up at the ceiling where Flower Butt was hanging. "Female changeling." Nimbus changed his sight to the Mare's bathroom that Octave had ran and hid into. "or possible Unicorn Princess." Nimbus looked to the dance floor where Gunilda was dropping and lending her saddle bags to one of the security guards to carry for her.

This had been Nimbus's first night out in a LONG time and, needless to say, his chances with any of the poni-creatures he just named were pretty fair to good. Nimbus looked at the mirror in the booth he was sitting at in the V.I.P. and slicked his mane back. "Sky Forge was right, I SHOULD get out more often."

On the opposite side of the club, Rainbow Dash was sitting in the same seat Nimbus had left just moments ago. Within a few seconds of her arrival, she already had three ponies surrounding her asking if they could buy her a drink even right after they just watched her purchase her first one.

"I'm just waiting for a friend of mine." Rainbow Dash admitted. She liked getting attention more than any other pony could possibly endure, but their was nothing enjoyable about having three stallions who reeked of alcohol and only interest was to take her back to their place or nearby hotel for reasons that didn't need an explanation.

"I could be your new friend." , one of the stallions offered to Rainbow Dash, massaging her shoulders behind her, only to have them shoved off with a flare from Rainbow Dash's wings.

"With as much offense as I could make this sound, I want nothing to do with either one of you.", Rainbow Dash said to all three of the stallions without turning around in her chair.

The same stallion who was massaging Rainbow Dash's shoulders earlier leaned on the counter and began to rub her foreleg but immediately got his hoof thrown off when Rainbow Dash turned around and elbowed him in the face. "I said: Beat it!" Rainbow Dash reminded him while looking at his friends with the same threatening look.

"Listen, girly-" The stallion said to Rainbow Dash, but he didn't get to finish his sentence when he got grabbed and thrown to floor by Talitha who had switched her view from Nimbus to Rainbow Dash after hearing her yelling.

"No, you listen here, bitch." , Talitha barked at the down horse. The red paint markings underneath her eyes were beginning to melt, making it look like she was crying blood and giving her a scary image in every colorful flash of lights that shined on her. "If you're looking for action tonight, I got it right here." Talitha made a challenging pat across her chest with her strong hoof.

The stallion looked at Talitha's large size and picked himself up, looking like a frail puppy in the rain. He left with his friends behind him and said nothing to Talitha. One of the other stallions stayed back to stare Talitha down, but he quickly ran off towards his friends with his tail between his legs when Talitha growled and took a powerful heavy step towards him.

There was no telling what the stallions would have done if Talitha hadn't gone out of her way to help, and Rainbow Dash didn't care why she did, she was just thankful for it. Rainbow Dash probably would have easily taken care of the stallions herself if it wasn't for the stupid dress she was wearing tonight, limiting her aerodynamic capabilities. She was a black belt in karate after all, as well as a instructor. Looking at Talitha when she looked over her shoulder, Rainbow Dash said, "Thanks".

Talitha turned around and went back to her seat without addressing Rainbow Dash back or introducing herself.

"What was that all about?", Sky Forge asked Rainbow Dash, coming out of nowhere.

Rainbow Dash jumped up out of her seat and got one end of her dress stuck on the corner of the chair she was sitting in. The dress pulled her down and would have tipped her over but Sky Forge caught Rainbow Dash's chair before she could fall.

After straightening herself back up on her chair, Rainbow Dash told Sky Forge, "It was just some stallions giving me trouble, and I totally would have dealt with them myself, but that strange-" Rainbow Dash took another look at Talitha. "I think she's a mare, came over and helped me. It's all cool though."

"By help you, do you mean: did all the work for you?", Sky Forge teased, pulling on the front of Rainbow Dash's dress to expose a bit of what Rainbow Dash was hiding. Rainbow Dash didn't bother fixing it though, she was trying to get attention after all, but attracting the wrong kind.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. How was helping Rarity with her sisters party?"

Sky Forge smiled and rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash's question. "Oh, it wasn't all that bad. I mean I hate and can't absolutely stand little kids now, and I might stab myself in the stomach if I ever get pregnant, but other than that, it wasn't so bad."

Rainbow Dash laughed and went back to drinking the cider she had bought and hadn't had time to drink from yet. The liquid was warm to her lips already when she drank, but still refreshing none the less.

"Any luck yet?", Sky Forge asked, looking around for Nimbus to see if he had shown up yet. She found him standing by himself in the V.I.P. area not too long after. He wasn't very far to not recognize, which meant Rainbow Dash hadn't seen him yet or vice versa.

"Luck with what?", Rainbow Dash asked. She knew exactly what Sky Forge was asking about but decided to play naive to see how and why she was persistent with her coming out tonight.

"You know...A little wink wink jab jab.", Sky Forge said, blinking both her eyes and tapping on Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

Rainbow Dash brushed off Sky Forge's hoof off her softly with her opposite wing. "I get the feeling that you don't understand the concept of winking and/or jabbing."

"You need somepony to play around with, Rainbow Dash.". Sky Forge began to fidget Rainbow Dash's dress again, loosening the back a bit and lowering the shoulder straps down some.

"...are you trying to get me laid?", Rainbow Dash asked. Sky Forges intentions were completely unreadable. Rainbow Dash tried to fix the straps on her dress and everything else Sky Forge was messing with, but Sky Forge would just change something else on the dress every time Rainbow Dash fixed it.

"Don't you want to?", Sky Forge countered with a question of her own. "Now, come on, what kind of stallion are you into?"

It had been some time since Rainbow Dash had really talked a stallion much less get really personal with one. Finding somepony interested in her wouldn't be that hard, considering she got hit on as soon as she sat down. "I really don't have a preference. I guess as long as he's a pegasus, so I don't piss my mom off. Oh!" Rainbow Dash couldn't forget the most important detail of all. "And he has to be cool! Like, really cool!"

Finding a pony with Rainbow Dash's standards wouldn't be hard to find at all. Sky Forge thought she could have taken Rainbow Dash to a farmers market and find her somepony there, but farmer markets weren't really all that "cool".

"Okay. Pegasus. Cool. Hmm..." Sky Forge already was going to reunite Nimbus with Rainbow Dash, but she was going to play innocent and act like she didn't know Nimbus had been there the whole time. "Well, I'm no expert, but I think you should raise your standards a little higher. Maybe somepony in the V.I.P. area?", Sky Forge urged Rainbow Dash to look over in that specific area.

Falling into Sky Forge's trap and looking to the V.I.P. area of the already V.I.P. party, Rainbow Dash didn't see anypony that stood out to her. "There's not really anypony there..."

"Look a little longer and harder. Long. Hard. and Deep."

Rainbow Dash assumed Sky Forge's sexual reference was a little intended, but waved it off. "I seriously don't see anypony there interesting." She stated again. "There's just some ponies in a group, but they're all with somepony already."

Sky Forge looked to the V.I.P. as well and looked for Nimbus but he had disappeared completely from the spot she last saw him. "W-where did he go?"

"Where did who go?"

"Ni-...somepony I had my eye on.", Sky Forge corrected herself by biting her tongue figuratively, but Rainbow Dash caught on to the name as quickly as she could fly.

"Nimbus?!", Rainbow Dash's interest perked immediately. Now everything was making sense to her. Sky Forge's persistent push towards tonight, dressing her up, the sexual references....Sweet Celestia, the sexual references!

"You're trying to hook up me and Nimbus?!", Rainbow Dash screamed at Sky Forge. Sky Forge cringed and ducked her head between her shoulders. "He's like a brother to me! I can't do that!"

"Oh, shut up, squeaker.", Sky Forge shot back at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash cheeks blushed red with embarrassment and anger. Embarrassed because Nimbus told Sky Forge about her "squeaking", and angry because Nimbus told Sky Forge about her "squeaking".

"Yeah, I know about the squeaking and what happened in your guy's old club house.", Sky Forge made a "shame on you" gesture to Rainbow Dash as she confessed about Nimbus and Rainbow Dash's little secret. "Like a brother, my tail. By the way, you two are nasty."

Rainbow Dash sat back down calmly and looked straight towards the mug in front of her, it was still fairly full and quite warmer than the last time she drank. She chugged the mug down to the very last drop, despite how distasteful it was. After wiping the foam of the cider off her upper lip, Rainbow Dash dropped another secret she knew Nimbus didn't tell Sky Forge,  "Did you Nimbus tell he cried for about thirty minutes afterwards?"

The bass in the club dropped low the same exact time Rainbow Dash's patience did. "Why you didn't you tell me he was here?"

"I really wanted to surprise the two of you, and I thought you would be really happy to see him!" Sky Forge defended herself.

"I am happy to see him again! I'm going to even happier when my hoof is kicking his-!" The last word from Rainbow Dash went unheard as the bass from the song dropped again.

Sky Forge dropped her head into her hooves. "This isn't what I wanted to happen at all. I made plans and everything."

It was clear that Sky Forge was feeling guilty for making Rainbow Dash angry. "It's not your fault. I'm not even THAT mad. I'm just...shocked to hear Nimbus is here.", Rainbow Dash said as she tried to make Sky Forge feel a little less guilty. She knew Sky Forge's heart was in the right place, but she went about the whole thing the wrong way.

"It's been five years since I've seen him and-" Rainbow Dash fiddled her mug between her hooves and rolled it around on it's bottom edge , "I don't know, I'm just..." Rainbow Dash shrugged and mumbled something Sky Forge couldn't hear over the music again.

"You don't know and what?", Sky Forge asked Rainbow Dash to repeat herself by screaming over the music.

"I don't know", Rainbow Dash shrugged again the same as before. "I'm just a little...", and just like last time, Sky Forge couldn't understand Rainbow Dash over the loud bass playing in club.

"You're what?", Sky Forge screamed. She thought what she heard was Rainbow Dash admitting she was nervous, but that couldn't be right, at least not until she heard Rainbow Dash say it much clearer the third time.

"I'm nervous, okay?!", Rainbow Dash pulled at the dress she was wearing and pointed to it. "I mean, look at me! I look like a skank! "

"You're in a club trying to get some, that's what you're supposed to look like.",Sky Forge laughed and hollered. "I can't believe it, the awesome, fearless Rainbow Dash is scared to talk to somepony!"

"This isn't funny!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "I look stupid. Seriously, why is there even a cleavage cut in this dumb thing? I have nothing there." Rainbow Dash began to pull and bite at the dress, ripping and pulling the seams apart.

Sky Forge fought with Rainbow Dash to keep the dress on. "Stop it! It's a rental!" Sky Forge looked around and saw all the ponies, stallions and a few mares, looking and jaw dropping at the sight of Rainbow Dash stripping off her clothes. "You're making a scene!"

Rainbow Dash kicked Sky Forge off and threw the dress over her face as she breathed freedom from the garment. "You like it so much, you wear it. I'm looking for Nimbus how I want to." She dove off her chair and hovered above the crowd. She searched the large crowd in front of her first but saw no sign of Nimbus. She looked to the dance floor to quickly see Nimbus in the middle of it dancing with a Unicorn.

"Who in the flying hoof in that?", Rainbow Dash yelled with flaring nostrils as she zoomed and dove towards the dance floor and behind Nimbus.

Nimbus was too busy looking at his hooves to notice or have felt the air behind him when Rainbow Dash landed. He wasn't such a great dancer when it came to dubstep, or any music in general. The moves Nimbus was throwing at Gunilda made her stop dancing a long time ago, giving her the clear view of Rainbow Dash as soon as she landed.

Using a sinister smile, Rainbow Dash looked at Gunilda and asked her, "Mind if I take this dance?"

A second thought never crossed Gunilda's mind as she pushed Nimbus into Rainbow Dash with her magic. "He's all yours. Take him."

Nimbus's face landed into Rainbow Dash's chest with his mouth fully open. He quickly pushed himself back up and apologized to her before he realized who he just motor boated. The music went deaf to him as he stared into the familiar face of his first real friend he ever had. It was like hitting the lottery after his first try, he had to blink twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Nimbus choked as he tried to say hi but ended up saying "Hyack" instead.

Rainbow Dash didn't say anything and just continued to stare at Nimbus with a half-smile. She enjoyed watching the now full grown Pegasus she knew through the majority of her childhood freak out and stammer on every word he tried to properly pronounce.

Nimbus hadn't changed too much since she last saw him, but he was no colt anymore. He face was stronger, his mane was just as long if not longer than her's, his shoulders were impressively broader, a sign of him working out still. The feature that stood out the most about him was the bruises and single cut underneath his eye. It reminded Rainbow Dash why they were friends, Nimbus wasn't scared of pain, or at least refused to show he was.

Finally, after about three attempts to construct a sensible sentence, Nimbus was able to say, "How did you find me?"

Shaking her head, Rainbow Dash answered, "A little bird told me."

"Gilda?", Nimbus asked. He hadn't seen Gilda just as long as he hadn't seen Rainbow Dash. "How did she know where I was?"

Smacking Nimbus upside the side of his head, Rainbow Dash simultaneously said, "NO, DUMBASS! I'M SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY."

The crowd that were originally surrounding Nimbus and Gunilda, to watch them dance, now  gasped deeply when they all bared witness to Rainbow Dash striking Nimbus in the middle of the dance floor.

No real harm came to Nimbus though, Rainbow Dash used to always smack him around whenever she felt like it. She never did it to actually inflict punishment, it was just her own method of personally reminding Nimbus not to be so stupid.

Nimbus laughed as he rubbed the red mark Rainbow Dash had left on the side of his head. "Some things never get old, huh?"

Rainbow Dash just continued to stare at him, struggling to decide whether to strangle Nimbus for being away for so long or hug him aroound the neck until he stopped breathing.

The music drastically changed from the heavy dubstep to a song that was played back when Rainbow Dash and Nimbus were still in school.

"Wow." Rainbow Dash said, instantly remembering the song as soon as the piano started. "You are the cheesiest guy, you know that?"

Nimbus looked over to the DJ booth to see Reverb smiling and giving him an air hoof bump. "What song is this?", he asked just right before he saw Rainbow Dash started to quietly sing along with the song when it started.

"Dude, this is OUR song!"

"We have a song?" Nimbus asked, not even remembering a time when Rainbow and he even had a moment that would relate to this type of music. "When did we establish this?"

"You don't remember?!", Rainbow Dash poked at Nimbus's chest, pinning his tie between her hoof and his chest.

"Dude.", Nimbus swiped off Rainbow Dash's hoof off his tie and chest gently and took it into his. "I don't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning."Thinking back on the subject, Nimbus couldn't even remember where he had breakfast this morning.

Rainbow Dash quickly caught on to what Nimbus was doing when he grasped her hoof tightly in his opposite hoof and the other on her shoulder. "The hell do you think you're doing?"

"You said this was our song.", Nimbus said before looking over his shoulder to see everypony around them staring at the two of them. "and I think everypony here is kinda expecting us to dance to it." Nimbus lowered his voice and added, "And just between you and me, I'm really not liking the attention, so, can we just get this over with?"

Rainbow Dash slapped Nimbus lightly and moved his hoof further down her back. "If we're going to, we're going to do it right."

Nimbus second guess how low down Rainbow Dash's back his hoof was supposed to be. "*s my hoof supposed to be that close to your umm butt?"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and  slapped him again. She stepped left and started to lead the both of them. "Sometimes you really need to just shut up and stop talking."

"Am I tal-"

"Kind of like right now for instance.", Rainbow Dash instructed Nimbus with a harsh tone and pinching his hoof in between hers.

Biting on both his top and bottom lips, Nimbus shut up and followed Rainbow Dash's lead. The pace was slow, really slow, but they were still able to stay in sync with the music. Only managing to stay quiet for a couple seconds, Nimbus said, "This is a really long song."

"It's on a loop.", Rainbow Dash told him, pulling her bottom hoof out from Nimbus after he stepped on it for the second time now. "Wasn't this part of your plan?"

"Plan?" Nimbus whispered. He just as clueless as she was as to what was happening right now.

"Yeah, your plan.", Rainbow Dash asked in way that wasn't really a question. "Getting Sky Forge to invite me here on the very same night you left, having the DJ play the same song we last danced to, making me come back to you again?"

"Again?", Nimbus asked. "I was the one who left, not you."

"And I let you.", Rainbow Dash rested her head on Nimbus's shoulder and laughed when he stumbled over his two left hooves. "and you're just as bad a dancer as you were back in the tenth grade."

Nimbus was goign to argue the fact that he'd improved since then, but seeing how she was the one leading, he agreed with Rainbow Dash using the shrug of his shoulders. "At least I haven't stepped on your back like last time."

"You've stepped on my front hoof like three times in the past thirty seconds.", Rainbow Dash admitted with a grumble and stomping on his hoof, making him yelp quietly. She picked her head up off of Nimbus and added, "There's actually somepony I want you meet when we're done here tonight."

Despite having two hearts, Nimbus's heart speed double their normal pace. "Celestia's sweet shining ass...we have a child together don't we?"

Rainbow Dash squeezed and twisted Nimbus's hoof in hers, making him yelp louder than before. "No, stupid. I was talking about my mom." She eased up on his hoof and laid her head back down on his shoulder again. "I've always hated when you said that."

"You mean Celestia's sweet shin-"

"Repeat it and I'm going to shoulder toss you in front of all these ponies.", Rainbow Dash warned in a nonchalant tone.

"Roger that.", Nimbus said only to have Rainbow Dash purposely step on his hoof again. "Ow! What did I do that time?"

"Don't say that either. You're not a solider."

"Anything else?", Nimbus asked Rainbow Dash dryly, seeing Sky Forge smiling and waving at him behind Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

"Two things."

"Greeeaat", Nimbus's tone was about as excited as a rock farmer was to wake up in the morning.

"First, tell Sky Forge I can see her and I'm going to kick the crap out of her."

"Way ahead of ya.", Nimbus nodded, feeling that his shoulder had fallen asleep from the weight of Rainbow Dash's head resting on it for so long. "And the other thing?"

"Don't ever leave me again."

Nimbus chuckled, "Weren't you just giving me a hard time for being-"

"Shut up.", Rainbow Dash ordered with a swift kick to Nimbus's shin.

From a table too far away for either Rainbow Dash or Nimbus to see, Talitha was watching the both of them. Her drink had gone warm and was still half full, but she was too busy watching her son to worry about wasting a couple bits.

Legally, Moon Bolt, the Pegasus who claimed to be Nimbus's mother several years ago, was and still is the rightful parental guardian of Nimbus, but Talitha was his biological mother and the one who gave birth to him, as well as to his twin sister. The father to the twins was never discovered, mainly due to the fact Talitha didn't bother to look for him.

Shortly after they were born, Talitha was in financial bind and knew she couldn't raise both of them without the risk of losing custody of them both. So, instead of losing both of them, she gave up, or more sold Nimbus to Moon Bolt to pay off her debt. If she had known Moon Bolt was just going to drop Nimbus off in front of the door steps of an orphanage, Talitha would have kept him.

Aero Dynamic, Nimbus's twin sister, didn't know Nimbus existed until Talitha told her when she finally turned ten. As soon as she got a name, Aero Dynamic found out her twin brother was staying in Cloudsdale, but Talitha forbid her to search for her brother until she confirmed that he was truly her sibling.

Indeed, Aero Dynamic's theory was right. She had found her brother with little effort, but Talitha lied and told her the information she found was outdated. Without Aero's knowledge of it, Talitha got a blimp ride to Cloudsdale as well as a Unicorn friend of hers to help her walk around the city. When Talitha made it to the location the orphanage had told her Nimbus moved to, she refused to knock on the door and barge into Nimbus's life. She saw him through the window, laughing and playing with Rainbow Dash. He looked too happy there for Talitha to take him away from the place he called home.

Talitha sighed as she saw Nimbus dancing with Rainbow Dash, not aware that were being reunited after five years. She looked up at digital clock over the DJ booth and said to herself, "It's four minutes 'till midnight, too late to try looking for Dark Wing tonight. Plus..." She looked at Nimbus one last time before removing herself from her chair. "I'm in a good mood tonight, nopony needs to get hurt."

Thrown against her back, Sugar Bomb fell and landed behind Talitha. She bent down and looked at the upside down face of the tiny pink filly. "Didn't I tell you to stay put?"

"And miss the party? No child should miss a party."

Talitha gaze shifted from the unconscious Sugar Bomb to the mask wearing pony known as Loony Bin. Even with the mask on, Talitha could see he was smiling at her with the rise of his cheek muscles.

"He's grown since the last time I took you to seen him, hasn't he?", Loony asked Talitha, referring to the time he casted a cloud walking spell on her so she could see her son in Cloudsdale. "You'd be surprised if I told you saw him again a few years after that."

Talitha snorted and pushed Sugar Bomb to safety under the table by kicking her. "Whatever business you have here, leave my son out of it."

"Just like you said, Talitha, it's just business, nothing personal." Loony Bin looked over to the dance floor at Nimbus with Talitha stepping in front of his vision shortly after. "He thinks he killed his foster father's killer five years ago, but he merely killed the scape goat."

Talitha remained quiet, not knowing what Loony was talking about, or who exactly Nimbus had killed five years ago.

"The stallion he referred to as his father stopped me from enjoying a rather exotic meal that got away. So to compensate for taking my meal away from me, I took away his life."

"Oh, Loony, that line is so clever it turns right back around to being stupid." Talitha shook her head. "I don't care if you're here on business, you can tell Said-So I said he can take your job, turn sideways, and stick up his candy ass."

"Your boy pissed off the wrong pony, Talitha. I, personally, don't want to do this, but" Loony shrugged and added "Shit happens."

"Shit always happens, but nopony ever bothers to wipe.", Talitha commented. Out of the corner behind Loony, Octave came up behind him and whispered something into Loony's ear while looking at Talitha with a smile on her face.

Loony lifted his head back up after lowering it to listen to Octave. "Good news, Talitha. You're boy is no longer my target tonight."

"Good idea." Talitha said.

"I'm after his sweet heart instead.", Loony told Talitha while licking his chops with saliva leaking through his mask.

"hmmm" Talitha looked back at Rainbow Dash to see her dancing with Nimbus still."Bad alternative.", Talitha said, rotating her shoulders and popping them. She knew Said-So liked hurting his target's hearts and emotions before laying the hammer down on them. "How much longer do I have to cancel this party of yours?"

The bell tower miles away from the club rang and could still be heard over the music once the minute hand met the hour hand at midnight. Loony Bin let the saliva continue to leak from his mask down to the floor. "It's too late. Reservations have been made and it just started.", He said to Talitha, watching her look over her shoulder once again at Nimbus and Rainbow Dash.

"At least I still have time to crash the party." Talitha said, ready to make the first move on Loony Bin or Octave/Evening Primrose, whichever she pinned as more of a threat. "This isn't what I expected at all, but I'm still going to make this the best night ever!"

Chapter 3 Rekindle

The last time Talitha and Loony Bin fought, several years ago, Talitha barely even had the strength to walk out of the room when Loony Bin had finished with her. He could have easily took it upon himself to end her right then and there, but he didn't, and Talitha never understood why. Perhaps he enjoyed seeing her suffer and struggle, finally having to admit defeat for one of the very times in her life. The answer was never very clear, but Talitha was by nature a sore loser.

"So, why? What does Said-So want with Fire Bolt?", Talitha asked both Loony Bin and Evening Primrose.

The changeling, still in her unicorn disguise, and the mentally insane pink unicorn both looked at each other,and exchanged glances, wondering who Talitha was referring to. "Who?", Evening asked, assuming Talitha meant Nimbus. Even if her question was somewhat rhetorical, Evening was more curious as to why Talitha was referring Nimbus by anther name.

"That's what I named him." Talitha looked over to Nimbus, who had finished dancing with Rainbow Dash several minutes ago. They were both now sitting at a table right off the dance floor, catching up on the past five years they spent away from each other. The two of them were laughing and throwing punches and insults back at one another just like they always did, completely unaware of the potential threat Talitha was guarding them both from.

"...but he calls himself-", Evening was going to tell Talitha the name she and everypony else knew him by, but Talitha snapped her jaws at her before she could finish.

There was a mean glare Evening gave Talitha for snapping at her but Talitha gave the gesture no attention."I know what he calls himself now!" Talitha looked from Loony to Evening, determining the difficulty of fighting them both at the same time. Even for Earth Pony standards, Loony Bin was an incredibly large pony. His build would allow him to push through most physical attacks like a rock being thrown the air. His limited amount of magical abilities were nothing to look over either. They were definitely predictable but one of them connecting even against a Minotaur had a great possibility of breaking bones.  "Look, whatever fire Fire Bolt started with Said-So, let me deal with it. I know how to speak his language."

True, Talitha used to work with Said-So, supplying him with military grade armor, weapons, tools, and the like for over the six years she was in the service. That was back when she was raising Aero Dynamic by herself the first few years she was born. She used the extra bits she got from Said-So to put Aero through a good school and support her through every sport she got involved in. Within that time frame, Talitha and Said-So got around to seeing each other on a more personal level, but their "relationship" ended right as Talitha moved to the Griffin country.

Evening flipped her mane out of her vision in a flashy manner. "Face it, old mare. You're far past your expiration date. Said-so wants nothing to do-" There was a light tapping on Evening Primrose's shoulder coming from her Boss's younger sibling. "Just give me a minute, Loony. The grown ups are talking." Treating Loony Bin like a child was the closest Evening could ever get to getting back at Said-So for her shitty pay cuts.

"It's important." Loony Bin told her, but she brushed him off and continued insulting Talitha.

"Why DID you-" Evening started again, but Loony Bin began tapping at her shoulder again more persistently this time.

"WHAT?! WHAT, CAN BE SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE TO INTERRUPT ME?! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TALKING?" Evening hissed at Loony Bin. Talitha kept her usual strong bearing but let out a grunted laugh at Loony Bin being demasculated by a changeling half his size.

Pointing his hoof behind Evening Primrose, Loony Bin informed her "The little one has awakened and ran off towards the target." The bones in Evening's neck nearly snapped from how quickly she spun her head around. From the distance she was at, she could see tiny Sugar Bomb crawling underneath the crowd, between all the dancing hooves around, and heading away from her.

Evening took one step forward only to have Talitha stepping in front of her and make a threat. "Hurt anypony tonight, and you won't be walking out of here."

Threats were nothing more than empty words to a changeling, and Evening was no exception. "That's a good idea, threaten the one you're trying to negotiate with."

"She's not trying to negotiate with you.", Loony put bluntly for Evening, catching her attention.

Evening dragged her hoof over a spilled drink, drenching it in the liquid. She refused to shake the substance off her hoof as she asked Loony, "What are you talking about? She just begged-"

"I don't beg, and I didn't." , Talitha told Evening truthfully. She checked on Sugar Bomb, who was still crawling around on the alcohol spilled floor of the dance club, too dark for anypony to see unless they were directly looking at the very spot she was at.

Talking over Talitha, Evening stretched her neck out over Loony Bin as far as she could. "Begged me to talk to Said-So, so she can take the hit off Nimbus."

"Fire Bolt.", Talitha corrected with a firm calm voice.

"Whatever!", Evening snapped. The liquid that was previously on Evening's hoof got flicked into Talitha's direction with a rude hoof gesture, but the range of the alcohol died a few inches from Talitha's chest.

Even if the alcohol had hit Talitha, she wouldn't have reacted anyways since she already reeked of Jack and coke. Without smiling, Talitha flashed several of her impressively shiny white teeth in a cocky expression. There was no more need in distracting Evening and Loony now, since Talitha intentionally bought Rainbow Dash and Nimbus time to walk out of the club without them ever knowing the amount of danger they were potentially in.

Loony Bin had been the first one, after Talitha, to notice Rainbow Dash and Nimbus were leaving, but he didn't address the issue since it would have been rude for him to interrupt Evening and Talitha's conversation. His older brother, Said-So, had told him his only objective was to follow Evening tonight and remain on his best behavior, nothing else. Interrupting anypony midway through their conversation would have been a complete disobedience to Said-So's specific instructions. Tracing his mask with his hoof, Loony Bin remembered well the last he disobeyed his older sibling, and he had no intentions of making the same mistake more than once.

"She's been distracting us. Nimbus and his rather delicious looking mare friend aren't here anymore.", Loony Bin admitted to Evening.

Spinning like a child's cheap plastic toy top, Evening twirled on her hooves, nearly tripping over herself, looking in the direction of where Nimbus was last sitting down. "WHAT?!"

"I said, She's been-", Loony began to repeat for Evening, taking her question far too literal.

Raising her voice at the pink unicorn, Evening Primrose hovered above him, looking down at him while she yelled, "I heard what you said!"

"Then why would you ask the question?", Loony asked, not understanding what crime he committed to have angered Evening so.

A small splash was made when Evening landed in the tiny puddle of alcohol she stepped in before. "It was..." Evening snorted and grunted, kicking what remained of the puddle beneath her hooves at Loony. Letting out her anger at Loony Bin with a kick of the puddle prevented her from accidentally reverting back to her changeling form, alerting everypony in the club of her presence.

Evening let her issue with Loony Bin go and spun back to face Talitha "You've got some nerve to-", Evening spoke to the empty air in front of her. "Where did she go?!", Evening raged, flaring fiery magic from her nostrils.

"Away from us, obviously.", Loony Bin answered for Evening, not able to see her eye twitching out of anger.

***

The air outside of Ponyville was chilly and far too cold to comfortably fly through without a jacket or the proper attire. Despite the moon being blocked by clouds darker than Cerebus's coat, the streets of outside Ponyville were fairly well lit enough by all the city lanterns posted high up and down the roads. Nimbus selflessly pushed Rainbow Dash in the path underneath the lanterns, so she could catch a glimpse of it's warmth each time she passed one over head.

Nimbus watched as Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, enjoying the brisk moment of heat from the lantern she just walked under. "Where DO you live these nowadays anyways?", Nimbus asked Rainbow Dash, keeping a good half foot of space between himself and her. In the direction they were walking, Nimbus could see they were headed somewhere a bit further in the outskirts of Ponyville.

For some odd reason, the question had upset Rainbow Dash a great deal. Her ears went down as she explained, "I still live in the same house. After mom left, I didn't really have anypony else to help me and I had to move the house in Ponyville, so I could afford it."

"Wait, Mo-I-I mean Rainbowshine left you?", Nimbus asked right before remembering how Rainbow Dash told him that she wanted him to meet her earlier tonight. "How do you want me to meet her if she's gone? Gone where?"

Before Rainbow Dash couldn't answer Nimbus, there was a popping sound she immediately recognized. Both her and Nimbus turned their heads in between the two of them and looked towards the club where the shot had been fired. Ponies were fighting to escape the club and stay clear of the direction the next bullet might fly.

Nimbus's protective nature urged him to run back towards the club until Rainbow Dash unexpectedly grabbed a firm hold of his tail and asked him, "What do you think you're doing?" She knew exactly what he was going to do. It was a repeat of everything Nimbus always did whenever he was around danger.

Nimbus didn't fight Rainbow Dash's grip around his tail, it was stupid that he was going to selfishly put himself in harm's way again. "Rainbow Dash, I can't just stand by and let somepony get hurt, knowing I could have-" The sudden memory of Flower Butt came into Nimbus's mind. He had completely forgotten all about her and all the rest of his friends in there as soon as he meet Rainbow Dash tonight.

Rainbow Dash was struggling whether to let Nimbus go or not, she knew he'd beat himself up later if she didn't at least let him try and help. "Okay." Rainbow Dash came to a conclusive decision. "But I'm coming in with you."

"I'm not-" Two more shots were heard inside the club before Nimbus hastly agreed to Rainbow Dash's terms. "Just stay close to me." Going to a fire fight with Rainbow Dash meant he wasn't goign to be able to put on his Dark Wing mask. Without his Dark Wing mask, he couldn't sneak around as effectively or use any of the mask other features.

Flying over the crowd and going inside the door over them, Nimbus lead Rainbow Dash behind a booth inside that was placed directly in front of the wall. Perfect cover until he found out exactly where the shooter was. To his surprise, though he shouldn't have been, it didn't take him long to find out that the shooter was Gunilda. She was openly flailing her gun about the air and aiming it all across the sky.

"Isn't that the mare you were with?" Rainbow Dash asked Nimbus, noticing her about the same time as he did. Making Nimbus a bit upset by Rainbow Dash's first impression of her, she added, "You sure can pick 'em", in a sour tone.

"She's friendly!" Nimbus argued, but after he saw the way Gunilda comfortably fired her weapon like it was second nature, he quietly threw on  "-ish", before thinking to himself Or at least I hope she is. Nimbus convinced himself. "GUNILDA!" He yelled over the screaming crowd between him and her.

Gunilda turned her head to Nimbus after he called out for her. She could see that he and the pony who asked her to dance with Nimbus were taking cover, too frightened to come out and discover how accurate her aim was. As a friendly gesture, Gunilda held the barrel of her large pistol up and facing the opposite direction of Nimbus and Rainbow Dash.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Nimbus knew she was shooting holes into the ceiling, but that's not what he was getting at.

Before Gunilda could answer Nimbus, she got blind sided and tackled to the ground by Loony Bin. Gunilda's pistol dropped and slid across away from her magic when she lost control of her levitation spell after being attacked.

Loony Bin pinned her to the concrete her back was resting on with the incredibly heavy weight of his hooves. A pink glow of magic shined brightly on Loony Bin's horn as he flashed and aimed it for Gunilda's temple. Gunilda struggled to push Loony off of her as he just adjusted his weight around her every time she tried to fight him off.

Coming in with an airborne round house kick, Nimbus placed bottom of his rear right leg underneath Loony Bin's chin. The pink unicorn flew off of Gunilda faster than a cork did after opening a new bottle of wine. He fell on his back on top of a unattended table full of half-empty glasses.

Nimbus held out a helpful gesture with his hoof to get Gunilda back up on her hooves. Once the Marakian  Unicorn got back on her hooves, Nimbus asked her, "What happened, and who is that guy?"

Gunilda searched for her pistol left and right, seeing Rainbow Dash flying towards her in the process. Without any success, Gunilda's pistol could not be found. She assumed it must have been been slid farther than she last physically saw it. "That is Loony Bin, an escaped patient from Pen Book's hospital for the unfortunately gifted. He is an incredibly dangerous pony who should not be taken lightly."

Nimbus shook his head and blinked his eyes twice. "Pen Book's what for the who?" Nimbus repeated as best he could to the best of his abilities.

"An insane asylum, but they don't call it that anymore." Rainbow Dash said to help Nimbus understand, landing right behind him.

Nimbus's head nearly off from how fast how fast he turned it when he heard Rainbow Dash's voice. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET BACK TO BEHIND SOME COVER!"

"Screw. That!" Rainbow Dash fought. ""You're just in as much in danger as I am. What makes you so special?"

"I care about you and don't want you to get hurt!" Nimbus used his head to push Rainbow Dash back towards the over flipped couch bench. "Now, go back!"

"And I care about YOU and don't want you to get hurt!" Rainbow Dash snapped at Nimbus, flying over him and making him fall over once she moved. "I want to help."

It took Nimbus a few seconds to recover back to his hooves and begin pushing Rainbow Dash back towards cover again. "NO! You can't help. This guy is really-"

At that moment, a table flew over Nimbus's head and shattered into multiple pieces once it hit the wall on the other side. Loony Bin rose from whence the table came from and levitated himself above the ground. His levitation magic beyond that of any other's either Nimbus or Gunilda had ever seen. Loony Bin slowly progressed closer to Nimbus as each passing second went by.

"Dangerous" Nimbus said, finishing his last sentence. "He's a very dangerous pony!"

"I'm a very dangerous pony." Rainbow Dash debated with Nimbus, going back and forth with him as to why she should/shouldn't be here. "Don't worry about me." She told Nimbus. "I can take care of myself!"

"Your prom date at flight school stepped on your back when you two started dancing!" Nimbus fired.

"You were my prom date!"

Nimbus crossed his forelegs and smiled at Rainbow Dash after her last confession. "I rest my case."

Gunida couldn't stop herself from smiling at how Nimbus and Rainbow Dash flirted at each. I am so glad I came to Equestria. At least, that's what she told herself until she realized how close Loony Bin was getting to all three of them. "I am sorry to intrude, but" Gunilda started before grabbing Nimbus's face and turning it to the charging Loony Bin, "But he is getting really close!"

Nimbus his face away from Gunilda's grip of her hooves and yelled, before charging Loony Bin, "Rainbow Dash, go and turn on the fire sprinklers. I think I have an idea!"

Nimbus with an effective idea was about as rare as finding a diamond in the rough. Rainbow Dash nodded and tapped Gunilda on the shoulder before leaving. "Make sure he doesn't get hurt.

Right as Nimbus dodged Loony Bin's offensive spell and landed an upper cut to the unicorn's chest, Gunilda asked Rainbow Dash, "Which one?"

The levitation spell Loony Bin had placed around himself deactivated and caused him to fall hard onto the floor after Nimbus had stricken him. He charged up another spell, faster than his last but not as powerful, and shot it at Nimbus.

Like before, Nimbus dodged it and landed another hit on Loony Bin, except this time with a headbutt to the face.

Loony Bin grunted and backed way from the impact. He growled angrily and fired random shots of magic in every direction in front of him. If he had known that Nimbus had made his way behind him, he would not have done so. Nimbus spun around and was about to place a donkey kick to Loony Bin's rear side, but to Nimbus's left, Talitha had Gunilda's pistol held in her mouth with her tongue around the trigger and the barrel aimed at Loony Bin's temple.

Nimbus screamed, "Don't shoot!" but it was too late as Talitha had already pulled the trigger on the weapon. To both Nimbus's and Talitha's surprise, there was nothing. No sound or projectile came out of the weapon Talitha had just fired. She pulled the trigger a second and third time with the same result. Only a click came from the gun and nothing else. Talitha popped the cylinder on Gunilda's pistol open to find out there not even empty shells inside of the weapon.

She swore every word she could into a single sentence and asked Gunilda, "Who carry's around an unloaded gun?" Which didn't make sense to her or anypony else around her. She had literally just seen Gunilda firing flashy shots at the ceiling of Club Dub just a few minutes ago. Only one thing was certain now. Gunilda didn't need bullets to fire a gun. She used her own magic to make the firearm function.

Talitha flipped the pistol over to it's side to see the brand on the weapon read "Crystal Crypt". "Damn it!" Talitha swore again and again before calling out Gunilda's name and throwing it back at it her. "It's a magic fueled firearm!"

Unlike regularly fired guns, Crystal Crypt weapons, mainly the firearms, ran off of magic rather than the physically created ammunition they were inspired by. Due to this, Crystal Crypt weapons could only be fired by the magical users they were registered to. Nopony or creature could take a Crystal Crypt weapon as their own and get away with committing a crime with it. Crystal Crypt weapons could only be purchased by those of of great wealth or those had acquired a license for one.

Gunilda took back her pistol and charged the crystals embedded cartridge inside of it with her magic. The weapon was now reloaded and ready for action! She placed the iron sights in between her sight of vision and Loony Bin. She aimed carefully to not hit Nimbus in the cross fire and pulled the trigger. A red line of magic ejected from the barrel of Gunilda's pistol and made contact with Loony Bin's chest before he could get back up.

Loony Bin fell from the paralysis spell Gunilda had landed on him. There was nothing he could do to break the spell without an outside interference, which is why he was excited when Evening Primrose came back around, disguising herself in her Octave persona.

Nimbus was just as excited to see Evening Primrose as Loony Bin was. He screamed "Octave!".

Evening looked at Loony Bin with apologetic eyes before dressing Nimbus. "I'll be right there." She told Nimbus. Bending to Loony Bin, who was still paralyzed, she kissed her hoof and placed it against Loony's cheek. She apologized, "I'm sorry, old friend", before telling Nimbus and the others to escape before Loony Bin got back up.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"  Loony Bin growled at Evening Primrose as she began to walk away from him. "My brother won't forgive you for this!"

To his surprise, Loony Bin was not expecting Evening to say, "It's alright, he already knows", before she took off behind Nimbus, Gunilda, and Talitha.

Loony Bin couldn't grasp what was happening. He had thought that Evening was betraying Nimbus, not vice versa. What was even more confusing was that Said-So knew about it and didn't bother to tell him. There must have been a logical explanation for all of this. There had to be.

***

Once Nimbus had reached the outside of Club Dub, with Gunilda and Talitha following closely behind him, he turned around to see Rainbow Dash flying outside one of the windows not too long after.

"Liar!" Was the first thing she said to Nimbus when she got close enough to him. "There were no fire sprinklers!" She poked Nimbus in the chest angrily repeatedly.  "You lied to me to get me out of harm's way!"

"It worked, didn't it?"

Rainbow Dash growled at Nimbus for two reasons. Number one: for how right he was, and number two: for using his trust against her. Behind Nimbus, Rainbow Dash could see Talitha behind him, instantly recognizing her from earlier that night.

"Hey, you're the pony who made those stallions go away." Rainbow Dash reminded Talitha.

Talitha didn't address the topic Rainbow Dash had just brought up and changed to another one. "That was stupid of you!" She jabbed her hoof at Rainbow Dash to only have it swayed away by Nimbus defensively. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"What's it matter to you?" Nimbus asked Talitha, getting himself between Rainbow Dash and her before Rainbow Dash said a smart remark.

Talitha stared down at both Nimbus and Rainbow Dash before looking at Gunilda behind to see her putting a grip around her magic pistol. "It doesn't." Talitha shrugged her saddle bags and marched off with Sugar Bomb tucked away in the back of her bags. It was too early and an inappropriate time for Talitha to bring up that she was Nimbus's mother. He already enough drama on his hooves than to deal with her right now.

When Talitha was finally far enough away. Rainbow Dash said and asked, "Well, that's one question I won't ever find out, but" She pointed her right wing towards Evening Primrose disguised as Octave, "Who is that?!" Rainbow Dash was not appreciating the fact that Nimbus had been surrounding himself with mares while she had been away. "How many more are there?"

Nimbus put his hooves up innocently. "Wait, now I know how this looks like." Before he could even explain himself, Nora came running with Sky Forge from the direction Talitha was walking towards.

"Nimbus! Are you okay? We saw the fire and got worried." Nora had Sky Forge trailing a few feet behind her.

"Oh, hey! You two found each other. Who would've known you two would find each other again? Hehehe." Sky Forge tried to play off as innocently as she could, but Rainbow Dash saw right through her act.

"Oh, look there's more!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, moving her wings to point at all the mares around her individually. "I guess you didn't miss me as much as you said." She spread her wings and began to fly off back to her home.

Nimbus pooped open his wings and flew on after her. "Rainbow Dash, hold on, wait! It's not what it looks like! I only two of them."

"Well, that wont help his case." Octave commented.

Gunilda slid her weapon back into it's holster and asked Octave, "I am sorry, but I do not think I know your name."

"Eve-" Octave caught herself before revealing her old name. Calling herself by her new name was still getting some used to. "I'm Octave." she greeted kindly to Gunilda and the other two ponies who just showed up.

Only Nora knew who Octave's true identity was, besides Nimbus, but chose not to reveal it. "What are you doing here?"

Octave looked all around her before answering the question. Even though Loony Bin was paralyzed inside a burning building at the moment, she didn't want to chance how long it would take him to get back up. "Is there anyplace more private that we could discuss this at?" She asked kindly. "Maybe another time and place where there's not any danger?"

***

"Rainbow Dash!" It had been about the twentieth time Nimbus had called after her, "Wait!" He could have flown faster to catch up with her, but that would have just urged her to fly at a speed he couldn't keep up with.

Rainbow Dash swore at Nimbus to go away but he ignored her request.

"I know you;re upset, but could you at least tell me what happened to your mom?" It was last thing Nimbus and Rainbow Dash were talking about before he dove into Club Dub during the shooting

Finishing his last sentence, Nimbus asked again, "Where is she?"

Rainbow Dash finally stopped and braked in the air. Her back was still facing Nimbus but she did answer with, "She's in jail."

Ten thousand questions popped into Nimbus's head as he tried to figure out how and why Rainbowshine would be in jail. "W-what?! What happened?"

There was a slight hesitation in Rainbow Dash's next answer, "You happened!"

"Me?", Nimbus repeated. Nothing of what Rainbow Dash was telling him was making sense. In what possible way could he be the reason to explain why Rainbowshine was in jail. "What exactly happened when I left?"

Forgetting how rudely Rainbow Dash could invade someone's personal bubble, Nimbus backed up and fell on his back two legs when she turned around and barked in his face. "What happened?! Oh, okay. Let's see, two hours after you left, my mom confessed to me that she told you to leave. I got really stupid and angry, told her I hated her and never wanted to see her again. She lied and admitted to killing that pony YOU pushed out the window." Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her chin and looked up at the sky in a quick and frustrated manner. It looked like she was doing her best to hold back some tears from Nimbus. "What else? Oh yeah! She has a twenty year sentence and refuses to see me every time I go during visiting hours. I dropped out of flight school because I was going through so much shit. And let's not forget, after five years of searching, I find my best friend, who by the way promised he'd FIND ME, dancing in some crappy club with a freaking super model bimbo!"

Nimbus sat in place, shaking in his coat as Rainbow Dash chewed his ass. When she finally finished her anger tantrum, he tried to think of something to say to help calm her down a bit before she bit his head off. "Would you feel any better if I told you she was actually a Princess in another land?" Unfortunately, Nimbus chose the wrong words to use.

"Are you freaking serious?!". Rainbow Dash pushed Nimbus down onto his back and towered herself over him, with her face in his. "You're unbelievable, you know that? I been looking for you in hopes that you could possibly help me turn my life back around, thinking you were going to appear back on my door step someday. But no, you've just been going around chasing Princesses and hanging out with Bat Ponies."

The mention of Bat Ponies clicked a light bulb on in Nimbus's head. "Flower Butt!" Nimbus was thinking about going back to the club and picking her back up, but the glare Rainbow Dash gave him told him that wasn't going to make his case or situation any better after mentioning the bat pony's name. "Actually, Sky Forge is there with her. She'll be okay.", Nimbus said quickly, still underneath Rainbow Dash.

"And Sky Forge, of all other ponies. You chose to keep in contact with her but not me? She's the only reason I found you. What in Tartarus makes her so special?!"

When Rainbow Dash lifted her head higher, Nimbus flinched and anticipated her to headbutt him in the concrete, but he was even more surprised when she slammed her head into his shoulder and started to feel hot tears rolling down his shoulder and onto his arm. Rainbow Dash's sobbing was quiet and tore a hole in Nimbus's guilty heart like a silenced pistol.

Knowing for Rainbow Dash as long as he did, Nimbus still had trouble predicting her crazy mood swings whenever she was angry at him. She always would yell and poke her hoof into his chest all the time, but would instantly switch back to the loyal friend Nimbus loved her for without a moments notice. "I t-thought I was special to you.", Rainbow Dash choked in between her words.

"But you are..." Nimbus released his front legs from underneath Rainbow Dash and tried to hug the back of her wings.

His front hooves went flying up into the air when Rainbow Dash flared her wings up and warned Nimbus, "Don't. Touch. Me."

"Okay, okay.", Nimbus kept his hooves up and away from her to show his innocence.

The crying didn't stop, but Rainbow Dash could talk a lot clearer than she did. "I know why you left, but why did you stay away?", Rainbow Dash sniffled.

Telling Rainbow Dash that he was now a crime-fighting masked vigilante was at the bottom of Nimbus's to do list, right under getting his mane cut. "I didn't want to put you in harm. I told you I was going to be a criminal , remember?" Technically, Nimbus had kept to that word, but probably not in the perspective that he had originally intended.

Rainbow Dash laughed at the thought of Nimbus actually becoming a criminal. "The only thing you're guilty of is being a crappy friend." She hugged Nimbus tightly underneath her with her head still in his shoulder. To Nimbus's relief, she was taking the idea of him being a criminal pretty lightly. Maybe revealing his alter ego wouldn't be such a bad idea. It would definitely build some trust between the two of them.

An expression of guilt flashed on Nimbus's face. "Oh boy, if you only knew." He reached around Rainbow Dash's shoulders but stopped suddenly when he saw that her wings were still standing stiffly up on her back. Rainbow Dash had a pretty good history of slapping Nimbus repeatedly when he consistently pushed her buttons, as well as slapping him when he used the last of the milk too. Jumping through fire, Nimbus stretched his legs out farther and pushed her wings down, hugging her back tighter then she did him.

Nimbus's hooves were low enough down Rainbow Dash's back to make her wings go back down and set them back at a resting state.

Rainbow Dash pushed away from Nimbus with her hoof. "Hey, just because your hooves were that far down when were dancing, doesn't mean you can try and grab a hoof full whenever you feel like it." She threw her hips up to push Nimbus's hooves farther up her back and way from her hind quarters.

Fed up with Rainbow Dash's rules, but glad to have them back, Nimbus asked, "Do you come with a manual? 'Cause you're harder to understand than a C-130."

***

Ceramic plates went soaring and crumbling into the walls when Nora fired them at Sky Forge inside of Nimbus's apartment. Smoke sizzled from her horn and words when she screamed from her mouth as she yelled at Sky Forge taking cover behind Nimbus's only piece of furniture. "What do you mean he's too busy getting some? Getting some what? What could he possibly be getting at-" Nora looked and peered her eyes at the sideways clock hanging in Nimbus kitchen. "Two in the morning. What's he getting with Rainbow Dash at two in the morning?!"

Only Sky Forge's eyes and muzzle were visible above the head of the couch when she looked over at Nora. "Do I need to hook you up with somepony too? I said, he went with Rainbow Dash, probably about to get some."

"Some what? You just keep saying the same thing over and over again!"

Sky Forge ducked back behind the back of the couch when Nora missed her head by a few inches and burned a hole into the door of Nimbus's room. Poking her head through the hole, Flower Butt wordlessly checked to see what the whole commotion was. She had left Club Dub before the firing even started and  gotten into Nimbus's apartment with the key Sky Forge had took from Nimbus to prevent him from avoiding the club this night and heading home.

The tilt of Flower Butt's head gesture at Nora asked her what she was so angry about.

Nora placed her hoof over her headband and threw her hoof back in Flower Butt's direction. "He's supposed to tell me why he sold the wand to that Unicorn Princess. That idiot actually sold it to her! I should've known better than to let him hold onto it."

This time coming out form the left bottom side of the couch, Sky Forge stretched her neck out. "What's so special about these stupid wands you're always talking about? You've had that one on you for years and done nothing with it. What do you need TWO for?"

Nora casted her claw grabbing spell and picked up the couch Sky Forge was hiding behind. She held the couch over Sky Forge, freezing the poor Pegasus in fear.

"These aren't any ordinary wands you just buy off the shelf. These are the Fellowship Wands!" Nora saw the blank expression  on Sky Forge's face, telling her that she had no idea what she was talking. Surprisingly enough though, the perked up expression on Flower Butt's face was yelling the complete opposite. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Nora asked Flower, before dropping the couch her back in it's original place, narrowly missing Sky Forge's tail.

Hesitating to answer the question honestly, Flower nodded and pulled her head back from the hole in Nimbus's door and opening it up right after from the twist of the door knob.

Nearly throwing herself onto the Bat Pony with the badly adopted name, Nora hung her hooves on the back of Flower's neck and begged her, "Can you tell me what YOU know about them? You're the only pony I've ever known to know SOMETHING about these wands."

Evening Primrose had been little to no help as she had left Club Dub a few seconds after Nimbus had. She told Nora that she "Had some errands to run"...at this early in the morning, and Gunilda had departed away from Nora and Sky Forge just as quickly. The only pony she wanted an audience with was Nimbus. To her knowledge, Nimbus was the leader of their trio.

The turn of Flower's head slipped Nora's hooves right off her neck and falling right back onto the floor. She kept to her silence folded her wings over her head. Flower Butt hadn't spoken a word to any pony since Nimbus had found her.

"She can't talk, Nora. Nimbus has been trying to since he-"

"Yes, I can.", squeaked Flower Butt behind her wings, leaving Sky Forge's mouth hung widely open midway through her sentence. "I-I-I...talking...just gets me in trouble." Flower kept pausing in between her words, not because she had trouble speaking, she was just deciding on which words to choose, carefully.

Nora picked herself up off the floor and placed herself in front of Flower's vision, only to have her turn back way from her. "You won't get in trouble if you're with us." Nora told Flower. She tried to make the Bat Pony more comfortable to turning the flipped over couch back up right and fixing all the decorations she had thrown at Sky Forge back in their rightful place, at least the ones still intact.

Flower Butt shook her head vigorously, regretting opening her mouth and trying to sprint back inside Nimbus's room, but Nora grabbed hold of her tail with her claw spell.

Nora didn't dare call Flower Butt by the full name Nimbus had plagued her with, but begged her, "Flower, please, I need to know. I've read what these things can do. If they're truly as powerful as I think they are, then you know how dangerous they can be." There was no telling what Gunilda or Said-So what do with the power of these wands.

Flower let Nora keep a firm grasp on her tail and hid beneath her wings, where she could be seen shaking underneath nervously. Like Gunilda, Nimbus was the only one she trusted. He was the only pony she came across who was immediately polite to her without judging her based off of her racial appearance.

After tugging on Flower Butt's tail a few times with no result, Nora gave up and let go of her. "This is hopeless!" She growled. "We're going to have to find Nimbus if we want to get anywhere, and he's at Rainbow Dash's. Where ever that is."

Sky Forge curled out of the fetal position she was in. "Are you kidding me? I know where that is."

Nora bolted to Sky Forge and picked her picked by squeezing her cheeks and holding her face up close to hers. "You do?! Why didn't you just say something? Come on, let's go!"

Just as Nora was making her way towards the door outside Nimbus's apartment, Flower told her, "He's still there, but he's with Rainbow Dash.

He's safe."

Nora paused grasping the door knob in her magic claw spell. "How do you know that?"

"Because, I can do this." Flower Butt revealed her head from underneath her wings and let out a high pitched screech that only she could hear. Using her sonar like hearing, she leaned her head to the east and found out that Nimbus was closer than she thought. "He's close, really close."

"I though you just said he was at Rainbow Dash's." Nora said, "Well, that's convenient" , commenting on both Flower's super hearing and the fact that was already on his way.

Flower Butt ducked back underneath her wings and began shaking again with more fear than before. In her soft voice she said, "No, not Nimbus, somepony else. He's right outside, and he's been out there for awhile. I don't know who it is, but it's not Nimbus!"

***

Somehow, Rainbow Dash's door creaked when she finally found the right key to her parents old house. Peering over Rainbow Dash's shoulder, Nimbus looked inside the house to see how much how changed since last he came. A bunch of pictures had either been replaced or rearranged, the living room everypony walked into as soon as they opened the door was still just as spacious as ever, the majority of the furnishing was still in the same position and stayed relatively the same, even the old couch he use to snooze on was still there.

On the floor were a pair aviator goggles that Nimbus had never seen before. There was nothing significant about them other than the fact that they  were there. "Do you go storm chasing or something?", Nimbus asked Rainbow dash, still standing right behind her and waiting for her to walk in.

Keeping still in front of the door, Rainbow Dash guessed Nimbus had noticed the goggles laying in her open floor. "I'm a weather pony, remember? I already told you that." Rainbow Dash paused, expecting a small response form Nimbus, but she continued to talk before walking inside when she didn't hear anything.

"It's dark in here.", Rainbow Dash said.

"It IS past two in the morning.", Nimbus notified Rainbow Dash after remembering he heard the large bell tower ring no too long ago. He grew impatient with her standing right in the door way. "Are you just going to keep staring at the inside of your house until Celestia raises the sun, or what?"

The wind pushing through Rainbow Dash and Nimbus's manes was the only thing making a sound. Like always, Rainbow Dash's mane blew beautifully in the wind, turning her mane into a beautiful dance of colors. "It's just weird. It's been so long since you been here, I didn't realize how empty this place really was until now."

The floor beneath Rainbow Dash's hoof creaked as she took her first step inside her house. Nimbus arched his head up and looked up at the ceiling to see a couple trophies that had been placed right over head of the door way as soon as he walked in. "It is meant for a family of four.", Nimbus commented, taking a personal spark of happiness that the trophy raised above all the rest was the very first and only trophy he and Rainbow Dash won together.

A smile came across Rainbow Dash's face when she walked to the area of her refrigerator. When she opened the door and bent over to reach something on the lower shelf, Nimbus thought he heard her say, "There's two of us now. We could get started on the third one."

Nimbus's head nearly snapped his head 180 degrees after closing the door behind him. "W-what did you just say?"

Raising back up with a cold mug in her mouth by the handle, Rainbow Dash repeated herself, "I said, I don't have anything to offer, but would you like some cider?"

A few strands of Nimbus's mane fell out when he ran his hoof through the front and to the back of his mane. "Oh, uhh yeah sure. I swear I thought you said something else." A thought of what Rainbow Dash's and Nimbus's child would look like crossed his mind and made him chuckle.

A thin smog of white raised from the bottom of the mug Rainbow Dash set down on the table for Nimbus. She went back to the refrigerator to get one, and the last one, for herself. "What did you think I said?", Rainbow Dash lightly laughed, ignoring how cold the mug was she grasped.

Taking the mug Rainbow Dash offered him, Nimbus raised it barely above his chin. "You don't want to hear what I think you said." He took a quick sip of his cider. He had accounted on it being home made since it didn't have any sort of logo on it, and the fact that it was in a mug, but there was more flavor than he anticipated for it to have.  The taste was sweet and it swam down his throat smoothly. It was some of the best cider he had ever had.

Rainbow Dash leaned on the opposite of the table across from Nimbus and gave him a sly smile. "Amuse me."

Nimbus waved his hoof at Rainbow Dash nonchalantly. "Mmm, nah, don't worry about it. It was stupid." He didn't want to explain to her why he was thinking of a name for the their first child.

Rainbow Dash kept cross hairs on Nimbus as she took her first drink of her cider, waiting for him to explain himself. She could have pushed the table into his chest and pinned him between the wall, but she already had him sitting in the corner of the room with very little escape options. He wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon. Or so she thought.

Shifting his head left to right, pretending like something on the blank walls of kitchen caught his attention, Nimbus stood up out of his chair and said, "I actually need to get going. It's getting pretty late and I have a lot of things to do tomorrow morning." It was the only way he could see getting out of an awkward conversation.

"You have to go now?", Rainbow Dash asked, removing the hostility from her voice. "But you just got here, can't you stay? We can catch up."

As tempting as staying back and chatting it up with Rainbow Dash sounded, Nimbus didn't realize how tired he was until he started to make his way to the door and yawned. "No, I REALLY have some important things to do tomorrow, and I haven't gotten any rest for..." Nimbus yawned involuntarily, even the thought of trying not to yawn made him do so. "I'm sorry, but I really got to go."

Rainbow Dash's eyebrow arched up as she asked, "What exactly DO you do now?"

Dropping the ball to Rainbow Dash about Nimbus being vigilante would have only given her another reason to not let Nimbus leave. "It's personal. Don't take it personal, but I just..." Nimbus chose his words carefully. "I don't need you worrying about me."

"Don't worry?" Rainbow Dash rose up out of her chair with her hooves on the table. Seeing how carefully Nimbus was avoiding the subject, Rainbow Dash admitted, "Okay, now I'm worried." She pushed herself away from the table she was sitting at and touched Nimbus's wing. "I want you to be fully honest with me. The last time I saw, you promised me you were going to be criminal, like everypony saw you as. You don't actually go through with that, did you? You're not doing anything-" She paused and braced herself for the worst possible answer before finishing her question, "-illegal?"

Still facing the door, Nimbus sighed and dropped his wings down to the carpet floor. "Look, I just can't, okay?" After how much danger he almost got Rainbow Dash without the mask, he didn't want to push his chances.

Rainbow Dash figured she would have to gain his trust all over again if she wanted him to spill the beans about whatever it was he was hiding from her. "Can't you just tell me where you're going?" She asked.

"Sweet Apple Acres" Nimbus answered, when Rainbow Dash began to stroke and massage the back of his wings. He hadn't checked to see if anypony was following him like all the other times he flew home. He could be putting Rainbow Dash in great danger, but her teasing and flirting was making him put everything at risk. She missed him just as much as he did.

"Sweet Apple Acres?!" Rainbow Dash answered a bit excitedly. "I know who lives there. Apple Jack!" Rainbow Dash released Nimbus's wing and stood in front of him. "It's not far from here at all, it's only ten minutes. Just rest here - with me." When it looked like Nimbus was about to decline her offer again, Rainbow Dash politely asked, "Please? We can catch up in the morning and head there when you're ready."

Getting the rest he needed was something Nimbus couldn't refuse. Plus, if it was as close as Rainbow Dash said it was, it saved him about two hours of flying home and flying back to find the place. Nora hadn't even told him where the place was earlier. He sighed and looked at Rainbow Dash with a smile. "Okay, I'll stay. I don't have to go 'till the evening anyways."

Chapter 4: For power

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?"

Chapter 5: and We're walking

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."

Chapter 6: The Gathering

Her head bobbed in rhythm with her humming, as Applejack began to set up her apple stand with Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom's help. Granny Smith was too busy tending to making more Apple Pie's for tomorrow to be there at the moment. She began to wag her tail in tune as she started humming along with Apple Bloom.

Little Apple Bloom did her best to set the smaller basket of apples on top of her head. After a good solid two minutes of balancing, Apple Bloom was too excited to have noticed Nimbus right behind her when she turned around, bumped into him, and spilled all the apples around him and herself.

"Oops, sorry, mister." Apple Bloom apologized sweetly.

Hearing the apples spill, Applejack spun around and saw a dehydrated blue Pegasus who she had easily mistaken for Rainbow Dash when she saw him standing beside Pinkie Pie. "What in tarnation? Pinkie Pie, who in the hay is that?" Her hoof was rudely pointed at Nimbus pretty aggressively by accident. She was just surprised to have Pinkie Pie bringing a stranger so early to her cart.

"Oh!" Pinkie Pie was excited to finally do some introductions this morning. "Applejack, this is Nimbus."

Nimbus greeted Applejack with an ugly grunt. His throat was absolutely begging for him to drink some water before trying to talk again.

Continuing the introductions,"Nimbus, this is Applejack. She sells the best apples in all of Equestria!"

Applejack greeted Nimbus back with a grunt of her own, tipping her hat.

Getting the nasty impression from Applejack, Nimbus grunted in disapproval and instead guided his attention to Big Mac. He lifted his head towards him and introduced himself again with a grunt.

Big Mac nodded and gave a heavy "Eeyup." His deep voice and Nimbus' heavy grunting sounded like two humpback whales holding a conversation.

Nimbus smiled and grunted with happiness, wagging his tail. He gestured his head to the mug of water behind the giant red tank pony. Big Mac turned his head and questioned Nimbus looking at the water, "Hmm?"

Nimbus hummed a begging whine for some water.

Understanding the obvious signal, Big Mac approved, "Eeyup", and took a step back away from the water, giving Nimbus room to walk up and take it.

A huge smile was drawn across Nimbus' face and he charged for the mug like a predator taking it's prey. Big Mac watched with a disgusted look on his face as Nimbus grossly chugged the water. He shook his head with a "Nope" and turned away from the awful sight.

The mug was dried out in mere seconds before Nimbus gave a refreshing "Ahhh" and smacked his lips. "Way better."

Once Bic Mac started getting back to the set up, Apple Jack asked him, "Big Mac, can you get this by yourself?"

"Eeyup."

She turned around to see Nimbus licking the inside of the water mug to get what last bits he could out of it. She looked at Pinkie Pie with a curious look. "Well, he's quite the character. Who's he again?"

Pinkie Pie pointed at Nimbus friendlier than Applejack did earlier. "Nimbus" Nimbus' head picked up at the mention of his name. "He's one of Rainbow Dash's oldest friends from what he told me. He's known her almost as long as Fluttershy has."

"That's Nimbus?" Applejack looked hard at him.

Nimbus waved at her awkwardly. "Hey...how's it going?" The situation didn't exactly change when Applejack just kept staring at him. He flapped his wings closely to his side in a strange matter, as if he were trying to shoo away the awkward tension around him. "I-I uhh I can talk now."

Applejack tipped her hat back. "Ah can see that." She went back to Pinkie Pie and said, "He's sillier than ah imagined him to be."

"But he matches the description Rainbow Dash gave us." Pinkie Pie admitted. Her tail whipped behind her happily. "OH! And apparently Nimbus was looking for you anyways."

"Me?" Applejack repeated, looking over Pinkie Pie to see Nimbus helping Apple Bloom pick up and reorganize the basket she had spilled. She hadn't expected that out of somepony Rainbow Dash was friends with in the past, except for Fluttershy. Usually they shared her same ego filled personality, but only with the lack of respect, loyalty, and kindness. Going back to Pinkie Pie, putting Nimbus on a higher pedastool than her first impression of him, she asked, "What did he need me for?"

Answering for Pinkie Pie but keeping his eyes on the task he assigned himself, Nimbus replied, "You had talked to my friend, Nora, and she told me that - there's an apple behind you to your left" Nimbus pointed to the apple behind Apple Bloom with his wing. "She told me that you had found out somepony had planted some pest in your farm." He got up and held his wing out for Apple Bloom to set the basket on.

"Ah'll tell you first that I didn't talk to her directly, but yeah!" Applejack leaned on her left onto the now empty wagon. Her voice was now holding a hint of poison in it. "Somepony did put a bunch o' parasprites in mah farm. It had a timer and ereeything."

After Apple Bloom set the basket gently on his wing, Nimbus held it up to the height of his shoulders. "Had any shady characters come by past your farm before or after that?" It was probably more than likely that The Apple Family Farm was being hunted by shark loaners, but he had to make sure and who.

"Now that you mention it, yeah, there were these fancy smancy dressed stallions in pin stripes who came by exactly the day before we found out. They said they would offer us protection if we hoofed them over some bits. Ah told them no, repeatedly, until they marched off angrily. You reckon it was them?"

"Without a doubt. I think I might even know who it was." Nimbus looked down and off into space as he went deep into thought. What would Said-So want with such a large farm? He only deals in sharking small businesses and stealing old relics. He then remembered the other apple pony he helped awhile back. Though, he and his crew did have her hostage and asking a lot of questions. What does he want with this family? They're apple farmers, successful ones, really successful, but why them? What do they have?

He scratched his chin with his free wing and asked Apple Jack, "Do you happen to have some old family trinket that could be worth anything, do you?"

Nimbus then felt a quick breeze past his neck and below his chin as the weight of the basket left his wing. "Hey!" Apple Bloom yelled, making Nimbus turn his head towards her. Apple Bloom ran away from him a short distance and continued to yell. "Our apples, they're stealing our apples!"

Nimbus looked past Apple Bloom to see that she was running in the direction of the thief who stole her basket. Applejack chased after her sister with all her speed. "Apple Bloom get back here! You too, thief!"

The thief turned and made a smile that Nimbus found to be possibly the whitest smile for a criminal he'd ever seen. The thief flashed into a bright blue light before reappearing on a roof above her. "Ha! Come at me, bro." She said, taking the time to taunt Applejack with her tongue out.

Nimbus' unopened wing flung out like a switchblade as he ran towards the thief unicorn before taking lift off. He made his body narrow and straight to cut through the wind quicker.

"Oh, shit! He's coming at me!"The unicorn dropped the basket off her hoof and into the grasp of another unicorn's magical grasp down below her.

The unicorn below shouted to the one on the roof. "Initiate "The feline pursuit"." The unicorn up top nodded before running and jumping onto another roof.

Nimbus groaned as he chose to let the roof top running unicorn get away and chased after the second one instead. He landed hard on his hooves as he started to give chase to the unicorn on hoof instead. The second was surely going to run in between the buildings to get away. They figured Nimbus couldn't fly at him fast enough between that narrow passage without crashing into something.

The second unicorn smiled and commented on Nimbus before running away from him. "Impressive for a pegasus." It wasn't everyday that somepony saw a pegasus run instead of fly in a chase. Fortunately for the thief, it told him that Nimbus was from around here to have known how narrow the paths were between the buildings.

The second unicorn ran impressively backwards as he drew what Nimbus thought was a plain sword at first sight from behind his shoulders. When the unicorn pulled a firing hammer from behind the hilt of the sword, Nimbus realized this was a combination pistol sword. He had tricked Nimbus to follow him into a long narrow path with an overhead. Aiming at Nimbus was hardly even called a task. He winked at Nimbus and pulled the trigger.

Without so much as breaking a sweat, Nimbus saw the bullet coming and Aim Dodged it with a tilt of his head away from danger. He smiled and winked back at the backwards running unicorn.

The thief grunted and fired several more even wilder shots at Nimbus, all missing their target with one going way above Nimbus' head. He clicked the gun three more times to confirm it was empty to himself and Nimbus. The unicorn skidded to a stop on his hind legs and held the tip out towards Nimbus to keep him at a distance. "Hmm, most impressive."

"Can't say the same about you. You're kind of dumb for a unicorn." Nimbus teased, swatting at the sword with his wing to tempt the unicorn to go for a stab and miss.

"A unicorn always has a plan. Did you already forget about my friend from earlier?"

Nimbus' smile faded as he slouched his shoulders and groaned, "Awwww."

He turned around to see the first unicorn throw a punch at his face. With a smack, he fell to the ground like a spread eagle.

The male unicorn nodded at the female. "One punch, not bad,"

The female began to gloat and sat down on her hind legs as she grabbed her flexing bicep and squeezed it. "Well, I have been training at the gym a bit more." During that distraction, Nimbus got back up, tackled the female, and rolled on top of her before pinning her shoulders down.

In a mocking tone, Nimbus remarked, "You might want to keep going back."

The female unicorn went "Whoa" before purposely blinking quickly at Nimbus. "Wow, you are really easy on the eyes."

The comment threw Nimbus off a bit but not enough to take the unicorn behind him out of his peripheral in case he finally decided to take a stab at him with his back turned. "Huh?" Of all time and places to get a compliment, and who to get it from, why did it have be here, now and a criminal?

The female gently pushed Nimbus' head out of her way to address her colleague. "Run along without me, Strings, I'm being held in custody."

She turned Nimbus' head roughly back in front of her and asked, "Now where were we?" as she started to run her hoof up his golden mane.

What the hell is going on? Am I in some messed up porno? Nimbus picked his head up and away from the unnamed mare. "Lady, I don't know who you are"

"Evoleht" she whispered in Nimbus' ear after pulling on his mane and whispering seductively into his ear.

Strings rolled his eyes and dropped the basket he stole behind himself. "Alright, get off my sister before I reload my sword."

Nimbus jumped up and behind Strings, kicking the basket between his legs before it could get stolen back. I-is this a prank or something? He watched as Strings picked up his sister to her hooves. This has to be the strangest (and most arousing) chase I ever done, Nimbus admitted to himself before slightly tucking his tail between his legs.

Evoleht swiped her brother's hoof away from her once she was on all fours. "Lacey Strings, do you have to screw up everything?"

Nimbus stifled a laugh. His name is Lacey Strings? Peering around to see what his cutie mark was, Nimbus saw that Lacey Strings had a pair of shoes upside down with a hammer above them as a cutie mark. Celestia's sweet shining ass, he's a cobbler.

"Me?! You just mentioned our real names." Lacey Strings holstered his sword back behind his shoulder.

Nimbus looked down at the apple basket behind himself. He titled it back and forth like a baby inside a crib. I should probably get this back to Applejack before these two decide they want them again.

"Well, duh!" Evoleht tapped Lacey Strings on his head. "I'm trying to get laid over here."

But I can stick around for a little bit longer. Nimbus' tail wagged behind him as he cautiously kicked the basket behind him, careful to not spill any.

Strings neighed in disappointment. "He's probably not even into you."

Pushing her brother away, Evoleht stepped slowly towards Nimbus in a very temptress fashion. "I can fix that fact easily."

Not even all the power of Celestia could stop Nimbus' tail from wagging at this moment. I am so glad I came outside today. What happened next couldn't have any proper warning on it. Before his very eyes, Evoleht went from a white unicorn with green eyes and blue mane to a pegasus of the same features. Nimbus slapped himself to make sure he wasn't seeing things. This mare was another changeling! Okay, I'm scared again.

"Evoleht!" Strings shouted and cutting a wound through the air as he drew his sword back out. "What are you doing?!"

Seriously, how many of these damn things live among us?

Evoleht pouted and stomped all her hooves around in a circle like a child in a store who wasn't getting a toy that day. "Will you shut up?" Her hoof changed in a flash into a bears arm, swiping at her brother's head. "You never let me have anything."

Scooting back a bit, Nimbus brought up his wings and pointed behind him. "I can go." In the same way she changed her hoof into a bear claw, Evoleht's tail flashed and grew longer, wrapping around Nimbus' neck and pulling him back to her with the tip of her tail over his lips, hushing him.

"No. You. Stay."

Nimbus nodded repeatedly.

"Thieves!"

"Eeyup!"

All three ponies turned to see the Applejack and Big Mac running at them with fury in their eyes. "Nimbus, pin them down!" Applejack ordered.

Evoleht went back to a normal pegasus form after using her tail to place Nimbus over top of her again. "Well, who's going to argue with that?" She grabbed Nimbus' hooves and placed them back on her shoulders. "Oh my, lookie where we are again." She lowered Nimbus' head and licked the inside of his ear before throwing him back up and yelling. "Oh no, brother, he's got me. Save yourself." On a side note, Nimbus admitted to himself that she was a better actress than Evening, though not by much.

Big Mac and Nimbus both looked at one another before Big Mac shared the smile Nimbus was hiding on the inside and gave him an approving "Eeyup!"

Nimbus giggled to himself. Is this what they mean by sexually confused? Cause I have so many emotions going through my body right now.

Even if he tried to, Strings wouldn't have gotten too far away from the three of them before coming back for Evoleht. He huffed and threw his sword back into his hostler. "Okay." He nodded and started to shove Nimbus off of Evoleht. "You got us. You got your apples. Just let us go."

Evoleht kicked her brother out of the way and brought Nimbus back on top of her. "Ten more minutes."

"What in tarnation is going in around here?" Applejack took off her hat and stretched her neck out.

"Applejack, this is not what it looks like. I"m actually innocent here." Nimbus confessed.

"Eeyup." Big Mac agreed, nodding to his sister.

Applejack shook her head. "Not that." She pointed her hat past Nimbus. "That."

Behind them, a hulking pony was standing behind Nimbus with a face not even a mother could love. "Ma'am, I think these are yours." The hulk threw the basket of apples Applejack and Big Mac had ran all the way out here for. Big Mac snatched the basket with his teeth better than any trained dog could so calmly.

"Uhh, thanks?" The hulking pony still posed to be a pretty intimidating sight, despite his kind gesture. The ponies who walked out from behind him didn't help his case or seem any better than he was.

The hulk of a pony grabbed Nimbus by his tail and dragged him back. "But this is ours."

"You let him go, ya hear?" Applejack threatened, placing her hat back over her head. "Ya'll don't want to know what happens when ya hurt a friend of the Apple Family, do ya?"

Big Mac, with the basket still between his teeth, bellowed a deep, "Nope!"

If Nimbus' tail wasn't currently being held at this very moment, it would have been wagging. Gasp! We're friends already?! ...why did I think the word "gasp"? Nimbus, still having his tail tugged on, stood up on all fours. "Applejack, go back to your little sister. She's going to need you two more than I am."

"Ya sure about that, pardner?"

"Yeah." Nimbus nodded. I think.

Applejack gestured to Big Mac. "Come on. He'll be okay."

Under his breath, worried for his new friend, Big Mac knew in his heart the true answer. "Nope." He still respected Nimbus' request though and left him to deal with this how he wanted it.

Following behind them, Lacey Strings and Evoleht were only a few seconds behind them. "Hey, don't forget about us!"

"Ya'll stole from me!"

"Meh, that was the past." Evoleht snapped her hoof innocently at Applejack. "You can trust us now."

"And weren't ya unicorn?"

"...no, that was another thief."

Nimbus felt lighter now that Applejack and Big Mac were out of harm's way. The hulk pony picked him up and held up to his giant stone face. Poor Nimbus swung back and forth like a lonely ornament on a Christmas tree. "So who are you guys, Trotting Talon?"

The hulk negatively shook his head with a grunt. "Try again, bird brain, or instead." He twisted Nimbus around to his back so he could see who all was with him. Every single pony here was strangely unique in their own way. The first one that caught Nimbus' attention was the one in the mask which he recognized from last night. Loony Bin's crooked teeth were hidden behind his mask as he smiled at Nimbus.

"My boy, long time no see."

Nimbus looked at the sun's position, which still could be seen through the cloth overhead above all of them. "It's only been a few hours."

Loon Bin nudged Evening Primrose, who Nimbus had just now noticed. "Look at him." Loony said, swinging Nimbus back and forth with a poke to his chest. "Even on the brink of danger, his sense of humor doesn't go away."

Nimbus looked at Evening Primrose's unicorn disguise and was surprised to see her wielding a sledge hammer aimed for his ribs. "Octave" He referred to her by her new name because he wanted to believe that she was somehow still innocent in all of this. What other reason would she have to betray him? "What are you doing?"

A large swing went for Nimbus' ribs as a response. He groaned and went to grab his ribs but it hurt even worse to try sitting up while hanging upside down. Another thundering strike went for the same side, this time actually cracking one of his ribs. The pain only intensified when Nimbus was dropped by the hulk pony.

The hulk pony walked around to Nimbus' front and pressed a heavy hoof on his head. He turned to the others and asked, "How long do you think it will take for me to stand on his head before it smashes like sparrow's egg underneath Pebble Stone's hoof."

His name is Pebble? Nimbus couldn't help but laugh at the irony. What is he a rock farmer?  Ha ha...ha, actually that would explain a lot.

Alloy, the steel coated unicorn was revolving three steel marbles around himself like planets around the sun. "He seems pretty tough, put on those boots you have, they'll crush him much faster."

Lifting his hoof up off Nimbus' head, Pebble flicked both his wrist, making a snapping sound to turn the metal bracers he had on into a matching set of full metal boots.

Dude, I want those.

Pebble placed his hoof back on Nimbus' head and began rubbing his metal boots across it. The rough metal underneath tugged and pulled on his hair's with each stroke, making Nimbus squirm a little.

Not on my head though.

One of the others stepped up and his shadow grabbed Pebble's to pull him physically off of Nimbus. "Said-So said he wanted him for himself. You know what happened last time." The shadow pony's shadow pointed behind him and to an Earth pony armed with a pair of knives on the sides of his wrist and a blow dart strapped to his side. He's most noticeable feature was the one eye he was missing.

"Yeah, and I'm a little sensitive about it." The ninja looking pony held up his right front leg and propped the knife to extend past his hoof. "Don't make me do the same thing to you, Vodun."

"Do you just want to reveal all of our names, Sanguine? I thought you ninjas were supposed to be discreet." Vodun bullied, his shadow pushed Sanguine's, shoving him back a few inches.

"He already knows more than half of us." Toledo said, coming out from the back. His sword trailed behind him like a fan colt.

Nimbus struggled to calm down as Pebble continued to slowly rub and pull the hairs on his head. "What does Said-So want with the apple family?"

Every single pony looked to Loony for an answer. His voice echoed with bass underneath his mask. "If you've been following my brother for as long he said you have, then you must know how fond he is of his relics." Loony Bin used to magic to ease Pebble's heavy body off of Nimbus. "The old coot who lives there is said to have been around during the time of The Fellowship Wands."

"Then why is he planting parasprites in her home?"

"My brother already tried politely asking her what she knew about them, but she insisted on staying quiet. He believes a few pest eating several hundred of her apples might help her jog her memory."

"And why not make some an annual salary off of them while were at it?" Evening Primrose added to Loony's answer.

"That's how they make a living! They need them to feed their family and others."

"And Said-So needs the wands to defeat and stop the return of Nightmare Moon." Alloy manipulated and shaped one of his steel marbles into an accurate replica of Nightmare Moon while expanding one of his other marbles to represent the moon behind her.

"What? She was banished to the moon a long time ago."

Toledo stabbed his sword into the ground a few inches away from Nimbus' muzzle. "Her return will be inevitable in about three months. So the clock is ticking."

"You're not going to hurt them." Nimbus slid out from beneath Pebble before he could place his hoof back on his head again. Standing wasn't too much of a problem. In all honesty, his ribs were cracked but not broken. He'd just have to be careful about letting them attack that side or extending too far with a punch.

Before he could get into a fighting position, Nimbus was grabbed by Loony Bin's magic and held up in the air like a statue being lifted by a crane. Loony Bin pulled him closer to face him. Once Nimbus got close enough, he tightened his muscles and twisted his own body with a hard jerk to release himself from Loony's hold. Everypony's eyes were wide with surprise that Nimbus was able to get out of the telekenesis. He laughed after landing on all four's. "It pays off to know two unicorn nerds who do nothing but study magic. Kinda rubs off on you."

This time Alloy threw a marble at Nimbus which he easily dodged out of the way of. "That wasn't even the speed of a bullet. You gotta do better than that."

Alloy gestured behind Nimbus with a nod of his horn. Nimbus turned around to notice that Alloy had expanded that one marble into an odd shaped almost horseshoe like object that was perfect for holding him down by his wings. He fell again and actually couldn't move around as easily as he could when Pebble was standing on him. He tried to twitch and twist his body around, but Alloy just kept moving the object around to keep Nimbus in place. One of the steel marbles revolved around his head slowly, passing past his eyes every few seconds, while Alloy's last marble revolved around himself.

Alloy kept his distance from Nimbus while most everypony else made a small school circle around Nimbus, leaving a gap large enough for Alloy to see him. "You're full of a bit more surprises than we credited you for. I don't know too many other non-magical individuals who can break out of magic like that, except for Ursa Minors and Majors of course, but that's self explanatory.

Pebble leaned over casually to Sanguine and asked him, "Why's that?"

Without taking his eyes off Nimbus, Sanguine answered, "You seen how big those things are? It takes an insane amount of magic to even lift a baby." He drew his sword out that nopony even noticed he had on him until now. "There's an old art with the sword that's been long forgotten." He aimed his sword up and let the shiny blade glisten, despite the lack of sunlight in the alley. "A true master could make one hundred cuts to a hostage's body without hitting anything vital or killing him. When Sanguine's sword appeared to have teleported over his head still held in his hoof, a delayed sound was heard imideately afterwards, along with a long cut across Nimbus' face that barely broke the skin.

Sanguine brought the tip of the sword to Nimbus' muzzle to began to drill the blade into it. "You claim to be the fastest Pegasus in Equestria, but how will you fare against the fastest ninja in all of the world?!" Sanguine's glowed red as he began to manically laugh to himself and ego.

Even though a sword was nearly puncturing his nose, Nimbus brought up a tip of his wing that was free and make the same gesture a teacher would make when teaching a new subject. "Uhhh about that whole fastest Pegasus thing."Sanguine's laughed stopped immediately but his eyes remained red and locked on Nimbus. Swallowing air, Nimbus continued to explain. "I know about seven, at least, other Pegasai that are way faster than I am. Number one, there's Spitfire from the Wonderbolts. Actually, if you want to get real technical, the entire Wonderbolts team is faster than I am, except for Soarin on a bad day.

The corners of Sanguine's psychotic smile slowly progressed into a frown throughout Nimbus' rant.

"I also remember hearing about some other pony who said she could make lighting eat her dust." Nimbus' eyes widened when he next said, "Ahh, and there was that one pony in my class that holds the record of all time in our school. She even performed a Sonic Rainboom!" Nimbus licked the bottom of his lips as he tried to remember the mare's name. "What was her name? It's on the tip of my tongue."

Evening Primrose peered at Nimbus curiously. "Didn't you say that was your friend, Rainbow Dash?"

After the signal was given, Rainbow Dash broke through the group and flew in between all of their hooves, tripping every single one. She looked as to why Nimbus wasn't moving and yelled at him. "Run, dumbass!"

"I can't, I'm stuck, you horses ass! Don't you think I would have tried that already?"

Rainbow Dash groaned and sprinted to Nimbus' aid. She slipped her wings underneath the weight of the odd horse shoe on top of Nimbus. Nimbus looked at her and asked, "Why did you wait up there for so long? Didn't you see I was in trouble?"

"You're always in trouble." Rainbow Dash argued. Veins popped up from her neck as she tried to lift the heavy object off of Nimbus. "I'm going to need your help. When I say three, lift."

"Okay." Nimbus nodded.

"GO!" Rainbow Dash strained and pushed her face against the heavy object as she tried with all her might to lift it. "Are you even trying?"

"...no."

She yanked her wings from underneath and slapped Nimbus across the face with both simultaneously on opposite sides. "Why not?"

"You said on three!"

"I said three!"

"No, bitch, you said 'Go'." Nimbus hollered at Rainbow Dash. Looking behind her, he could see that Pebble was getting up first before everypony else. He pointed behind Rainbow Dash and warned, "Look out!", but it was too late. By the time Rainbow Dash turned around, she was rudely introduced to Pebble's metal boots. She flew back over Nimbus and her back received the full impact of the wall behind her. "Rainbow Dash!" Nimbus growled and pushed his hooves into the dirt in front of himself.

His entire body began to vibrate violently and look like a blur to everypony's eyes. Nimbus felt like the wind and air around him was passing through his body instead of against it. His good heart was pumping at an incredible speed with an unbelievable calmness, while his other bad heart was destroying itself to keep up with it's partner.  Nimbus roared as he appeared from the bottom of Alloy's trap on to the top of it. He had moved the molecule's in his body to the frequency of air and was able to escape.

Gasping for air and unable to breath, Nimbus fell to his knees and placed his other front leg to his chest. He knew better than to excite himself like this, but what other choice did he have. Attempting to calm himself down, Nimbus breathed in through his nose and out his mouth as much as he could control it. "And...that's what I call getting out between a Rock...and a hard place." When he felt like everything was going to be okay, he looked up just in time to see Pebble with both his hooves clutched together and raised high.

Reacting quickly, Nimbus Zero Shifted into Pebble's chest, landing a crushing headbutt right into him and being far too close for Pebble to land his strike. The blow to Pebble wasn't enough to exactly hurt, but it compensated by pushing him back five feet away.

Pebble's back legs drug a few inches into the stone walkway while being pushed back. He picked his hooves up and stepped over the rubble. "Now, this is what I'm talking about." He could see Nimbus clutching his chest tightly again like earlier. He looked like he belonged on a football field. Obviously, Nimbus could move and react quickly, but his body could only suffer so much. He laughed watching the Pegasus cough for air. "Let me give you something to take your mind off of the pain in your chest."

At that instance, Pebble jumped up and tore through the overhead above him, out of Nimbus' sight. When he came back down, he ripped a second hole in the overhead and landed on Nimbus' right wing. Nimbus' entire body was slammed to the ground with Pebble crushing his wing. He had easily broken several bones in Nimbus' wing. To make matters worse, Pebble rotated himself and grinded the shatter bones into smaller fragments, almost dust.

The pain was excruciating, Nimbus could feel the bone fragments tearing through his skin and bleeding through the feathers. He closed his eyes and fought the tears wanting to break out of their prison.

Continuing to twist and grind, Pebble laughed at Nimbus' struggle. Picking up his hoof, Pebble hovered it over Nimbus' other wing. "Say good bye to flight!" Before he could stomp fast enough, a shotgun blast hit his boot and pushed him off Nimbus. He looked forward to see Talitha armed on both sides of her with 12 gauge shotguns.

She extended her wrist to load another two rounds into the chambers. She said nothing and unloaded another two 12 gauge slugs into Pebble's chest this time. Pebble's tough skin and hard body resisted the penetration if Talitha's rounds and shattered them into pieces. He growled and jumped off of Nimbus, his mammoth weight body rumbled everything around him. Talitha looked around to see everypony else that was behind Pebble Stone.

Vodun noticed her first out of everypony else. "Talitha." She stared in silence and set the focus of her shotguns shadow onto the shadow of Vodun's. She fired another two shots at his shadow. Vodun's shadow fell and brought Vodun down along with it when it got shot in the legs. Vodun didn't feel the shadow's pain, but he couldn't get back up since his shadow couldn't.

Talitha aimed at Sanguine next and pulled the trigger by flicking her wrist. A click echoed from both her guns and did so again when she tried to fire another round. "Shit!" She swore and unattached her guns weighing her down. Luckily she did so fast enough because right after, Sanguine leaped at her with his sword and swung at her head. She ducked, dodging it and drew her own sword out with the end of her tail.

The wind whistled when Talitha cut through it with her sword and got blocked by Sanguine's sword. Sparks flew when the two blades grinded and slid off each other. She huffed when she jumped back away and gained some distance from Sanguine. Her tail was shaking from the vibration her sword sent down her spine.

Determined to not be outmatched by such a low level sword master like Talitha, Sanguine breathed in deeply, ready to make a sound breaking slice through Talitha's body. As soon as he was ready to draw his blade, a small pink filly was resting on his head, armed with a heavy wrench above her head.

"Hey" Sugar Bomb asked, resting on Sanguine's head, "How's it going?"

Sanguine hadn't ever seen this pony before. How could she have moved so swiftly in such a small amount of time? She wasn't a ninja. This little filly wasn't even wearing the proper ninja attire like he was. In Sanguine's mind, she wasn't real, there was no way. He, Sanguine, was the fastest pony in all of the world! Not this filly, not Nimbus, not Rainbow Dash, only he!

Sanguine's sword helicoptered over his head after Sugar Bomb had already ducked and rolled off of his face out of the way. He breathed in quickly and swung his sword in front of him, clipping the tip Sugar Bomb's tail. With a follow up swing and slashed the left side of Sugar Bomb's cutie mark, a small laceration. The cut was thinner than a hairline, but deeper scratch.

Sugar Bomb yelped when she hurried to Talitha in a panic. "He just tried to kill a child!" She pointed to him like an animal in a cage. "Kick his ass, Tali girl."

"Yeah, him and his other fucking goof friends." Talitha made sure to keep each and everyone of them in front of her. She looked directly to Toledo, who was taking cover behind Pebble with his sword drawn out in a long guard. Twisting her head and cracking her neck as loudly audible as she could for everypony to hear, she asked them all, but keeping her eyes on Toledo. "What is it that Said-So has against Firebolt?"

Everypony in front of her exchanged glances between one another. Loony Bin and Evening Primrose spoke to one another in a whisper at the same time, unable to understand what the other one said.

Being a gentlestallion to her, Loony Bin let Evening Primrose go first. "Said-So didn't saying anything about killing Talitha, did he?" Loony Bin shook his head no. Evening smiled and put her hoof on Loony Bin's shoulder, confusing him with what intentions her gestures meant. She explained further, "Let's take her out. It'll be easy. There's..." Evening Primrose couldn't remember exactly how many of them there was, and she didn't fell like investing the time to count either. "There's more of us than there is of her."

Looking out of his peripheral vision, Loony Bin saw Alloy's unconscious body rag dolling through the air towards Evening and himself. He ducked quickly and pulled his new changeling friend down him, barely saving her from the impact.

Alloy crashed into the end of the alley twenty feet where Loony Bin was, sliding down it like a rain drop on a window. His body fell hard alongside with his marbles, which he lost complete control of when Talitha threw him.

Evening tossed Loony Bin's helping hoof off to the side as she looked up to see that Toledo was the only one left standing from the rest of her team, besides Loony Bin of course.

The text book perfect long guard kept Talitha at a comfortable distance away from Toledo. Although, he was growing more disturbed by the lazy amount of effort she was putting in to get around his sword. He anticipated her to go to the left and went for a stab. Just like he was taught, he stepped forward with the move.

Timing her reaction just a bit off, Talitha was able to draw her own sword with her tail again and deflected Toledo's attempt. Due to her miscalculations, Toledo was able to make a small incision from the bottom of her throat down to the bottom area of her ribs. The penetration barely broke the skin enough for her to actually fell it. The cut actually hurt more afterwards healing then when it actually cut her. Keeping her sword over Toledo's, she walked around her own tail and closed in the distance between herself and Toledo. Her muzzle was less than an inch from his, and if she hadn't wasted her last two shots on Vodun's shadow to incapacitate him, she could have wasted Toledo right then and there.

Instead of actually defeating him, Talitha added insult to injury by grabbing Toledo by the horn and pulling him behind her like he was a piece of trash she was sick of carrying around until the next dumpster.

Evening was surprised by the mare's skill. For a pony with such a large frame, Talitha reacted quick enough to put the basic Pegasus to shame, especially being as heavily armed. "H-how did she take out everypony? We talked for about twenty seconds!" She looked to see if Loon Bin would protect her from Talitha if need be. Not to her surprise, Loony Bin had moved just as fast as Taitha, staying in between her and Evening Primrose. Evening didn't know what caused Loony Bin to have such a sudden change of heart from when he was choking her hours earlier today, but she was incredibly grateful for it.

Loony Bin breathed in deeply, careful not to close his eyes. He ignored Evening telling him to kill her and professionally talked to Talitha as properly as possible. "What do you think of your pupils?" He could hear Evening gasp a little behind him after his question.

Talitha kept her tai wrapped around the handle of her sword, but laid the tip of the blade down to the ground, keeping it in front of herself. "To be honest", Talitha began, the permanent angry frown on her face curved  a tiny bit higher, but not enough to be even be mistaken for a smile.    "I'm quite ashamed to have been the one who trained them. They should have been able to kill me , but yet here I stand." She looked down to the small cut Toledo made on her. "Except for that pretty one. Her only problem is her confidence. Who is she?"

Loony Bin chuckled under his mask and cleared up Talitha's confusion. "That's Toledo, and he's a he."

Talitha snapped her neck nearly into tiny pieces when she whipped her head around. She peered at Toledo hard enough to finally notice the width of his shoulders. She turned back to Loony Bin and talked in a surprised tone that was a step above sour. "Get. The Fuck. Out of here! That's a guy?"

Loony Bin nodded his head. He had never seen her frown come any closer than three inches below a smile like this before, not even when her kids were born. In fact, now that he thought about it, her frown curved even lower when she gave birth to her first daughter, Aero Dynamic. That frown of hers hit a new world record low when Fire Bolt (Nimbus) was born five minutes later.

Coming back from his flashback, Loony Bin noticed Talitha was now holding both her and Toledo's sword in her tail. She read the word sketched on Toledo's blade out loud. "University of Mareland - Fencing Club. You got to be fucking kidding me." She tossed Toledo's sword behind her. "Said-So's offering jobs to college ponies now? What happened to the ponies you and I used to work with?"

Tracing the outline of his mask, Loony Bin slowly reminded her, "You killed them all and left me to die."

He watched her high frown go back to normal when she admitted, "Yeah, I did!"

Nimbus gasped as he rolled over his good wing to avoid injury to the other. He could fell the wind blowing in the alley push into his open wounds. There were tiny fragments of bone stuck to his feathers, falling off as he lifted it in the air to look at the damage. This was it. He was never going to be able to fly again. That is if his hearts didn't give out before then. He clutched his chest tightly and groaned. Both his hearts were playing drum solos at completely different rhythms and paces from one another. His weaker heart hurt the most and felt like it was going to drop to his stomach anytime soon.

He felt somepony softly touch his shoulder before lifting them up onto their shoulders. Nimbus gasped as he tried to speak and ask who they were. The only word he got out was, "Who?', before he nearly fainted. Even though his hooves were inches away from his face, Nimbus felt like they were leaving him as they drifted farther away from his sight.

Careful not to put more stress than there already was on Nimbus' body, Rainbow Dash positioned him very cautiously on her back, while giving herself enough room to fly comfortably. She laughed about all the times she used to ride on Nimbus' back due to the fact she didn't feel like walking or flying. He had never openly complained about it openly to her, but to keep a light mood on things, she humorously joked about his weight. "When we get back, we REALLY need to get you on a diet plan." She smiled when Nimbus slowly lifted his one good wing to give a vulgar middle feather.

Looking at Talitha, Rainbow Dash whispered, "I don't know who you are, but thank you." She saw Talitha's ear twitch before she turned and started to fly away with Nimbus.

Evening Primrose saw the two Pegsai flying off and went for them. Her wings buzzed as she lifted herself over Talitha and Loony Bin. She hesitated a quick second when Talitha swiped her sword over her own head and aimed for her. "Loon!" She screamed for his help, respectfully using his actual name rather than the derogatory one his brother gave him.

Loony Bin used his magic to grasp Talitha's sword by it's blade and fight her for control of it. He yelled at her, "You betrayed us. We trusted you. I trusted you." He aggressively threw Talitha's sword out of reach behind him, accidentally nearing Evening's head.  "Why, why did you leave me behind?" He went to headbutt her with his horn aimed for her neck, but he had entirely forgotten about Sugar Bomb who was resting on top of her head quietly this entire time.

With little effort, Sugar Bomb took her giant wrench and hammered it into the top of Loony Bin's head. The blow sent Loony Bin to the ground with a fuzzy vision and a loss of his own concentration.

Answering his question, Talitha bent down to his level and whispered into his ear. "I didn't leave you behind, you couldn't keep up." She hopped over him and grabbed her sword with a quick whip of her tail. Sheathing her weapon back behind her and dropping her shotguns off from her side, Talitha looked up and watched Evening Primrose gaining on Rainbow Dash. She suspected that Rainbow Dash must still be hurt  from Pebble's sucker punch. She was actually quite impressed that she got back up so quickly,and she even gave her extra credit for picking up Nimbus and flying away with him."

Sugar Bomb looked down at Talitha, waiting for her to make a comment. Noticing the filly's anticipation, Talitha said, "I'll tell you this, he sure can pick 'em", referencing to Nimbus' choice of mares. "Speaking of which" Talitha looked over to see that nopony had tried to attack her from the back and had ran off instead, except for Vodun and Sanguine. She stepped over to the to of them and bit the back of Sanguine's left back ankle and grabbing the shadow of Vodun's tail with her own. "I guess I'll pick you two for interrogation."

She signaled to Sugar Bomb, telling her what she needed to do. Sugar Bomb gave her a small salute and began taking out dynamite that were far too big to have realistically fit in her small saddle, but Talitha knew physics and logic didn't apply to Sugar Bomb. Since she had never known Pinkie Pie, Talitha thought Sugar Bomb was the only creature who could do such a thing.

Setting down her two new hostages into a corner, the first question, Talitha asked them was, "What does Said-So want with Fire Bo-" She shook her head and corrected herself. "Nimbus. What does Said-So want with Nimbus?" She would have preferred to call him by his birth name, but  she didn't feel like explaining it to the two of them.

Not surprisingly, both Sanguine and Vodun were intolerable. Sanguine told Talitha that what she was doing would ultimately lead to her death, and Vodun made exotic foreign nosies at her from a Zebra language he learned while practicing voodoo. His shadow however was struggling to move around on it's own.

Inhaling deeply, Talitha drew her sword out with her tail and held the shadow of the blade to the throat of Vodun's shadow. "Sanguine what's that practice called where you put a hundred cuts to the body, careful not to kill them?"

Sanguine remained silent and didn't answer. He could feel Vodun shaking next to him. Even though Vodun was immortal, his shadow wasn't and without it he would die. Looking back, he should have stuck to only coming out at night.

"How many do you think I'll make it to, Sanguine?" Talitha looked to Vodun and casually pulled the blade back smoothly like a marble rolling through sand. In the place of blood, Vodun's shadow leaked through his newly opened wound and escaped up in the air. No scream came from Vodun as his body began to disintegrate into a black fog.

Nonchalantly, Talitha said, "Wow, didn't expect that." She held her sword up to her eyes and added, "Guess I"m not as good as you. Could use some practice." She slowly rested the blade on Sanguine's neck. There was no reaction or response to Talitha's threat. She warned, "I"m not going to ask you twice." Sanguine jut lifted an eyebrow and gazed down at Talitha's sword then back at her. "Look, I don't really have time to screw around. I'm kind of on a tight schedule."

"Unlike obviously specific parts of your body." Sanguine commented with humor.

Talitha pulled her sword back from Sanguine's neck, slightly nicking him. She held it over her head dramatically before driving it into the middle of the chest. Blood coated between Talitha and Sanguine wider than the radius of a fragment grenade. Sanguine let out a muffled grunt and grabbed his chest tightly. He looked up at the handle to see that Talitha's tail tip was still wrapped around it.

Talitha glared down with her alluring purple eyes and slowly spoke, "You know I know how to hurt you." She nearly jumped when Sugar Bomb hopped over her shoulder. The adorably unfitting filly lifted Sanguine's chin with her giant wrench and said in a low growl, "and how to kill you."

Sanguine blinked an unimpressed expression at Sugar Bomb before looking at Talitha. "You told the child cutting my head off is the only thing that can kill me?" He tried to stand up right but Talitha had pushed the sword deeper into his chest to keep him down.

Sugar Bomb kept the growl in her voice as she continued to speak. "You kidding me? A bottle of whiskey and one hour later, Tali here will tell you anything."

Sighing, Talitha shoved the sword deeper into Sanguine's chest until she pinned him into the wall. "Stay." She picked up Sugar Bomb by her tail with her own tail, waving her around and away from Sanguine to talk to her privately. Before she got too far away, Talitha swung around to Sanguine and added, "And don't go anywhere."

Waiting until Talitha got out of ear shot and started talking to Sugar Bomb, Sanguine struggled and twisted around underneath the sword. Giving up and sighing, he told himself, "If I don't know her better, I'd call her a smart ass."

Talitha held Sugar Bomb upside down by her tail. "Why are you always playing around?"

"I consider calling it 'horsing around'." Sugar Bomb giggled.

Sighing, Talitha slapped her face into the ground after the lame joke. The afternoon hadn't even started yet and she was already regretting her own existence. Life was already hard enough now that Aero Dynamic was being a sports model and appearing on the front cover of every "sports" related magazine.

"Halt!" A very loud and booming voice roared behind Talitha and Sugar Bomb. Both their ears rang as they slowly turned around and expecting to see a knight or police pony with a megaphone, but to their surprise it was a lonely Unicorn dressed in head to hoof in Old Empire armor that Talitha swore she recognized.

"Have we met?" Talitha asked Wondrous, who she was mistaking for Slash. She looked over to where she left Sanguine and without too much of a surprise, he was no longer there. Fuck me. That was my only and favorite sword. Looking to where she left Loony Bin, Talitha saw that he had either gotten up by himself, or sanguine snagged him before completely getting away. Fuck me with pigtails, he's gone too?! She frowned hard at Wondrous, figuring that she was probably just as powerful as her father, if not even more. Without a weapon, she'd probably struggle to take down Wondrous,but not without risking Sugar Bomb getting left behind, which she would go back for anyways.

Seeing how her last questioned wasn't answered, Talitha asked another. "What do you want?"

With her voice echoing inside her father's helmet, Wondrous answered in a growl, "Dark Wing."

Talitha was surprised by the answer. Ever since she saw Nimbus last night she had completely forgotten about Dark Wing. She expected to run into her at the club since she knew that's where she'd been seen before. Talitha risked a step forward. "It seems we have a mutual target."

"I"m not sharing." Wondrous replied back sourly, "Out of revenge for my father, she's mine to take."

So that's how she got the armor. Talitha was wondering if she had stolen it or not. She shrugged, "Fine, let me ask her a few questions, and then you can have her all to yourself."

"No problem, but that's all!" Wondrous magical aura began to envelop, making the hairs on Sugar Bomb's back stand up nervously.

"I wasn't asking your permission, but thanks."

Wondrous aura floated her a few inches off the ground and lifted her towards Talitha a few inches from her face. "I don't think I like you."

Half-ass laughing, Talitha truthfully admitted, "I sure hope that's true, because I know for a fact I REALLY don't like you."

Wondrous' aura was now "steaming" all around her body. She looked deep into the iris of Talitha's eyes while she did the best she could through her helmet. The purple in Talitha's iris danced wildly like fire as they stared back. "There's something 'inside' of you, isn't there?"

"Don't piss me off and you'll be safe." She turned around and began heading for Ponyville, picking up her shotguns on the way. "I got somepony in town who could help us." Without looking back and using a gesture from her tail, Talitha said, "Come on, let's go."

Wondrous looked down at Sugar Bomb questionably, wondering why she's with Talitha. The tiny pink filly looked back at her and nervously laughed with a smile. "Heehee...I-uh my eyes don't do that, just...Talitha's." Wondrous just looked silently at her again. Sugar Bomb adjusted her bomb saddle before running after and waving at Wondrous. "Well, you heard her. Come on...heehee."

Allowing her magic to calm down, Wondrous dropped back down to the earth of Equestria. If her father found out who she was getting help from, he came cut her branch from the family tree. Hopefully, if he never met her and found out she helped get Dark Wing, that may not happen. Before heading after the strange duo and walking through the alley of carnage she missed by a few seconds, she whispered to herself, "I HATE equinewolves" and judging from the tattoo or markings she couldn't make out underneath Talitha's eyes, Talitha was pretty dedicated to the lifestyle. "Especially marewolves."