Chapter 74 – Trouble in Paradise

It had been a week now, seven full days of practice, preparations, and exploration. Lao had gotten his coat on the second day and thoroughly enjoyed the snow outside. Breeze taught him all about snowball fights, snow forts, and snow ponies, the two bonded more than ever. Rainbow would be nearby, and sometimes simply watched. Though during their explorations together, the two would get further and further from the garage as they checked out the area. "Boy." Breeze said during their latest advance through the snow, "A pony could easily get lost up here." he said as he turned around and saw the garage as a small mark on the surface of the snow.

"No kidding." she said in agreement, and turned to see the exact thing he was seeing, the tiny garage, so far away, "Hey Breeze." she suddenly said, catching his attention, "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." he said, "What's on your mind?"

"Well, it's something Tusks told me, right after the big fight we had." she said.

"Why wait so long?" he asked.

"I guess, I couldn't find the words." Rainbow guessed, "But, I'm still having a hard time with your past…you know?"

"Oh." he said, and she could clearly see his ears as they folded under his hood.

"Not, that hard of a time." she said, trying to get him to have some kind of confidence as well as not send the wrong message, "It's just…your past actions sneak up on me a lot." she said, and he lifted his ears, "And with such a big one, I guess it was hard to take in…you know?"

"You're telling me." he said in response, "I've had to really step up with Lao."

"And not with me?" she asked teasingly. The two laughed a little at her comment. "It all got too much, and with what she said…"

"What did she say anyway?" he asked.

"She knew about the assassinations, more than even I knew of." the pegasus admitted.

"Not from me, that's for sure." Breeze said with both confusion and confidence.

"She also told me that…you'd betray me one day." she said, "Her eyes started glowing, and then she said…I'd die because you'd be too late to save me. You'd lead me into danger that I couldn't get out of and leave me there." The look on the cyan pegasus' face told of sorrow and fear, "Then she said that, you'd be happier with her, and that I do nothing but hurt you." she said and turned to him, "Sorry about hitting you so many times, I guess I let my jealously take control too much."

"Apology excepted." the grey unicorn told her, "But just to you know, I can take it. I've been through war way too much not to be able to do at least that."

Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit, "Still, I'm gonna try and control it." she said.

"Thanks for that." her special somepony said, "And as for the betrayal…I'd never do that purposefully. I'd even break myself to save you. Her little prophecy was influenced by her own jealousy. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

"Thanks." she said as she snuggled her head into his neck.

"Speaking of going somewhere…" he said, and turned to her as she looked at him in confusion, "Wanna go check that out?" and he pointed with his hoof towards what looked to be a stone of some kind, four roughly shaped pillars surrounding it on all four corners and just barely inside the green grass of the mountainside. From where they stood, it looked pretty small.

Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe later." she said, "Don't forget, you promised Lau that you'd play with him today. We'll check it out tomorrow."

"Oh yeah!" he said with a grin, "What would I do without you?"

"Probably lose your scarf or something like that." she teased. The two giggled about it as they made their way back to the garage. Once again, the two of them failed to notice the silhouette above them on the hill.

For a few more days, Rainbow Dash was enjoying the rare warmth of the sun with no wind as it seeped into her fur. She turned, spying on the other team members as they performed their duties. Blade trying one more adjustment on the wings of the Rainbow Trail Mk2. probably trying to make them sturdier and able to turn during her boost or something, she wasn't really sure what he was trying to say. Breeze kept Lau entertained as they zipped around the garage. Today was a great day. As she turned back to the sun rays, she noticed the tail end of a light-green scarf as it disappeared behind the door, "Huh?" she asked herself and made her way to see what it could have been. Turning the corner, she saw nothing. The green grass standing still in the strange windless mountain. So, she followed the wall and looked around. When she found the snow, she was footprints. Freshly made and going both ways. "Is somepony there?" she asked as she lifted off of the ground with a flap of her wings. She followed the prints a short way, and then looked up to the top of the hill that she and Breeze had been on when she had finally told him how she felt about what was on her mind. There, at the crest of the small hill stood a figure, dressed in white fur and the light green scarf hanging there. The fluffy white hat atop its head, obscuring any details Rainbow could even try to decern. "What the…?" she asked herself and flapped her wings to make her way towards the figure, landing right in front of it, "Who are you?" she asked in a defensive voice. The figure smiled; the pale skin stretched with the pink lips to show off the pearl white teeth underneath. The figure then moved its hands, lifting the hat and pulling the scarf away from its face, revealing a very familiar form, "Oh." the pegasus said in disdain, "It's you. Cya-O-Ur."

"You all thought you could hide from me?" she asked.

"We did nothing like that." Rainbow said, "We just moved on."

Cya-O-Ur's eye twitched at the concept, "After stealing my husband, you steal my child?"

"We didn't 'steal' Lau." Rainbow said, "And he's happier with us than I ever saw with you!"

"How dare you…" the Talu woman began.

"Look, I know you came here to fight." Rainbow interrupted, "You're probably going to try and say something to make me mad or upset at Breeze again, but you know what? I don't want to hear it! You came looking for us, but I'm not going to let you hurt me, or Breeze, OR Lau ever again. And so far, all you can do is scare me with false prophecies and future lies. I'm going back to the garage, when you actually feel like confronting the others, let me know…by knocking on the door." With those last words, the blue pegasus turned around and took three steps before the snow beneath her collapsed and she fell into a pit in the ground.

She could hear Cya-O-Ur begin to laugh, "You forget." the Talu woman said with glee, "I can predict the future. I know just where to put my traps."

"Yeah?" Rainbow asked with a grin on her face and opened her wings, "You forgot I can fly." with a few flaps of her wings, she lifted herself out of the hole, only to get struck by a flying rock the same size she was. The moment she hit the ground, she could feel the pain in her left-wing, it wasn't broken, but it was definitely injured.

"Oh, I didn't forget." Cya-O-Ur said with sinister glee, "And you should know that I've planned the most painful way for you to die." She then leaned in and whispered, "Not so false now, is it?" as she drew a small plain-looking dagger from inside of her coat. Rainbow let her ears fall in fear, so as quickly as she could, she lifted herself from the round, back onto her four legs, and ran. Again, she was hit with a large rock, one that struck her on the side. This caused her to stumble onto what she thought was a bush, only for the bush to lurch forward and toss her a considerable distance away from the garage. "I told you, I have seen every move you make before you make it. It does not matter what you do, I am the guide of your fate, and I choose how you will die."

Inside the garage, Lau laughed as he chased the twins around, Blade sitting near the garage door as he let his eyes close and soak in the sun. "You three play nice alright?" Phis said as she made her way through the garage. She was picking up dirty rags and tossed jackets, scarves, and other articles of laundry she could find.

"You spoil us, my dear." Piks said as he neared her, placing his arms around her waist.

"One of us has to earn our place in the garage." she teased, and suddenly heard Lau as he called out in pain. They all turned, seeing the boy gripping the shells on his head as his eyes shined with an ethereal light. "What happened?" she asked as she ran up.

"We don't know." Livs said as she placed her hands on her mother's apron.

"He just yelled, then his eyes started glowing, and now he won't get up." Divs finished as the boy tried to comfort his friend.

"He's having a vision." Breeze said as he walked up to his son, "It's ok Lau, just relax."

"MOTHER'S GOING TO KILL RAINBOW DASH!" the boy shouted, and then pointed outside as far right of the door as he could, "At the rocks!"

"WHAT?" Breeze shouted.

"I see them." Blade called back. He had taken a few steps outside after he had heard the announcement.

"I gotta go!" Breeze said in a panic.

"Too late, she's pinned and it's too far!" his brother said.

"Then throw me!" the unicorn said and disappeared. Blade had very few precious seconds to think, instead, he stood up to his two hind legs on instinct, lifted his right foreleg just as Breeze appeared, and like a javelin, tossed his brother before the thought even registered. Then in a panic dove into the garage and hit the button to cause the garage doors to appear, sealing them inside. It took less than a second for all of this to happen, it all went so fast that the door took longer to close than for those two boys to finish their actions.

Outside, Rainbow had lumpingly made her way towards the rocks, the pillar-like stones that jutted up surrounding a large flat boulder. She had just made it around the stone when she was seized upon by an arm and pinned to the bolder. There she stood, Cya-O-Ur, the crazed grin on her face and dagger in her other hand, dangling at her side. "Why are you doing this?" the pegasus asked.

"For the sake of my perfect future." the Talu said and lifted the dagger above her head.

The moment he left Blade's hand, he jumped. The Air Flash he had made plus the momentum that was given to him from the strongest pegasus in the universe caused his vision to blur, and all sound to stop the moment his hooves were in the air. He knew he needed to get to them, he was so focused. The moment he was thrown, it seemed like time stopped for him, but he kept moving. Air itself moved aside for him to pass. He could watch himself arrive, and with what should have been impossible movements, he reached down and picked Rainbow Dash up from the grip of Cya-O-Ur, the blade in her hand moving painfully slow as he plucked his pegasus friend from her grasp and turned midair to slam his hooves on the ground and try coming to a stop. He failed, toppling over in the last seconds and tumbling as he held onto the blue pony. Suddenly, the sound came back, and the next thing he heard was the crash as the vacuum he had created collapsed in on itself with such force. He didn't want to even see, the damage this crash caused. He could hear Cya-O-Ur's scream of pain as both of her hands twisted and shattered in unnatural directions and ways. The scream of pain that for some reason, reminded him of the nightmares, just as he blacked out from the pain that he felt in himself.