5 - Second Glances

After an extended farewell to Fluttershy and her collection of animals, Twilight took Shining Armor back to Ponyville to Sugar Cube Corner for lunch. Pinkie squealed with delight at finally meeting Twilight's brother and asked a seemingly unending barrage of questions about what it felt like to be in somepony else's body, which Shining Armor answered as best he could; (Though some of the questions about the possibility of swapping bodies with pine-cones or baby crocodiles left him a bit speechless.) After that, Pinkie danced on the table and sang a song that began as a welcome for Shining Armor, then turned into some sort of idea for a party where everypony swapped bodies with each other, then into something that neither Twilight nor Shining Armor quite understood, but had something to do with everypony in the world swapping bodies all the time and never having the same body for more than one day. It was weird. When Pinkie was finally done, she ordered a cupcake eating contest in honor of Shining Armor and the new body swapping utopia his coming heralded. Twilight and Shining Armor were glad for the cupcakes, at least they got Pinkie's mind off body changing.

Twilight was disappointed with how agitated Shining armor seemed around Pinkie and with how quickly he suggested leaving after the cup cakes. This was meant to be a holiday for Shining Armor; she had hoped that the Element of Laughter would be able to help in his recovery, as laughter was one of the best remedies for stress there was, but instead Pinkie had just made him more agitated. Twilight knew she needed to do something to loosen him up; especially if he was going to one of Pinkie’s parties in a few days. (Pinkie had wanted to hold a welcome party for him that evening, but Shining Armor convinced her to wait for a few days, and only by agreeing to the reluctant compromise that she could introduce him as being Twilight’s circus performing, bull fighting, third cousin from Haywaii.)

Outside Sugarcube Corner, Twilight noticed that Shining Armor had stopped and was eyeing some distant trees suspiciously, like he thought they were about to attack him. He checked the position of the sun and looked back to the clock tower and then back to the trees. “I thought the Everfree Forest was only on the south side of Ponyville.”

“That's Whitetail Wood, it’s perfectly safe, the plants are controlled by the earth ponies and the weather is controlled by pegasi, like normal.” A wave of nostalgia passed through Twilight’s gut at the same moment an idea flew into her brain, “Hey B.B., do you remember how we used to play hide and seek in Canterlot gardens when we were kids?”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” Twilight suddenly levitated a bulb of cold water from a nearby fountain and splashed it over Shining Armor, “You’re it!”

Shining Armor blinked the water out of his eyes and opened them just in time to see his sister disappear into the dense foliage. He smiled, picked up some loose leaves and bits of dirt to pay her back with, and then gave her a twenty second head start.

…........................................................................................................................................................

Rainbow Dash sat on a floating chair of cloud, high above Ponyville, refereeing the ongoing game of cloud soccer by the Wonderbolts. They were too high up to be recognized, interrupted or distracted by fans, and Rainbow had no intention of getting low enough to let those things happen. Whether she just wanted the sight of her old home to help keep her sanity, or if she was waiting for the day when she'd find an excuse to go down and visit her friends, she didn't know. Whatever the reason, these was the Wonderbolt's secret training clouds, even if it did take them most of the morning for them to get out here.

Below her the Wonderbolts whizzed back and forth in a game of cloud soccer. A few months ago she’d suggested splitting the Wonderbolts into two so they could press each other to their limits; the Wonderbolts had thought she was joking, but at least they were willing to split for a short game. If Rainbow kept giving them little exercises like this, it might be enough to motivate each of them to strive for their personal best. If there was one thing they all had in common (except being stupid), it was that they all hated losing; and now that they were split, losing is what would happen to exactly half of them each game. If nopony wanted to be on the losing team, they would all have to try hard and be creative. Competition was the key and cloud soccer had been one of Rainbow's favorite games ever since Cloudsdale, when she and Gilda had ruled the roost each sport day, (though Gilda had insisted the game had originated in Gryffindor and that the proper name was Quidditch.)

Rainbow smiled at how clever she had been; why hadn't she thought of this before? Already the peer pressure to perform was taking effect on both teams. Soon the Wonderbolts would be faster and stronger than ever. This was it! Finally, after months of searching, she had discovered how to motivate them. Strange, it was just two days after meeting Silent Storm—coincidence? Rainbow had started wondering if Storm ever played soccer when the dark blue cloud ball she had got from the weather factory flew into the wall of white cloud that marked the perimeter of the field. Quick as a flash several Wonderbolts from each team dove into the cloud after it, and almost instantly Surprise flew back out with a ball and threw it through team Wonder's hoop. “All right!” Surprise shouted, “One point for team Bolt.”

“Hold on!” shouted Wave Chill, who was the Wonder goal keeper, “There's no way you could have found the ball that fast.”

Surprise grinned cheekily at Wave Chill, “Surprised?”

“Not at all” said Blaze, the caption of team Wonder, “I reckon you cheated! You stashed another ball in the cloud, then got Soarin' to kick the real ball into the cloud, got your fake ball out, and tried to score with it. You little cheat!”

Dash swooped down between Blaze and Surprise, and pulled them out of each others’ faces. “Blaze, don't accuse Surprise just because you don't like what happened.”

“But it's not the same ball, Dash. Look, the ball that Surprise took out of the cloud is a totally lighter shade than the one Soarin' kicked in.”

“It's only lighter because the blue cloud mixed with the white.” Surprise retorted “It's still the same ball!”

Dash knew how to settle this. The real ball was blue because at its heart was a small dye capsule which she had wrapped it in several layers of cloud. If it was the ball she had made, the capsule would still be there. Dash got the ball from Lightning Streak and brought it to the center of the field where everypony could see it. One whack from her hoof cracked the ball open and out dropped a small blue capsule.

“See, See!” shouted Misty. “The Wonders didn't like it when we finally got a point and so they accused us of cheating. I think they deserve a two point penalty for that.” The other Bolts nodded their heads in approval.

“You sure this is the same ball Surprise?”

Surprise looked around at her teammates for support and found plenty “Positive, it has the dye capsule in it doesn’t it?”

Rainbow groaned in disappointment, “Then maybe you can tell me why this capsule is brand new, and was only cracked open a minute ago. I broke the real capsule over an hour ago; it should be half this size by now.”

Surprise backed up a bit, “Well... what I mean is… it’s sort of the same ball… you see - "

Fleet Foot spoke up in her teammate’s defense, “We only cheated because team Wonder cheated first! Fire Streak bumped Spitfire when she was about to make a shot; that's totally against the rules!” within seconds, the Wonderbolts fell to quibbling.

This was more than Dash could bear; Canterlot society looked up to them, they were supposed be better than this. Dash silently prayed that something would happen that would refocus the Wonderbolts’ attention. Funnily enough that's exactly what happened, and she soon wished she hadn't asked for it. Without warning the clouds on one side of the field gave way and a gray pegasus plummeted toward the Wonderbolts— well, plummeted into them would be more exact. Whoever she was, she was going way too fast, or couldn't see where she was going, or both. Whatever the reason, she came out of nowhere and crashed into Spitfire, who crashed into Wave Chill, who crashed into Firestreak, who crashed into Rapidfire, as a wall of spontaneous thunder broke sarcastically over the cloud field.

“Sorry.” groaned Derpy as she slowly untangled herself from the wondrous mess she had made.

“Derpy?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“Hi Rainbow Dash” croaked Derpy as she waved with one hoof and rubbed her head with the other, while her eyes seemed to spin in opposite directions.

“What are you doing here?” asked an exasperated Dash, “Can't you see we're training?” Dash suddenly remembered promising Silent Storm she would apologize to Derpy for not wanting to be associated with her around other ponies, and she would say sorry, just... not when there were other ponies around.

“I have a letter for you. It’s from Celestia.”

“The Princess? What does it say?”

“Hold on, I'll get it for you” Derpy turned around to the mail-bag on her flank and tried several times to open it; failing because she was trying to open it from the bottom. Dash realized before Derpy did that the leather strap connecting the bag to Derpy's harness was twisted, and the mail bag was being worn upside-down with the bag's mouth hanging open; any mail that had been in there was long gone. Eventually it dawned on Derpy that she was holding the mail bag upside-down. She unhooked the bag from her harness (almost dropping it in the process) and stuck her mussel inside looking for Dash's letter, finally realizing it was empty. Derpy's ears drooped and her hooves shook slightly as she held out the empty bag for Dash to see.

Dash looked between the empty mail-bag and Derpy's sheepish expression and tried to contain her rising anger, “What did the letter say, Derpy?”

“I don't know. I was just picking up the mail from the Canterlot post office when a pony ran in and said there was a letter from the Princess that had to be given to you right away and that it was urgent. I was the only mail-pony there so I volunteere - ”

“Can't you do anything right!?” bellowed Dash, losing any pretense of compassion, “That was an important letter and now I have no idea what the Princess wanted!”

Derpy cowered and backed away; she looked to the surrounding Wonderbolts for comfort but found none. She understood the gravity of her mistake, but she made no attempt to cover it up or make excuses, “I just don't know what went wrong. I was flying around looking for you for a long time, because I didn't know where you were, and somewhere between those big clouds over there,” she gestured helplessly, “I must have... dropped your mail.”

“Of course you dropped my mail! If you hadn't dropped it you would still have it and I would be reading it by now!”

“I'm sorry,” pleaded Derpy, “Please don't be angry, I was trying to help.”

“GO! AWAY!”

“But...” stammered Derpy, “I could go look for it. If I looked really hard I'm sure I could - ”

“Forget it! Go lose somepony else's mail. You've done enough here already, now SHOO!” Dash shoved the mail bag into Derpy's chest.

Derpy slowly attached her mail-bag back to her harness (the right way up this time) and left without another word. Dash watched her go; seething with annoyance, tingling with guilt, and trying to plan her next move.

“What are we gonna do, Dash? That letter was probably important. We might need to go back for an emergency performance, or to get our pictures taken or something.” High Winds definitely sounded concerned.

Dash was about to order the Wonderbolts back to Canterlot post haste to get their orders repeated, but then had a better idea. Ponyville was practically beneath her. Twilight was there... and Spike. Dash could write a letter explaining what had happened, have Spike send it straight to the Princess; and have a response in less than half the time it would take to fly to Canterlot. “Keep practicing,” she shouted as she dove toward her old home, “I'll be back with a copy of our letter in no time. We don't know what the letter will say, so be ready for anything when I get back!”

…........................................................................................................................................................

Shining Armor bounded around the trunk of a large tree, he could see Twilight about thirty paces off but she hadn't seen him yet; if he did this right she never would. Shining Armor picked up speed and zeroed in toward his sister, who turned to face him seconds before he reached her, her sweet lavender eyes filling with terror.

“DON'T!” she cried, but it was too late. One of the razor sharp swords Shining Armor was levitating flashed forward and caught her across the neck, cutting the jugular and spraying blood in every direction. She wasn't dead yet though, as she hit the forest floor she screamed with all the strength she had left, “PLEASE, STOP! IT'S ME!”

That infernal voice! Shining Armor wouldn't listen to it again; he would end it. “LIAR!” he yelled as he brought his other sword swooping down, severing her head from her body. As the head rolled across the forest floor the purple body went into spasms; Shining Armor began hacking with both swords, rending flesh and gore until it was beyond recognition. He continued trampling his sister’s corpse even after it had stopped moving; splattering layer upon layer of her blood unto his pure white coat.

WHAT HAD HE DONE!?! Shining Armor looked down to see his coat had turned a dark red, soaked with his sister's blood! He yelled, and shook and kicked against the sheets, trying to get the awful redness off him. But the red wasn't coming off, it would NEVER come off! He would be guilty of his sister's blood for the rest of his life!

“Shining Armor?” Shining Armor looked up; to see the decapitated head was floating off the ground, talking to him, mocking him, accusing him with silent words of death. He clamped his eyes shut and hid his face under his hooves. “Shining Armor, are you alright?” He forced himself to look again. The head looked concerned, had regrown a body, and was standing in the doorway next to Spike. The head spoke again, “After we got back from the glade last night you fell asleep right away. Spike decided to keep an eye on you, and when you started kicking and yelling in your sleep he got me. Are you OK? You look like you've seen a ghost?”

A dream… ? But if his sister was still alive, whose blood was he covered in? “You’re not dead?” he gasped.

Twilight's eyes showed she was worried, but she tried to make her voice sound calm and comforting. “I'm alright B.B., you were having a nightmare.”

Shining Armor glanced down at his fur, “Then why am I covered in blood?”

Twilight looked confused for a moment; then tried to explain, “You’re not covered in blood you’re covered in sweat. Your fur is red because you swapped bodies with your friend, remember? You’re in Ponyville now, it's Wednesday, and everything's OK; it was just a nightmare. Princess Celestia said there might be unforeseen side effects, you do remember, don't you?”

Shining Armor was slowly starting to remember, but the dream had seemed so real. For now it seemed he hadn't murdered his only sister and that was enough for him. With his heart still pounding, he checked one more time and realized he wasn't really covered in blood. Getting up from the floor beside the bed he threw his trembling hooves around his younger sister's neck. “Thank you for not being dead.”

“You're welcome, I'm glad I'm not dead too.” Twilight's fear was giving way to relief but it was nothing compared to what her brother was feeling.

“I love you Twilight.”

“I love you too.”

Suddenly there was a crashing sound and a rainbow-maned pegasus Shining Armor had never seen before fell through an open window, talking quickly. She shouted something about needing to borrow a spike; took one look at them, and her eyes went wild, “WHAT!? HOW COULD YOU!? LIAR!” That was all Shining Armor could make out from the insane creature’s furious shrieks. He took a step forwards to protect Twilight in case the intruder attacked, but his fears were ungrounded. The angry pegasus simply yelled till she ran out of breath; then flew back out the way she had come, crying.

Shining Armor glanced at Twilight who looked as confused as he was; then stared out the open window at the faint train of rainbow the pegasus had left in her wake. “Well that was random,” he said at last. Convinced the mentally deranged pegasus was gone; Shining Armor looking over his shoulder to Twilight who looking scared at having just had her house invaded, “It’s OK,” he said comfortingly, “She's gone, just some crazy early bird. If you’re worried, I could put up an energy shield around the tree house.”

“First of all, it’s not early, its past noon; you slept a long time. Second, that wasn't a random pony; I know her, her name is Rainbow Dash.”

“Does she have a habit of flying in through windows, asking for spikes, yelling uncontrollably, and leaving in tears?”

“No, she’s never done that before; she used to be one of my best friends, but she moved to Canterlot last year ago and I've only seen her a few times since. Whatever happened, she's obviously upset; we should go after her.”

“Before we rush after an angry pony you haven't seen in a year, we should try to figure out what's going on, and why she thought a spike would help.” the words were still on Shining Armor's lips when both unicorns turned to Twilight's dragon assistant who had been standing quietly behind the door until now.

“Don't look at me; I have no idea what's wrong with her.”

“Well… do you have any information from Canterlot that might be relevant?” asked Shining Armor.

“Well I did get a message for you from the Princess a few hours ago, but you were sleeping so I didn't open it.”

Twilight looked annoyed, “A few hours Spike? Why didn't you say something before?”

“The letter wasn't for you,” Spike retorted, “It was for Shining Armor, and the last thing you told me last night was to let him sleep as long as he wanted. He only just got up now!”

“Whatever,” Shining Armor was getting impatient, “Rainbow Dash is getting further away and we still don't know what’s wrong; is that it there? Give it to me.”

The scroll floated in front of Shining Armor and unbuckled itself as his horn lit up like a lamp so he could read. His eyes began breezing over the scroll then stopped, and he started again more slowly, reading every word carefully as his lips pressed together in a hard line and his ears flattened against his head. He finished the letter; then threw it into a corner. “Spike, stay here; start packing saddlebags with food—whatever you can find that can be eaten on the move, will last a few days, and won't require preparation. Pack as much as you’re able and keep doing that until we get back, and get some blankets as well. Twilight, that mare, Rainbow Dash, does she have any connection to the Wonderbolts?”

Twilight nodded, “Yes, she's their team captain. Seriously, B.B. I knew you were busy keeping the shield maintained, but I thought you would at least-”

“We need to find her; now!” Shining Armor was already racing for the door, “There no time to explain, just trust me. Come!”

…........................................................................................................................................................

Twilight initially didn't think she would be able to catch up to her brother in his stronger, faster, borrowed body, but he was still getting used to his new legs and stumbled once or twice, giving her the chance to narrow his lead. Neither of them would have stood a chance to catch Rainbow Dash in a straight race, but fortunately for them, Dash either didn't know where she was going, or she kept changing her mind. Nevertheless by the time they had followed her trail to the edge of Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight were breathing hard. Plunging into the apple orchard, and weaving to avoid low branches, they kept following Dash’s chaotic rainbow trail. Twilight's eyes were so busy scanning the treetops above her that she almost didn't see Applejack carrying a bucket of apples and just barely avoided running into her.

Applejack dropped her apples as Twilight skidded to a halt, “Twilight! What’s the hurry sugarcube?”

Twilight stopped just for a moment, “Apple... Jack,” she panted, “Can you help us catch Rainbow Dash? It’s important.”

“What in tarnation? Rainbow Dash is in Canterlot ain't she?”

“She's back in Ponyville... not sure why; but she's in your orchard, don't know why either. But she's getting away; can you help us catch her?” Applejack looked confused. “Please, you have to trust me.” That was all AJ needed to hear; leaving her apples on the ground and grabbing a coil of rope from a nearby tree branch, Applejack galloped after Twilight.

…........................................................................................................................................................

Storm felt as though he was spinning, not just one way, mind you, but like his organs were spinning clockwise, his bones counter-clockwise, and his skin was doing somersaults. Ponies couldn’t vomit, but Storm still felt like he was emptying his stomach into his lungs, bladder and brain simultaneously. Nevertheless, he would gladly have felt that way for as long as possible, if it meant delaying his arrival at the destination on the other side of his portgem. The sensation of spinning stopped almost as suddenly as it had begun and Storm felt moist earth under his body. He closed his eyes, hoping against hope that he was still in the palace or even Fillydelphia, but the smell of the rotting trees was unmistakable.

He was home.

After a long moment he opened his eyes, to see an endless sea of dense trees stretching in every direction. Their branches were twisted into cruel, demented shapes, but Storm knew that they were just coverings for the things that hid behind them. They had to get inside before they were seen. Storm looked beside him to where Cadance sat dumbly, looking around at the trees as though she were expecting to find Fillydelphia hidden under a branch or inside one of the tree hollows. Storm tried to speak but she didn't hear, instead she rose on shaky hooves and started spinning in slow circles, trying in vain to take in their surroundings, then looked back at Storm as if hoping for some sort of answer.

Storm steadied himself and tried to push to his hooves, but sharp pains ran up his legs and he collapsed. Again he tried to rise, this time he almost made it until the hawk of one of his front legs gave way underneath him. He began falling forwards and braced himself for agony knowing that any one of the twigs beneath him could easily tear open the fragile flesh on his chin or throat. But before he hit the ground Cadance was suddenly under him; supporting his chest with her neck, she slowly raised him to his hooves and helped steady him.

Not taking the time or effort to try to thank Cadance, Storm took one shaky step and then another toward a large hill crowned with several dead trees. He probably wouldn't have made it if Cadance hadn't walked beside him every step of the way, supporting him with her own body. Storm stopped at the foot of the hill and tried to muster his telekinetic energy, but failed. His heart sank in despair but then he remembered the confused mare by his side. At least now she was paying attention; if he couldn’t give her verbal instructions, maybe there was another way he could tell her what to do. Storm mustered his energy once again; it was faint, but just enough to make a little light dance along the forest floor. She didn't see it. He tried again and this time the small light caught her attention. Finally, when Storm had almost passed out from exhaustion, Cadance finally realized that the light was moving up and down a length of rope, hidden under the fallen leaves. Cadance's horn glowed brightly as she raised the rope and, seeing nothing better to do, pulled. Immediately a section of the hill rolled back like a canvas, revealing a gaping black mouth that led into the side of the hill.

“Inside.” whispered Storm, hoping they hadn't already been spotted.

Chapter six>>> Reality Check