The Brothers Don't

Shining's horn sparked. "What?" he breathed in a menacing tone.

Flash bumped his forehooves together. "Uh... you should really just hurry down and see for yourself."

Shining and Macintosh looked at each other. "Zephyr Breeze?" Shining asked.

"Nnnope," Macintosh growled.

They galloped to the back of the upper level while Flash Sentry resumed his fetal position behind the pilots.

As they thundered down the stairs, Shining tried to take in the bizarre scene revealed below. Spitfire was shouting and chasing Zephyr from one wall to the other over and over. She was much faster than him, but every time she got close he pulled her mane or threw a cot in her path.

"Shining!" Spitfire shouted. "Arrest this stallion at once!"

Shining Armor cast a quick spell with his horn, trapping Zephyr in a pink bubble of magic.

Zephyr turned his head around inside the bubble and grinned. "Oh, hey there, bro! Wh-what's going on? Heard about the rescue mission, cool, cool... cool stuff."

Shining's face turned a shade of pink much angrier than his magic. "Zephyr," he said quietly. "What are you doing here?"

Zephyr blinked innocently. "Uhhh... taking a nap?"

"Raaaurgh!" Shining charged at Zephyr from the bottom of the staircase.

Zephyr shrieked and hid his face behind his hooves.

Shining stopped just outside the bubble of magic and began shouting. "You may have jeopardized the most important rescue mission in Equestrian history! What am I supposed to do with you now? I can't trust you to do a single damn thing without being constantly supervised!" Spit flung from his lips and dotted the magic shield as Zephyr cowered. "You are immediately relieved of duty, dishonorably discharged from the Equestrian Military, and sentenced to prison without a trial until the end of the war!"

"Shining, that's a little excessive," Spitfire said, her voice hoarse.

"For him? Not at all!" Shining said. "He's lucky I didn't sentence him to death!"

"Come on, Shining, calm down." Spitfire gave him a dirty look. "We've all had our say, let's just calm down."

Shining breathed hard and sat down on his haunches. He rubbed his eyes and nodded. "Okay, okay, you're right. I'm sorry, Zephyr. I shouldn't have said that. But you are dismissed from the military, and you are not to reapply until the end of the war."

The magic vanished, and Zephyr dropped on all fours. He gulped. "Does that mean I can go home now?"

Shining stared at him. "What? No. Do you know where we are?"

Zephyr took slow steps toward the back of the craft while he said, "Yes, I do, thanks to these fine ponies informing me that we have flown five hundred miles north of the Crystal Empire, which, while I realize would be quite an undertaking, can theoretically be traversed by wing, and as I am in complete accordance with the, uh, sentence you have placed upon me, I humbly ask your permission to leave you expert ponies to your expertise and, assuming that you're all okay with that as it's clearly for the best, I bid you farewell and wish you luck rescuing the Princess."

His hoof suddenly reached up for a small lever on the wall. "Say hi to Flutter Butter for me." He winked.

Spitfire lunged forward. "Shining, don't let him—"

Zephyr pulled the lever down, and the exit ramp dropped wide open.