The Hidden Adventure

Chapters

Prologue: The Hidden Adventure
Chapter 1: A Fateful Meeting
Chapter 2: Return to Equestria and a Problem
Chapter 3: Helping Out Discreetly
Chapter 4: A Friend From Everfree
Chapter 5: Cliff Hanger
Chapter 6: Fissure
Chapter 7: The Best Young Flyer Competition
Chapter 8: A Horrible Accident
Chapter 9: Cliff's Past
Chapter 10: Friends
Chapter 11: The Preparations
Chapter 12: The Grand Galloping Gala
Chapter 13: Survival

Prologue: The Hidden Adventure

“Get up maggots!” barked a dark green earth pony stallion as he opened the door to the dormitory of the new recruits of the Equestrian royal army. Groans could be heard all over the room, except from the far left corner of the room where Dusk Flamer, a considerably young, dark grey, unicorn colt was sitting up, stretching. Dusk then got up, ruffled his dark red mane and promptly stood at attention by his bed.

“Wake up you filthy maggots!” The stallion shouted in a loud harsh voice, “And stand at attention by your bunks on the double!”

In a matter of minutes, everypony in the room was at attention by his bunk.

“Today is the day that you maggots prove your worth in the Equestrian royal army!” He barked, “My name is Hay Blight, but you maggots are only permitted to address me as General Blight. Am I understood?”

“Sir yes sir!” The recruits replied.

“For todays agenda, you maggots will be enjoying the Equestrian royal armys special; Hell Training,” General Blight said with a slight smile, “I can assure you, after today, at least a quarter of you will be whining like foals to be relieved of duty, a tenth of you might be accepted into the advanced course and the rest of you will remain maggots. But before that, let us enjoy a standard military breakfast.”

At this, some of the recruits sighed in relief.

“Follow me,” General Blight commanded, he left the room and the recruits filed out behind him. He led them down a large hallway into a humongous mess room with ten long oak tables, each table capable of seating twenty ponies. The recruits broke off from their line and filled up the three tables nearest to the entrance with earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns in separate tables. The rest of the tables were filled up with higher ranking soldiers with the generals furthest from the entrance to the mess hall.

On each table, there were twenty plates of questionable green goop and pulpy, old carrots. Many of the recruits made a face of disgust at the food, some even pretended to gag. Of those who did eat it, many of them were forcing it down their throats; one of two of them even threw up across the table. The only colt out of all the recruits who did not make a fuss or showed any outward signs of trouble ingesting the food was Dusk who ate the revolting food with ease.

After a while, the soldiers marched out of the hall in order of rank, generals first and recruits last. Some of the recruits, incapable of stomaching the harsh food, passed out in the mess hall and had to be sent home on account of ‘food poisoning’.
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Celestia’s sun beat down on the field with its full intensity in the midday heat, baking anything under it in a thirty-five degree Celsius temperature. The recruits lined up on the field outside the military training facility, sweating profusely. Encircling the field was a track and in the field, there were weights, hoops and other various training equipment. General Blight walked in front of the recruits.

“Now we will begin Hell Training,” General Blight said in a loud voice, then pointing to the track with a hoof, he said “we will begin by first doing twenty laps around the track and no flying.”

The recruits lined up along the extensive track and General Blight stood at the starting line. “On your marks,” He said loudly, “get set, GO!”

The recruits began running, they completed the first lap with ease but by the tenth lap, many of them began slowing down quickly and by the twentieth lap, all of them were exhausted. The dark green stallion approached the panting platoon. “Now how was that for your first exercise?” He said in a taunting voice, “Get up and split into earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns!”

The recruits, despite being tired and out of breath, did as they were told; soon there were three lines of ponies standing at attention on the field. The general then walked up to them, accompanied by four earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns.

“Alright maggots,” He barked “these here are my assistants for your training.” He pointed at the ponies accompanying him and then turned his attention back to the recruits. “For earth ponies, you will be lifting weights,” he said, motioning to the weights. “For pegasi, you will be flying through hoops,” he said, pointing at the hoops. “And for unicorns, you will show us what you can do.” He said “now don’t delay, begin!”

The first earth pony approached the stack of weights and easily lifted up eighty kilograms of weight upon his brown hooves, impressing the assistants as well as General Blight who nodded in approval. The first pegasus flew up to where the pegasi assistants were holding the hoops at varying heights. The red pegasus darted through all the hoops at Mach speed, garnering an applause from the pegasi recruits and assistants. The first unicorn stepped forth and his horn began to glow a dull orange. Soon, the ground beneath him rose up and began levitating. This got an approving nod from the assistants.

“Maybe this batch of recruits will produce many fine soldiers,” General Blight mused to himself.
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General Blight sighed and facehoofed as the rest of the recruits went about their training, many of the earth ponies could not even lift the standard weight of fifty kilograms, a large amount of the pegasi kept crashing into the hoops or missing entirely and almost all of the unicorns’ ‘unique’ or useful ‘magic’ were in fact either overused or useless. Many of the new recruits were already begging to be sent home.

“I was wrong,” The general told himself, “This batch of recruits is not even going to produce ten decent soldiers.”

“What do you mean you’re not going to perform your magic?” he heard one of his unicorn assistants say. He walked over to where the voice was coming from to see a young, dark grey unicorn colt with a dark red mane arguing with the older unicorn assistant. “I said that I can’t perform my magic here,” Dusk replied calmly, “I never expressed any desire to not perform it.”

“What’s the problem?” General Blight asked.

“This here colt refuses to perform his magic for us,” his assistant explained. General Blight walked over to the young colt.
“What’s this?” He said, eyeing the young colt, “aren’t you a bit young for the military, son?”

“No sir.” Dusk replied.

“I think you are,” General Blight said, “but I’ll let you join if you’re magic is useful, so go ahead, show me.” The colt shook his head and said, “I’m sorry sir but my magic is too dangerous to be displayed openly.”

“What?”

“I said that my magic is too dan-“

“I caught what you said the first time you grubby maggot,” General Blight said in a dangerously soft voice, “I meant what kind of magic could a half-pint size shrimp like you pull off that could possibly endanger everypony in this entire field?”

“You’d be surprised sir,” Dusk said.

“I’m sure I would,” The general said in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “If you could perform anything that could even shock me I would be thoroughly surprised.”

“I really could sir,” Dusk said, almost cockily.

“Then show me,” The general said in the same soft and dangerous tone.

“No sir,” Dusk replied firmly. General Blight then yelled, “If you want to join this military, you’d better wisen up and show your useless magic already!” his sudden outburst caused all the ponies, recruit and assistant alike to look at him and back off. The colt`s answer was still a ‘no’. General Blight yelled again, flecks of froth flying out of his mouth, “I said perform your useless magic already!”

“My magic isn’t useless,” Dusk stated.

“I bet it is!” General Blight shouted, “In fact I don’t even believe that you can even USE magic yet!”

“But I ca-”Dusk began to say but was interrupted by the raging general, “No! No, you can’t even use your magic properly! You don’t even have your cutie mark yet!” General Blight screamed pointing at the colts flank and in deed there was no cutie mark. “Do you know what you are? YOU’RE WEAK! Weaker than twig on the ground! Weaker than a pane of glass! Weak. Weak! WEAK!” The general ranted out in a crazed manner, causing the bystanders to back off even further.

“I’m not weak,” Dusk said.

“WHAT?” the general snapped.

“I’m not weak,” The colt repeated, a hint of anger in his voice.

“NONSENSE!” The general yelled out, “You’re so weak; I bet you couldn’t even lift a leaf!” Dusk yelled back, “I’m not weak!” and as he did, his horn began glowing a bright red and the earth around him began to glow red as well. The general noticed this and backed away from the colt and out of the area of red earth before yelling “YOU’RE WEAK!”

Dusk yelled out in a blind rage, “I’M! NOT! WEAK!”

The ground around the colt exploded into a bright red energy that engulfed the colt and shot up skyward, forming a red beacon of magic in the sky, the assistants and recruits fled for safety in the military training facility while the general looked in awe at the raw power of the magic before him. The ground began to shake, catching the attention of all the ponies in the building, resulting in them to looking out of the windows at the red ray of magic in the field.

After a while, the magic subsided, revealing a humongous crater in the field, lined with burned soil and ash. The sky above it had been cleared of all clouds leaving the unclouded sky in its entire splendor. In the center of the field was the Dusk, extremely exhausted and panting for breath.
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General Blight slid down the side of the crater, into the center of it and approached the young colt. “Impressive I must say,” He remarked, looking around him, “You do have the raw power necessary for the Equestrian royal army but I’m not sure who would be able to train you.”

“I will,” A voice said causing the general to spin around. He saw a majestic white alicorn with a lustrous flowing pastel colored mane wearing a crown. “Y-Your highness!” General Blight exclaimed, bowing the princess before him, the young colt attempted to but he was too tired to do so. “Rise general,” she said in a calming voice, “I have heard your call for a mentor for this young colt and I would like to take him under my wing.”

“B-But y-your highness,” General Blight stammered, “why are you here first of all and secondly why would you take him under your wing?”

“For your first question, I was surveying Equestria when I saw this colt’s amazing display of magic and for your second question; I find it to be my duty to raise such magic potential to its finest.” Princess Celestia replied, then turning to the colt, she asked, “How would you like to be my personal apprentice?”

“I… would… love to…” Dusk replied between pants.

“Splendid,” Princess Celestia said happily, “Now may I please know your name?”

Dusk stood up shakily and said proudly, “My… name… is… Dusk Flamer.”
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The sun was setting when Princess Celestia arrived back at her castle in Canterlot in her chariot. She looked to her left and saw her newly appointed apprentice, Dusk Flamer, sleeping peacefully after expanding a large amount of his magical energy. She had a knack for recognizing magic potential when she saw it and what she saw that afternoon was definitely not a fluke.

“Your highness,” Said a white unicorn stallion, worry very evident in his eyes, his blue mane with streaks of light and dark blue flowing in the dusk wind, “Where were you? The castle guard was worried.”

“I’m sorry Shining Armor,” Princess Celestia apologized, “I was just out on a ride around Equestria.”

Shining Armor sighed. “Your highness, you know that you’re supposed to inform me or at least one of the royal guards before you leave the castle,” He said, “I’ve told you many times before.”

“I know but it sort of… slipped my mind I guess.” The princess said, giggling a bit. Shining Armor was about to say something but instead sighed heavily and shook his head slowly. He peered into the chariot and saw the sleeping colt.
“Who is he?” Shining Armor asked. “He’s my new apprentice,” Princess Celestia said, “He has great magic potential,”
Shining Armor shrugged, picked up the sleeping apprentice, threw him on his back and returned to the castle. The princess followed him. They entered the huge stone hallway, leading to the Princess’s throne room. In front of the two huge doors leading to her room stood two pegasi guards.

“Bring him to the spare sleeping quarters,” Princess Celestia commanded.

“Yes your highness,” They responded promptly, taking the sleeping colt from Shining Armor and brought him to the one room in the far left tower of the castle. The guards entered the room, dumped the colt on the bed and departed quickly so as to not miss dinner.
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When Dusk Flamer opened his eyes he saw that he was on a plush red bed and lying on an incredibly soft red feather pillow. He quickly sat up trying to remember what happened previously, then it came back to him, he had become the personal apprentice of one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria. He leapt up and exclaimed “YES!”

Then he looked around his new lodging, it was a smallish circular room with a huge window to the right of his bed. The bed itself was a canopy bed without many trimmings to make it seem less ‘girly’. To the right of the bed and underneath a window, was a bedside table on top of which there was a lamp and a glass of water. Beside the window was a wooden door with the sign ‘bathroom’ on it. To the left of the bed, was a large wooden door presumably the main entrance to the room. Directly across from the bed was a huge closet. Next to it stood a large cupboard filled with an assortment of food ranging from bread to fruits. The center of the room was covered by a large red carpet. The room smelt strongly of cedar which is what Dusk presumed the furniture was made of.

Dusk stretched, cracking his bones, then approached the closet and opened it. The closet was filled with his clothes from the dormitory at the military training facility. The closet also had a mirror fixed in the door. Dusk looked in the mirror at himself; his unkempt red mane, his light blue eyes and his dark grey fur. He ran a hoof through his mane to make it look a bit more presentable then went over to the cupboard and made a sandwich using bread and all the items he could reach from his short height.

After he was full, he walked out the door and saw that it led to a long spiral stairwell. After he carefully descended the staircase, he walked into the hallway and saw a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane.

“Umm… excuse me good sir?” Dusk asked in his politest voice. The stallion turned and saw the young colt looking at him.
“Yes?” the stallion replied.

“I was wondering… where is the princess’s room? I need to talk to her.”

“Ohh… you’re the new apprentice,” the stallion said, “Allow me to escort you there, my name is Shining Armor, what’s yours?”

“Dusk… Dusk Flamer” Dusk responded.

“Well then Dusk, let’s get on our way,” Shining Armor said motioning down the hallway. He turned and began walking down the hallway, the colt trotted happily after him.
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They arrived at the great wooden doors that led to Princess Celestia’s throne room. The guards made way for Shining Armor and opened the heavy wooden doors for them. Dusk was in awe as he surveyed the huge throne room. In the throne room, there were a lot of stained glass images of the past victories of the princesses over evils such as discord. In the center of the room was Princess Celestia sitting on her throne, guarded by two pegasi and unicorn guards both decked out in gold armor. The path from the door to her throne was lined with red carpet with gold lacing and design on it.

When the two of them walked in, Princess Celestia looked up and smiled. Shining Armor gave the princess a crisp salute and said, “Good morning your highness,”

“G-Good morning p-princess,” Dusk spluttered as he was still in awe of the throne room. “Good morning gentlecolts,” Princess Celestia greeted them, then looking to Dusk she asked, “So, are you ready for your first day of training?”

“I most certainly am!” The colt replied enthusiastically, practically bouncing up and down, his red mane flowing up and down as well. “Good to hear that,” Princess Celestia said, smiling, “Now follow me,” She got up and began to walk out of the throne room. A Pegasus and a unicorn guard started to follow her until a glance from Shining Armor told them otherwise. The princess left the room with Dusk essentially bouncing after her.
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The princess brought him to a large library and explained, “This will be your studying room, almost all of your theory lessons will be held here,” Then, leading him to a big bay window at the far end of the library, she said, “There, is where you can use your magic during practical lessons.” She turned and looked at Dusk who was shifting uncomfortably at the mention of ‘practical lessons’. “Don’t worry,” She reassured the colt, “I’ll set up a barrier that will contain the brunt of your magic.” At this, the colt brightened up and beamed at her, his blue eyes wide with the hunger for knowledge, grinning from ear to ear. “I see that you’re ready for your lesson,” Princess Celestia said, giggling, she could not remember the last time she had such an enthusiastic apprentice.

She sat on a couch under the window and Dusk sat next to her. Then she began to explain to him how to control magic, how it came into existence and the mechanics behind its power. Afterward Princess Celestia brought him outside to allow him to try to control his magic.

After lessons, Dusk was free to wander around the castle and explore as he wished. As he was walking around the castle compound, he was suddenly slammed in the shoulder by a speeding white pegasus colt. “Ohmygosh! I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” The winged pony asked in a concerned voice.

“Yeah, just peachy,” Dusk said, trying to pop his shoulder back as it had been dislocated in the crash. It soon popped back into its socket and Dusk winced and gritted his teeth at the pain. “I’m so sorry about that,” The pegasus apologized, his yellow eyes full of remorse and guilt.

“It’s fine, really,” Dusk said, rubbing his shoulder, “So what’s your name?”

“My name is Storm… Storm Whipper,” The young white pegasus said, scratching his azure blue mane nervously, “I’m the princess’s messenger around the castle.”

“The name’s Dusk Flamer, nice to meet you,” The dark grey unicorn greeted, offering his hoof in friendship. The pegasus gladly reached forth and shook it warmly. “Pleasure to meet you too.” He said enthusiastically, then he looked at Dusk’s flank and saw that his cutie mark was absent. “Umm… you don’t have your cutie mark yet?” Storm asked as politely as he could.

“Yeah but it doesn’t bother me though.” Dusk said.

“Hey it’s cool, I don’t have mine either,” Storm said, tuning to show his blank flank.

“Hey wanna go grab something to eat in the royal mess hall? I heard that they have tulip sandwiches.” Dusk asked.

“Buck yeah!” Storm exclaimeded, as the both of them made their way to the royal mess hall.

Soon the two of them began to hang out more and became best friends as they got to know more about each other such as what foods they liked, their struggles and what the other looked for in a fillyfriend.

Dusk learned a great many things during his lessons with Princess Celestia and as a result became a brilliant student and began to work in the royal guard despite still being a colt. Shining Armor was skeptical at first as Dusk’s magic potential was only exceeded by his own, but later did not mind when he grew closer to Dusk, becoming his good friend and senior.
Dusk’s life seemed to be perfect with the exception of him not receiving his cutie mark yet. But he did not mind that, all he cared about was becoming stronger to fight for and protect the princess. Then, two years later, when Princess Celestia received a request to enroll a young filly into her school for gifted unicorns…

Chapter 1: A Fateful Meeting

-TWO YEARS LATER-

“Your highness, am I correct to say that today you are letting a filly try to hatch the dragon egg for her entrance examination, again?” Dusk said as he walked next to Princess Celestia, dressed in his gold armor.

“Yes, yes I am,” Princess Celestia causally replied to her young protector as walked up the stairs to her observation balcony.

“I think that you should make the entrance examination easier,” The colt stated, “Or else she would end up like the other thirty applicants, rejected.”

“But if I made it any easier, then there wouldn’t be much point in calling the school ‘Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns’ now would there?” The princess pointed out as she reached the top of the stairs.

“Point taken,” Dusk admitted.

“And it’s not like that it’s impossible,” The princess said, “Look at Ashley.” She pointed to the sleeping female dragon on Dusk’s back, her white scales glinting in the midday sun. He had hatched her six months earlier when Princess Celestia seized the two dragon eggs from an egg poacher on her weekly flight around Equestria. Dusk lightly brushed her red top scales and chuckled to himself.

“I think I see her now, do you want to have a look?” Princess Celestia said looking through her telescope from her balcony. “Sure,” Dusk said as he got on the princess’ back so that he could see. Princess Celestia turned so that her student could look through the telescope. Dusk peered in and saw two adult unicorns, a blue stallion with a dark blue mane and a white mare with a white and purple mane, presumably the parents of the filly that was taking the entrance examination. Then he saw the filly and his heart skipped a beat. The filly had lilac fur and had a dark blue mane with a streak of pink and purple running through it. Her face was a cute mix of worry, anticipation and joy. Dusk fell in love with her at first sight.

Princess Celestia noticed his change in heart rate. “In love are we now?” She teased him.

“Huh? Wha-Oof!” Dusk said as he fell off her back in surprise from the sudden question. Then quickly recovering, he protested, “N-No! I-I’m n-not in l-love with h-her!” His cheeks turned a bright pink. Princess Celestia giggled at the colt’s awkward reaction to his feelings. “I’m just kidding,” she said as she turned to descend the stairs, “I’m going to take a walk around the castle.”

“Which room is she taking her exam in?” Dusk blurted out, then covered his mouth when he realized what he had just said.

“Hmmm?” Princess Celestia said, turning to look at the blushing colt, “I think that it is room six in the left wing of the castle. Have fun now!” She quickly climbed down the staircase. At the bottom, she looked up and called out to Dusk, “For your sake, I hope she passes the examinations! You look so cute when you blush!” Before Dusk could retort, the princess had already left the stairwell.
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“Room six… room six… roo-Ahah! There it is!” Dusk said to himself as he approached room six in the left wing. He peeked into the room to see what was going on. He saw the lilac unicorn filly trying everything she could to hatch the egg, but to no avail, he sighed and sadly shook his head. He had seen this before and it never resulted in the egg hatching. “To hatch the egg, you need to provide the egg with energy via a magic blast,” He thought to himself, “and the blast must be a supportive blast, not a destructive one.”

Just as he was about to leave, he heard a loud explosion and turned to see, outside the window, a rainbow colored shockwave cut across the sky and the lilac filly’s horn started glowing bright purple, then suddenly shooting forth a bolt of magic that hatched the egg. “Holy Celestia! She actually did it!” He thought to himself in surprise. But before he could think about anything else, the lilac filly was surrounded by a magical field, then she began shooting random magic blasts all over the room, causing the examiners to levitate, turning her parents into plants and super-growing the newly hatched dragon.

“Oh horseapples, she can’t control her magic!” Dusk thought to himself and then his horn glowed red in order to set up a barrier to prevent collateral damage. A bolt of magic was shot toward him and he did not want any part of it. He quickly retaliated by shooting a bolt of magic of his own to counter it, the bolts of magic exploded in mid-air. Then he managed to set up a magic barrier around the room. However the bolts were not weak and took their toll on his ability to upkeep the barrier, he buckled slightly, grimacing as his magic reserves were depleted quickly. Just as he was about to black out, he saw Princess Celestia stride past him and enter the room. Dusk then knew that the situation would be handled easily by the princess, so he dropped the barrier.

Soon the princess diffused the situation and asked the filly if she would be her personal protégé at the castle, which she accepted, of course. As Princess Celestia left the room with a bouncing filly carrying a sleeping dragon on her back following her, the filly noticed an exhausted armored unicorn slumped on the wall.

“Who is he?” the filly asked in a polite and angelic (to Dusk) voice.

“Oh, he’s my personal guard, two years your senior and the pony who prevented your outburst from doing more damage than it did,” Princess Celestia said. “Hi I’m Twilight Sparkle,” The filly introduced herself, “What’s your name?”

“I’m… Dusk Flamer…” The exhausted colt said slowly.

“Thanks for containing my outburst of magic Dusk,” Twilight said happily, turning to follow Princess Celestia down the hallway, leaving Dusk tired and blushing.

After the incident with Twilight Sparkle, Dusk Flamer went to the royal garden to relax. Then Dusk heard a soft, cute ‘Unyaf’ behind him. He turned and saw the baby dragon on his back waking. She slowly yawned then stretched a bit then opened her big red eyes, got off of Dusk and looked at him, “Unyaf?” she mumbled.

“Yeah, I had a tiring day,” Dusk replied.

“Unyaf.”

“Hmmm?” Dusk said looking back at the baby dragon, “I haven’t told you everything yet?”

“Unyaf.”

“Okay so I found an attractive filly so what? It’s not a big deal. ”

“Unyaf.”

“It’s a big deal you say,”

“Unyaf.”

“Okay, I’m sorry for not telling you,” Dusk said, stoking the baby dragon’s back, causing her to growl in delight.

Suddenly, out of a tree behind him, a white and blue blur burst out and landed in front of Dusk. “You found a filly you like?” The blur asked quickly.

“Yes I did Storm,” Dusk said calmly to white pegasus before him.

“Yo… That’s so cool man!” Storm said jumping up and down, “So, what’s she like, is she pretty? Smart? Cool? What?”

“Why don’t you find out?” Dusk replied casually.

“But that’s not fun!” Storm protested but he knew that Dusk was not going to tell him so easily. So he gave it up as a lost cause and decided to go to the mess hall for dinner.

During dinner, Dusk kept glancing at Twilight, hoping that she glance back at him. She did once and winked at him, causing his heart to skip a beat.

After dinner, Dusk went back to his room, tucked Ashley into bed, then lay down to sleep. Except he could not sleep, he was thinking of Twilight the whole time he was lying on his bed. “Does she like me? Did I make a good enough impression on her? Do we have the same common interests?” All of these thoughts were running through his head when he was on his bed and he did not until an hour later.
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The next day, Dusk got up early in the morning, before Celestia raised her sun, to practice. He decided to practice levitation magic on various objects in his room. After an hour or so, a while before Celestia’s sun was rose slowly over the horizon; Dusk left his room to go to a special spot that he knew was the best spot in the castle to view the sunrise: the observation balcony.

At the foot of the observation tower, Dusk saw Twilight Sparkle arguing with the two gold clad unicorn guards in front of the door to the tower. “But this tower is perfect for viewing the sunrise,” Twilight began to explain, “It has the right height and position fo-”

“I’m sorry ma’am but you lack the authority to enter this facility,” One of the guards said firmly.

“What’s the matter here?” Dusk said approaching the ponies.

“Lieutenant Dusk,” The guards said saluting him, one of them pointed at Twilight and said, “This unidentified filly seeks permission to enter the observation tower with insufficient authority.”

“What do you mean insufficient authority?” Dusk asked them with a puzzled look on his muzzle, “She’s the princess’s new personal protégé.”

“S-She is?” One of them asked fearfully.

“Yes she is so you’d better scoot or you might get some royal punishment,” Dusk said gravely. The guards parted in a blink of the eye and apologized profusely to Twilight. “Hurry Twilight, we don’t want to miss this sunrise now do we?” Dusk asked.

“Yeah… we need to hurry...” Twilight said softly, in awe of Dusk’s influence, despite being only a young colt.

When they reached the observation balcony, Twilight Sparkle ran to the railing, and said to no one in particular, “So, ten seconds from now, the sun will be rising and from this angle, the rising of the sun will be at the optimum viewing range,” Dusk thought this was odd of her, but ignored it. Soon, on the horizon, Celestia’s sun began to rise, bathing the previously dark sky in a warm glow of orange and yellow.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Twilight said, her breath taken away by the sheer beauty of the sight.

“Oh it gets better,” Dusk said. Twilight turned and looked at him quizzically, “How?” She asked, “It is not in my calculations that this view could be improved.”

“Just wait and see,” Dusk said, grinning. Suddenly, as the sun left the horizon, there was a bright flash and in the distance, a beautiful ray of rainbow colored light shot skyward. Twilight was taken aback by this awesome display of colors her eyes opened as wide as possible and her jaw dropped. Dusk looked at Twilight to catch her reaction and chuckled softly when he saw it. “Now this is truly amazing,” He said calmly as the ray slowly dissipated back into orange and yellow.

“B-But h-how?” Twilight stammered.

“It’s simple,” Dusk began to explain, “From at angle of forty-five point five degrees, the light fragments out like a prism on the surface of the lake.” He pointed to a lake in the distance on the horizon.

“Thanks,” Twilight said as they turned to descend the staircase, “For helping me to get into this tower.”

“It’s nothing really,” Dusk said, “All I did was notify them of your true authority in the castle.”

“I know but that was really sweet of you to help me,” Twilight said, making Dusk blush. “You wanna hang out?”

“Sure!” Dusk replied happily and almost instantly, surprising himself and twilight with his sudden perkiness.

“Okay, how about same time same place tomorrow? ” Twilight suggested.

“Sounds fine to me,” Dusk agreed.

“It’s a date then!” She said, then suddenly leaned toward Dusk, pecked him on the cheek and ran off giggling. Dusk stood frozen in position just gently touching his cheek as if it were made of glass.

“So, what do you think of my sister?” said a voice behind Dusk, who quickly spun around to see his senior, Shining Armor, grinning. “S-Sir!” Dusk said, “I didn’t know that Twilight Sparkle was your sister!”

“Well now you know,” Shining Armor said, then leaning in really close, his face less than an inch away from Dusk’s he said dangerously soft, “I’ll allow you to date her because I know you’re a good guy but break her heart and it’ll be a dark day when I find out, are we clear?”

Dusk gulped, and, despite quaking in his boots, said, “Sir yes sir.”

“Good to know,” Shining Armor said, withdrawing and putting on a kind smile, then patting the young colt on the back, “Now hurry go get Ashley so that we can go get some grub.”

Dusk sighed in relief and walked back to his room, making a very big mental note never to piss off Shining Armor, ever.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

-One Month Later-

Dusk dashed to princess’s room as he was called on important business. Ashley, clinging onto his back for dear life, asked in a frightened voice, “Unyaf?”

“No I don’t know what it is either,” Dusk said as he strafed past a janitor pony and his mop, “All I know is that I was called for something dire.” When he reached the throne room, he flung the doors open with his magic and bowed before Princess Celestia. “Your highness, please forgive my tardiness,” Dusk apologized. “Rise Lieutenant Dusk,” Princess Celestia said, “You’re only two minutes late.”

Dusk looked up and saw Shining Armor looking regretful and sad. “What’s the problem?” Dusk asked, brushing a stray strand of red mane from his face.

“I’m sending some of the royal guard to join the war on Hoof Kong,” Princess Celestia said gravely, “The situation has gone from bad to worse and they desperately need back up. And since I cannot send Shining Armor he captain, you the lieutenant of the royal guard, I hope you understand the need for you to serve Equestria.”

“I understand fully,” Dusk said, fighting back the one part of his mind that wanted to spend time with Twilight rather than enter a war. He had been seeing her every morning since she joined Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and they had gotten to know each other well.

“Please go to your room, don your armor and pack your necessary supplies. The war is expected to last five more years at most. I will personally look after Ashley myself.” Princess Celestia said, her body language made it extremely evident that she did not want to send the young colt into war.

“No thank you, your highness, I will bring Ashley with me. But I will leave her at the camp site.” Dusk said firmly.

“Fine, do as you wish,” Princess Celestia said, she knew that look on Dusk’s face and knew that he was not going to take no for an answer.

Suddenly, a white and blue blur shot into the room. “Please your majesty! Allow me to join in the war alongside Dusk!” Storm said as he bowed respectfully before the princess.

“I’m sorry I can’t do that Storm,” she replied, “You’re still young and have no obligation to enter the war.”

“Yes I do,” The white pegasus said adamantly, his yellow eyes blazed with determination to enlist in the war, “My best friend’s life is threatened and I want to help.”

“You’re making this very difficult,” Shining Armor said, his voice strained a little, “You’re still young with your whole life in front of you.”

“And I laid that life down for the princess when I started working here,” Storm retorted.

“He’s got a point your highness,” Dusk said, “I also personally think that he would be a great help to transport equipment from one bunker to another due to his great speed and dexterity.” Shining Armor was about to say something but Princess Celestia held up a hoof, she knew that they were not going to win this argument with the two young colts. “Fine, I will allow you to enlist in the war,” She said giving in to their requests, “Quickly go pack your things, we leave in tomorrow.”

As the two colts left the room, Princess Celestia bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood. Shining Armor noticed this. “It’s not your fault your highness,” Shining Armor said, “We couldn’t prevent their enlistment.” Princess Celestia nodded her head sadly and said, “I know, but… I don’t know if I’ll be able to forgive myself lest anything happen to them.”

“Don’t worry your majesty,” Shining Armor reassured her, “I’m pretty sure Dusk and Storm can handle themselves just fine. If anything I worry for Twilight.” Shining Armor looked out to the back right tower known as Ivory Tower, then said, “She was telling me everything about her morning ‘dates’ with Dusk.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“I’m sorry I’m late!” Dusk cried out as he approached the observation balcony.

“It’s okay, I haven’t been waiting long,” Twilight said, “So why did you call me out here?” Dusk trotted up to her and joined by the railing.

“Twilight,” Dusk said dejectedly.

“Hmmm? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked her voice full of genuine concern. “I… I’m going to partake in the war on Hoof Kong,” Dusk replied, looking out into the distance, his dark red mane flowing in the dusk wind.

“B-But why?” Twilight asked, clearly upset by the news. “Their short-handed and Princess Celestia sent some of her royal guard to help in the war, me included.” Dusk explained, then turning to Twilight, said, “I’m sorry and I’ll understand if you hate me and nev-“

“I’ll wait,” Twilight answered, her long dark blue mane billowing out behind her. She turned to Dusk and said, “I’ll wait for five years if I have to before you come back.” Then before Dusk could say anything, she moved closer to him and looking into his red eyes, said, “Because you’re the first colt I have had feelings for,” Celestia’s sun then hit the horizon in the distance causing the phenomenal display they saw one week earlier. “I promise I will come back as soon as possible,” Dusk said, embracing her warmly.

Little did any of Dusk know, the war was going to be dragged on to last ten more years. In order to avoid thinking about Dusk during his absence, Twilight buried herself in her studies, inadvertently leaving Twilight’s memory of Dusk as nothing more than a dream, a fable, fictional. Her prince charming, always in her dreams, never to come true…

Chapter 2: Return to Equestria and a Problem

-TEN YEARS LATER-

A mass military transport chariot pulled up on the Canterlot landing port in the night sky, the soldiers inside it feeling an odd mix of emotions. Some were dead tired, some were full of grief from the death of close companions and few odd ones were even upset by the end of the blood bath. But all of them were happy as they had won the war, Hoof Kong unwillingly raising the white flag after twenty straight years of war. The soldiers filed out slowly of the chariot, many of them headed straight to their bunks to crash. However, there was a pegasus and a unicorn, the latter with a baby dragon on his back, that went to the throne room first.

Upon arrival at the throne room, the unicorn guards opened the doors to the two ponies. Both approached the princess and bowed respectfully. Princess Celestia was overjoyed to see them.

“Dusk! Storm! Ashley! You’re all fine!” Princess Celestia said, the only thing preventing her from tackling-hugging the unicorn, pegasus and dragon was her royal etiquette.

“I knew you could do it,” Shining Armor said, ecstatic that the two ponies had arrived back safely.

“We’re back your highness,” Dusk said, removing his helmet, “Where’s Twilight?”

“She’s currently in Ponyville supervising the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration” The princess replied. Dusk thought he saw a face of worry flicker across her face for a second. Then she said, “Dusk, you’ve grown so much since I’ve last seen you.”

“Thank you for noticing your highness,” Dusk said, his body now more shaped and built due to the war. He held the air of a war veteran despite being only a teenager. Princess Celestia noticed the baby dragon on his back.

“I see that Ashley has grown too,” The baby dragon was now slightly larger than before, her fiery red eyes full of innocence, as if she hadn’t entered a war at all.

“Why thank you your highness,” The baby dragon said politely, performing a curtsy.

“Oh, yes… I forgot that you learned how to talk Ashley,” Princess Celestia said, “You sound very cute.” Ashley blushed at this.

She turned to Storm. “Storm, you look good in your royal pegasi armor,” She remarked, “I also see that you’ve gotten your cutie mark.”

“Gee thanks your majesty,” Storm said, blushing slightly and spreading his wings. On his flank was a cutie mark of an electrified feather, representing his speed on the battlefield.

Princess Celestia noticed his wings and said, “Oh my... what big wings you have.”

“I get that a lot,” Storm said, scratching the back of his head. His wings were larger than many pegasi of his age, rivaling the size of those even of the princess, as they had been forced to adapt to the wartime situation.

“Now I assume that you are both very tired, so you may report back to your bunks. I thank you for coming to see me first.” Princess Celestia said dismissing them. Then she added, “Oh, please remember to wake up in four hours’ time, I will need you to escort me to Ponyville.” Dusk and Storm groaned back in response.

Outside the throne room, the two ponies went their separate ways. Dusk headed back to his room while Storm returned to the pegasi dormitory.

Back in his room, Dusk saw that it had been pretty much left alone except his room was cleaned and his food replenished. He then tucked Ashley into bed and was walking over to his bed when Ashley asked, “Hey Dusk,”

“Yeah?”

“You know Spike, Twilight’s dragon?

“Yeah, what about it?”

“I was just thinking, do you think that he’ll be with her?”

“More than likely,” Dusk replied, slipping under the covers of his bed, “Their bond is pretty much the same as ours unless something happened when we were gone.”

“Oh, Okay” Ashley said before quickly falling asleep.

As Dusk lay down to sleep, he felt that was something that he could not put his hoof on, why did Princess Celestia look worried for a second? He turned in his bed and guessed that it was his imagination.

Dusk looked up at the ceiling as doubts concerning Twilight began invading his mind. “Does she still remember me? Did she get another special somepony? Does she hate me for being gone so long?” These are some of the thoughts that flashed quickly across his mind. He shrugged them off and told himself, “I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dusk woke up an hour earlier than expected. He yawned then went to wash up. Afterward, he went over to wake up Ashley. “Ashley, time to wake up,” he said, shaking her gently. All he got as a response was a ‘Mmmnnnnn…”

“Ashley, it’s time to get up,” he said, his voice rising. He got the same response.

“Ashley! I said it’s time to get up!” Dusk yelled at her.

Ashley just turned over in her bed. Dusk sighed then said softly in a musical voice, “~There are gem pancakes dripping with rose syrup on the table~”

Ashley instantly sat upright in her bed looking around and murmuring, “Wha? Gem pancakes?” Dusk chuckled and said to himself, “Works every time.”

“That’s not fair!” Ashley complained, pouting.

“Well we had to get up,” Dusk said calmly.

“But still!” Ashley said crossing her arms, her eyes like little mirrors, reflecting the betrayal she felt. “Oh alright,” Dusk said, giving in, “I’ll make some for you after the ceremony.”

“Really?” Ashley said, happily.

“With rose syrup and emeralds, just like you like it.” Dusk replied smiling slightly. Ashley hopped out of bed, pumping her fist in the air screaming, “YES!”

“Alright, alright,” Dusk said, moving to the door, “we have to hurry; we don’t have much time before we leave.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Are you all ready?” Princess Celestia asked the two ponies and dragon before her.

“Yes your highness,” Dusk replied perkily. Storm mumbled something in audibly, shaking his head. He was obviously still very tired as his hoof claws, a weapon designed by Storm himself, were on the wrong way. “Here, let me help you,” Dusk said as he assisted Storm in equipping his weapon properly.

“Can I see that weapon?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Sure, your highness,” Dusk replied, handing her one of the hoof claws. It was a hoof gauntlet with three serrated blades welding to the front of it. “Very interesting,” Princess Celestia said as she inspected the weapon before passing it back to Dusk.

“Yeah were pretty much ready.” Ashley said yawning.

“If you say so,” Princess Celestia said getting into the royal escort chariot slowly, almost nervously.

“What could be bothering her?” Dusk thought, “She’s the princess, nothing can out-power her.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

When they arrived in Ponyville, the pegasi that pulled the chariot went to sleep under a tree near the chariot. Princess Celestia approached the staircase at the back of the town hall, her two guards close to her. Suddenly, a black mist exploded at her hooves, shrouding her from anyone’s sight. Dusk, Storm and Ashley were blown back by the black mist, causing them to tumble backward. Dusk was on his feet in a flash. “Who dares to ambush the princess?” He yelled fiercely. The mist quickly formed into a black alicorn with violet armor. She had a long and misty mane a shade darker than her armor. On her flank was a moon cutie mark surrounded by a purple cloud.

Dusk instantly recognized the pony from his studying. “Nightmare Moon,” He hissed under his breath and then yelled, “What have you done with Princess Celestia?”

“Nightmare Moon?” Storm asked, still recovering from the tumble.

“Celestia’s younger sister turned evil,” Dusk replied, still glaring at the mare before him. Nightmare Moon’s turquoise eyes shone evilly. “I am glad to see that at least one of my subjects is not ignorant of this nation’s history,” She said smugly. “I shall allow you to serve me if you swear your fealty.”

“Never!” Dusk Shouted back, his horn glowing red, “I pledged my loyalty to Princess Celestia!”

“What a shame,” Nightmare Moon said, frowning, “You have the raw power of your ancestor, K-”

“Don’t say his name!” Dusk interrupted, visibly disturbed by the topic. Storm quickly got into his flight stance. “Don’t you dare upset Dusk!” He roared baring his hoof claws threateningly, their blades glinting in the moonlight. Nightmare Moon turned her attention to Storm. “My what a defensive friend you have,” Nightmare Moon commented lightly, then said, “I can’t stick around any longer, I have to replace my sister’s appearance to her loyal subjects.”

Dusk’s horn glowed red brightly. The ground beneath Nightmare Moon suddenly erupted in red blast of magic. After it subsided, Nightmare Moon could clearly be seen in the center of a shallow hole in the ground, unscathed.

“Impossible,” Dusk whispered in disbelief. Storm’s jaw hit the ground. Eruption; he had seen Dusk perform that spell many times on other ponies during the war with brutal results and was shocked to see Nightmare Moon brush it off as if it were a spray of water.

Nightmare Moon laughed evilly before saying, “Young fool! You think that your petty magic can hurt an alicorn?” She then stepped forward, her horn glowing a sinister black, “Allow me to demonstrate REAL magic.” From her horn erupted a black wave of magic engulfing the ponies and knocking them out instantly.

“Well that’s settled,” She said, dusting herself off, “Time to greet my subjects.”

Chapter 3: Helping Out Discreetly

When Dusk awoke, he was still on the ground. He shook his aching head a few times then looked around to find Storm and Ashley. He quickly found them near him; the former was also getting up, groaning. “Ow… where are we?” Storm asked, rubbing his head.

“We’re in Ponyville, remember?” Dusk said. Dusk looked up at the sky and noticed something was wrong; the sky was not bright and sunny like it should have been. Instead, it was darker than it was previously. “Oh no,” Dusk said, “Nightmare Moon has made it eternally night time.”

“Well then we need to go find her!” Storm said. Dusk trotted over to Ashley who was still unconscious on the ground. He picked her up and went over to where the royal chariot was and laid her down on the seat. “We’ll be back soon,” He promised softly to Ashley before running off with Storm to find Nightmare Moon.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

After asking the residents, some of them said they saw a dark, misty cloud follow six Fillies into the Everfree forest. This just made Dusk more concerned, what were six fillies doing in Everfree forest? Dusk and Storm quickly made their way to Everfree forest and entered it. After walking for a while, they heard the scream of a filly. Dusk’s ears perked up at the sound. “That sounds like… Twilight!” Dusk said, panicking. He quickly dashed through the underbrush in the direction of the sound, the flora around him scraping and cutting him. He did not care; all that he cared about was that Twilight was in danger. His head pounded from the excess blood and his legs muscles screamed for air but the adrenaline coursing through his veins numbed the pain from his wounds and gave him energy. Twilight scream stopped. Dusk fearing the worst, sprinted faster than he had ever in his entire life.

When he burst out of the foliage he saw Twilight being safely being brought down to the ground by two pegasi fillies. The one on her right was cyan in color and had a multicolored mane. The one on her left was butter yellow in color and had a pink mane.

Suddenly, a hoof from behind him covered his mouth and quickly pulled him back into the bush. Dusk was about to use Eruption on the ground beneath him when he heard Storm say, “Shhh… it’s me.” The hoof around his mouth released its grip and Dusk spun around to see Storm covered in scratches and leaves.

“Jeez, what happened to you Storm?” Dusk asked.

“I chased you.” Storm said, clearly not amused, “More importantly, look behind you.”

Dusk turned around and saw Twilight and the two pegasi being joined by three other fillies; a white unicorn with a curly purple mane and two earth ponies. One of the earth ponies was orange in color, had a yellow mane tied in a ponytail and a Stetson. The other was pink with a darker pink mane.

“See? She has friends to look after her,” Storm said in a uncharacteristically serious tone, “You don’t have to rush in to save her.”

“I guess,” Dusk replied, wincing as he began to feel the pain from his wounds. Just then, a dark misty cloud flew past their heads. Dusk saw the cloud and was about to give chase when he heard a low growling behind him. He and Storm turned to see a large pack of angry Timberwolves heading straight for Twilight and her friends. “Quick Dusk, we need to stop them.” Storm said but Dusk was ahead or him, charging headfirst into one of the Timberwolves, breaking one of them into the pieces of wood and leaves it was made from.

At this the Timberwolves tuned their attention to Dusk, who was glaring at them. A few of them leaped forward, managing to bite Dusk’s right shoulder and left hind ankle. Then a flash of white and blue cut through them, decimating their numbers. The Timberwolves them turned their attention to the new threat, a white pegasus with claws. One of them leaped at the pony, slashing his back. Storm grunted but retaliated by filleting the one who attacked him and a couple more. The Timberwolves approached Storm slowly. Storm smiled slyly, then said, “Look out,”

The ground beneath the Timberwolves erupted, burning them and leaving nothing but ashes in the crater in the ground. Dusk staggered slightly, he could cat Eruption multiple times but that did not mean that it did not tire him. “Let’s catch up with them.” Dusk said.

“What about your wounds?” Storm asked, pointing to them. Dusk’ shoulder was now bleeding profusely, soaking his right front leg. His ankle looked pretty mangled, part of his muscle was ripped, creating a pool of blood on the ground beneath it.

“It’s nothing more than a flesh wound,” Dusk said dismissively. Then, limping in the direction Twilight went, he said, “Now let’s go.” Storm sighed then shrugged his shoulders and followed Dusk.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

When Dusk and Storm caught up with Twilight and her friends, they were waiting on one side of a broken bridge for the cyan pegasus to tie the rope on the other side. Dusk and Storm both heard a faint stomping sound. They turned to see a huge angry monster with multiple heads in the distance, slowly approaching. “A hydra? What’s it doing here?” Dusk said, staggering. His wounds and his fatigue from the lack of sleep were starting to take its toll on him. “Don’t worry, I’ll Take care of it,” Storm said, patting his friend on the shoulder, “You just stay here and rest.”

“Be careful,” Dusk grunted as he lay down on a log to rest. Storm spread his wings, grinned back at him and asked, “When am I not?” Before Dusk could reply, Storm took off, soaring silently into the night sky.

Storm glided stealthily toward the enraged hydra, his hoof claws poised to strike when ready. When the hydra came into reach, Storm barrel rolled to the left of the hydra, lacerating one of its necks severely. The hydra roared in anger then turned to face the flying pony. Storm looped back around and delivered six solid cuts in the hydra’s back. The hydra’s wounds soon healed leaving pink flesh in the wound’s place. Storm knew but he did not want to kill the hydra, he merely wanted to snap it out of its rage.

Out of nowhere, one of the hydra’s head whipped around, bashing Storm out of the sky and down on the ground. Storm struggled to recover and get air borne, but he was smacked hard by the hydra’s tail, sending flying into a tree. Storm heard a ‘crack’ and felt a stinging pain in his right wing. “Horseapples!” He swore, gritting his teeth, “My right wing’s broken.”

The furious hydra charged toward the fallen pony, snorting and growling angrily. Suddenly, a flash of fiery red light appeared in front of Storm, charring the ground beneath it. A staggering dark grey unicorn replaced the flash. “Dusk? What are you doing here?” Storm blurted out while standing up weakly.

“Thought you might need some help.” Dusk replied, smirking. His horn began to glow red. The Ground beneath the hydra’s feet suddenly exploded, toppling the giant monster. Storm leaped onto the fallen beast and lacerated its belly. The hydra screamed in response and would have retaliated but the ground under it erupted, sending the monster a few meters up in the air. When the beast stopped rising up, Storm jumped off it and landed safely on a nearby cloud. The hydra then fell back down, crashing into the ground. When it recovered, the hydra shook its head dizzily and grunted in pain, then it retreated the way it came, not wanting to be hurt more.

Storm slowly floated the cloud down to a distance that he could safely jump onto the ground from and alighted the cloud. He lurched over to Dusk, who was leaning on a tree. He saw that Dusk was obviously very exhausted after expanding so much energy and the fact that he had inadvertently re-opened his wound in the process did not help.

Dusk fell and slumped on the ground, his vision was blurry and his shoulder and ankle felt like they were on fire. He heard Storm telling him to hang on but he could not, the loss of blood and the fatigue caused him to black out.

Storm stood there looking at his unconscious friend. “No… no… not like this…” He uttered. Then he turned around, tears forming in his desperate yellow eyes and began screaming, “Help! Somepony help! My friend’s dying! Please help! HELP!” Storm yelled until his throat was hoarse then he heard the faint galloping of hooves. He managed to see a cloaked pony bust out of the bushes, turn and rush toward them before he too fainted.

Chapter 4: A Friend From Everfree

“Unngghhh,” Storm mumbled when he awoke. He felt like a chariot had just run him over. He sat up in bed, wait… a bed? Storm looked around him and saw that he was in a small hut. The hut seemed to have been hollowed out of a tree and was furnished with odd masks and other weird objects. On shelves and hanging from the ceiling were potions upon potions of various sorts. In the middle of the hut was a huge black cauldron, bubbling with a mysterious dark green liquid. The hut smelled faintly of herbs and spices. Storm then saw Dusk asleep on a taller bed next to him and realised that he had been sleeping on a straw mat.

The door to the hut opened and the cloaked pony he recalled seeing before blacking out entered with a saddle bag. “Why hello there, I see you have awoken,” The pony said in an accented voice, “How does your wing feel? The one you had broken?”

Storm looked at his right wing and saw that it had been bandaged up nicely. It smelt a spicy but refreshing. He moved it a bit and, to his delight, it did not hurt. “Much better!” He replied happily, “Thanks for saving me and my friend back there… Uh… what was your name again?”

“I go by the name of Zecora,” The pony replied, “And I am a zebra, a native animal of Africa.” She removed her cloak to show him her black and white striped mane and body. She also wore rings on her neck and left front hoof. “Cool…” Storm said, “My name’s Storm Whipper.”

“A delight to meet you Storm,” Zecora said as she trotted over to the cauldron and popped in a plant from her saddle bag, “Do you need a blanket? Or are you too warm?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Storm replied, yawning. He was about to go back to sleep but remembered Nightmare Moon. He got up and began to look around for his hoof claws. “What’s the matter my winged friend?” Zecora asked, “You look distressed to no end.”

“I gotta stop Nightmare Moon!” Storm said quickly, “Or else, the night over Equestria will never end!”

“The eternal night you speak of is now naught.” Zecora said as she walked over to the door to open it, “It ended an hour after I started making a brew in that pot.” Storm dashed to the door and looked outside, his mouth opened when he saw the sky bright and blue.

“B-B-But how?” He uttered.

“I’m afraid I do not know,” Zecora said to him as he went back inside, “But I do know that your friend is waking, nice and slow.”

Storm saw Dusk crawl out of the bed and stand on the floor. His face showing that he was still in pain. “Dusk!” Storm exclaimed ecstatically, tackling his friend, “You’re alright!”

Dusk coughed and said, “Not after that tackle.”

Storm turned to Zecora and said, “This here’s my best friend Dusk Flamer.” Then turning to Dusk said, “This here’s Zecora, she saved our flanks after we passed out.

Dusk realised that the pain from his wounds was greatly reduced and he felt energised and refreshed. His shoulder felt warm even though the only thing on it was a thin bandage. He turned to Zecora and said, “Hey thanks for looking after us and all but, what sort of medicine did you use to treat us?”

“Ahhh that my friends, is my special ointment; that there brew,” Zecora said, pointing to the cauldron with a hoof, “Would you like to take some with you?”

“Yes please,” Dusk replied.

“Hey! Zecora, wanna hear about our adventures in the war?” Storm asked.

“I had no idea that you entered a war, but I’m interested to hear about your wartime lore.” Zecora replied. The two ponies then removed their bandages and sat down to tell Zecora about their wartime service.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The two ponies thanked Zecora and left her hut, Dusk carrying a saddle bag of Zecora’s ointment. The sun was high in the beautiful sky and there was not a cloud was in sight. “Who knew a kind zebra like her would be living in the Everfree forest?” Storm said.

“Yeah,” Dusk said, “Why doesn’t she live in Ponyville? It near here and its more populated.”

“Maybe that’s the reason,” Storm thought aloud, “Maybe she’s agoraphobic.”

“Maybe,” Dusk agreed. The duo made it into Ponyville and made their way to the train station. They went up to the ticket booth and asked for two tickets to Canterlot.

“That’ll be three bits each,” The old grey stallion said, leaning his face on his right hoof which rested on the counter. Dusk and Storm looked at each other and blinked. They realised that they had forgotten to bring any bits with them. “Ermmm… wait a moment,” Storm said before dashing off to try to find some spare bits. Dusk awkwardly stood there before the old stallion for a while. The stallion broke the silence by saying, “Are you going to pay or not?” in an annoyed tone. Dusk could not really blame him, though if he did know who he was, he would have respectfully bowed to him and begged him to get on the train. “Ummm… I think I’ll come back later.” Dusk said, trotting away to find Storm.

Dusk found Storm underneath a bench, trying to search for some bits. He facehoofed then said, “Do you have no shame Storm?” Storm hit his head on the underside of the bench.

“Ow… uh hey Dusk,” Storm said sheepishly, crawling out from under the bench, scratching his blue mane.

“So how much did you find?” Dusk asked.

“Umm… I got nothing.” Storm admitted, laughing nervously. Dusk sighed then said, “Come on, we’ve got a long way to walk.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

When Dusk and Storm reached the royal castle, it was already nightfall. Their manes and fur were dirty, their legs were aching and they were famished and thirsty. They were stopped by the two pegasi guards at the castle gate. “Halt civilian, state your name and your business,” One of them said extending his wing to block the path, the other followed suite.
“Lieutenant Flamer, returning from Ponyville.” Dusk said.

“Pfff don’t make me laugh,” One of the pegasi guards said, “There’s no way Lieutenant Flamer would return looking so raggedy. You can start walking back the way you came foals.”

Storm’s limit broke and he slammed into one of the pegasi, baring his hoof claws and yelling, “Look here mister! Dusk and I just walked here ALL the way from Ponyville! I’m starving, tired and thirsty so kindly just BUCK OFF!” The pegasus looked like he was going to piss himself but the look faded when his friend used his wing to smack Storm off of him.

“Leave him alone!” The pegasus commanded, helping his friend get back on his feet. Before shoving both the ponies backward violently, causing Dusk to fall and injure his ankle again.

“What’s going on?” Asked a majestic voice from above the gates. All four ponies looked up to see none other than Princess Celestia perched atop the gates. “Your highness,” The pegasi guards said, bowing respectfully, “These civilians want to enter the castle, one of them claims to be Lieutenant Flamer while the other viciously attacked us.” Princess Celestia turned to see Storm helping Dusk to his feet. She turned to the two pegasi guards and said, “Well, you’d better step aside because that IS Lieutenant Flamer and his best friend.”

The pegasi guards’ mouths dropped open and the color of their faces quickly faded. They quickly whipped around, parted, bowed and began apologizing profusely to the two ponies. Storm smiled smugly at them and said sadistically, “What should their punishment be? Eh Dusk?”

“I think three days in the dungeon should do the trick,” Dusk replied, his face displaying complete and utter seriousness. Only Princess Celestia, Shining Armor and Storm knew how to tell whether Dusk was joking of not from his facial expressions, and this was one of them. “Very well then,” Princess Celestia said, smiling at Dusk, “Three days it is then.”
“Please no!” The guards said, falling to their knees and begging Dusk, “Please forgive us Lieutenant Flamer, we promise never to show an attitude ever again!”

“Promise?” Dusk said, looking straight into the guards’ eyes.

“Promise!” The guards said.

“Fine then, you will be let off the hook this time,” Dusk said, turning to enter the castle with Princess Celestia and Storm.
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“Dayum! Did you see the look on his face?” Storm said, laughing his flank off, “He looked like he was going to make a mess of himself when you said, ‘Three days in the dungeon’!”

“Indeed it was quite humorous,” Princess Celestia admitted, chuckling. She turned to Dusk and said, “So, where were you? Ashley was so worried about you.” Just then, a White dragon ran through the hallway and tackled Dusk to the ground. “Speak of the devil,” Storm said. He and the princess turned to see Ashley pounding the unicorn beneath her with her tiny fists and saying, “Where were you?! I was worried sick! And now you come back with a random bag of weird stuff?! Do you enjoy seeing me upset?!” Tears began flowing down her cheeks. Then Dusk used his hoof to pull her closer to him and began stroking her scales. “I’m sorry,” Dusk apologized, “I’m sorry but it was too dangerous to bring you and I’m sorry for not coming back earlier.” Ashley began to flat out cry into Dusk’s chest bawling, “I-I w-was s-so w-worried s-something h-happened t-to y-you!”

“Shhh… its ok, I’m here now, don’t worry, don’t worry shhh…” Dusk said repeatedly.

Ashley soon fell asleep and was sleeping peacefully on Dusk’s back. “Hey your highness, what’s there to eat? I’m starved!” Storm asked as his and Dusk’s stomachs growled loudly. Princess Celestia giggled then led them to the royal mess hall for a ‘light’ dinner.

Chapter 5: Cliff Hanger

Dusk looked around the breakfast table, but could not see Twilight anywhere. He was already worried that something had happened to her as she had not turn up for their daily morning meetings. “I’ll ask Princess Celestia about it later.” Dusk thought to himself as he shoved a spoonful of oats and cream into his mouth.

“Ummm… hey, Dusk?” said a voice from beside him. Dusk looked down and saw Ashley looking back up at him.

“Yeah?” Dusk said, but from her face, he knew she was thinking just what he was thinking except about Spike. “I’ll ask the princess later, don’t worry.” Dusk reassured her. She lit up and smiled back at Dusk.

After breakfast, Dusk made his way to the royal throne room. He entered and bowed down, saying, “Greetings, your majesty.” Ashley curtseyed and greeted likewise.

“Dusk! Ashley! What a pleasant surprise!” Princess Celestia said, smiling, “What brings you here? You never visit me unless for lessons or meetings.”

“Well… umm… Do you know where Twilight is?” Dusk asked plainly. Princess Celestia’s smile faded, then she said, “Well… you see Dusk, Twilight made some friends in Ponyville and she… wanted to stay there…”

“Oh…” Dusk said, his voice trailing off. Princess Celestia tried to explain, “I’m sorry Dusk, unlike her you have the castle guard to look after so-”

“I know your majesty,” Dusk interrupted her, “I know I can’t move to Ponyville.” Ashley was also visibly upset, no Twilight also meant no Spike.

“I’m sorry to the both of you, but if it is any consolation, I would like to inform you of the newest member of the guard,” Princess Celestia said, pointing outside her window. Dusk walked over and saw light brown earth pony pacing the royal garden. His brown mane slightly ruffled and his armour on the floor looking slightly damaged. “Meet Cliff Hanger,” Princess Celestia said, “He joined the castle guard two days ago.” Ashley looked at the pony, then turned to Princess Celestia and asked, “How did he join the castle guard?”

“I happened to pass by him,” Princess Celestia said, looking at Dusk, “Just like you.”
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Dusk approached the earth pony and said, “I hear you’re the new recruit around here.” The colt turned and saw a dark grey unicorn, dressed in gold armour. The colt just turned back and sat down. “Why so glum?” Dusk said as he sat down next to the colt. The colt moved away from him. Dusk turned to the colt and said, “Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but I want to help you.”

“You’re just saying that,” The earth pony said softly.

“Come again?” Dusk asked.

“I said that you’re just saying that,” The pony repeated himself, “You just want me to open up so that you can hit me harder than the rest of the guard.”

“Excuse me?” Dusk asked indignantly, “Did you just accuse me of attempting to bully you?” The earth pony did not answer. “Well I have news for you buster, I am genuinely trying to be your friend here so if you want to be an ass about it, I can leave. Capisce?” Dusk said, staring the earth pony down.

“Yeah, okay,” The earth pony replied expressionlessly, he stuck out a hoof in friendship and said, “You look trustworthy enough, the name’s Cliff Hanger.”

“Already knew that,” Dusk said at the back of his mind, but actually said, “Mine’s Dusk… Dusk Flamer, Pleased to meet you,” They shook hooves firmly. Cliff noticed Ashley on Dusk’s back and said thoughtlessly, “Is she your pet?”

“Pet?!” Ashley cried out, outraged at what the earth pony thought of her.

“Errr-no, she’s like a little sister to me, her name’s Ashley,” Dusk quickly interjected to prevent conflict. “Ashley, say hi to Cliff.” Ashley simply turned away and puffed out a small green fire.

“I’m sorry,” Cliff said apologetically, “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Hmph!” Ashley puffed. Cliff reached into the pocket of his armour and pulled out a small green gem. “Please accept my apology,” Cliff said, offering her the small emerald. Ashley glanced over at the emerald, her mouth watering. Emeralds had always been her favorite gem, their green colour and their slightly sourish taste tha made them simply irresistible.

“Aww c’mon Ashley you know want it,” Dusk teased her.

“F-Fine,” Ashley said, politely taking the emerald, “Apology accepted.” Cliff’s face lit up.

“Can I be your friend too?” Asked a voice from nowhere. Both Dusk and Cliff turned to see an amoured white pegasus hanging out in a nearby tree. “Oh yeah, this here is Storm Whipper, a good friend of mine,” Dusk said, pointing at the pegasus. Storm flew down from the tree and landed next to Cliff. “Pleasure to meet you,” Storm said with a wide smile on his muzzle.

“Pleased to meet you too,” Cliff replied, and then looking at Storm’s wings said, “Damn your wings are huge.”

“I get that a lot,” Storm said, preening his feathers.

Just then, two unicorn stallions from the royal guard rotted up behind Dusk and Storm. One of them said, “Hey look, Weak Legs got some loser friends!” The other then chucked Dusk on the shoulder and said, “Now who might these losers be?” Dusk and Storm turned around glared at both of them. Dusk greeted the unicorn guards, “Hello private Bright and private Crush.” The two guards’ faces paled, they began to tremble and back away. The one called private Bright ran and left apologizing. The other followed suite. Cliff could not believe his eyes; the two peskiest bullies he had met were chased off by this one unicorn? Dusk turned to Cliff and said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you my title, I’m Lieutenant Flamer of the royal guard.”
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“So, you’re telling us, the reason you’re getting picked on is because you don’t have your cutie mark and your hind legs are weaker than normal?” Ashley asked Cliff, gnawing on the emerald. Dusk, Storm and Cliff had decided to go down to the royal mess hall to grab a bite. “That’s pretty much it,” Cliff said.

“Well I don’t have my cutie mark yet,” Dusk said.

“You don’t?” Cliff asked with a puzzled look on his muzzle.

“He sure doesn’t!” Storm replied, looping back and forth in the air.

“B-But you’re the lieutenant of the royal guard!” Cliff said exasperatedly, although his face did not show it.

“Yeah, I guess I just haven’t found my special talent yet.” Dusk said.

“So why are your hind legs weak?” Ashley asked politely. Still nibbling at the gem she had been given.

“Glad to see that you’re enjoying that emerald Ashley,” Cliff said smirking, causing Ashley to be a trifle annoyed. “Anyway, when I was younger, my legs were so weak, that I couldn’t even stand properly.” Cliff explained, “Living in the Manehatten didn’t help. I was bullied and ostracized and I couldn’t run from the abuse. I begged my foster parents to move but they wouldn’t have any of it.”

“Foster parents?” Storm interrupted, “You were adopted?”

“Yes, my parents passed away when I was a young colt,” Cliff replied, a look of discomfort flickered across his expressionless face, “So, I moved in with my uncle over here in Canterlot seven years ago. I signed up in the royal guard only because of the princess’s insistence.”

“What did you and your uncle do before you got scouted?” Dusk inquired.

“We made the armour of royal guards.” Cliff replied, motioning to the armour they were all wearing.

“Oh, well thanks!” Storm said, shaking cliff’s hoof, “This armour saved me and Dusk plenty of times during the war on Hoof Kong!”

“You were in the war?” Cliff asked in disbelief.

“If you consider risking our lives to fight for the country fighting in the war, then yeah” Dusk said, nonchalantly.

“Holy Celestia,” Cliff uttered in awe, a small smile creeping across his face, “I’m friends with two out of the twenty survivors of the Hoof Kong war.”

“How do you know about the war?” Ashley asked.

“News spread incredibly fast, especially in the royal castle.” Cliff replied brightly, “The survivors are like legends to us recruits.”

“So don’t you make armour with your hind hooves?” Dusk asked, changing the subject, the last thing he wanted was for Cliff to feel inferior to them.

“Of course not,” Cliff spat out, “How do you expect to make the intricate details on the armour by using something you can’t use and see at the same time?”

“I’m sorry for not knowing how to make armour,” Dusk replied calmly. Cliff sighed and said, “Anyway, we use our front hooves to rhythmically strike that hot iron to bend it into shape.”

“So you use your front hooves eh…” Dusk muttered to himself.

“Hey look, were here!” Storm said enthusiastically as they approached the great oak doors of the royal mess hall.

“C’mon, let’s get some grub,” Ashley said, finishing the emerald, “I hear they’re having cabbage pottage and hay fries.”
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After lunch, the Dusk, Storm and Cliff all did not have any major duties so they went for a walk around Canterlot. “Can we visit your uncle and try smithing?” Ashley asked.

“Sure… It should be his day off today.” Cliff replied.

“Yes!” Storm exclaimed doing a barrel roll in mid-air.

“So where does your uncle live?” Dusk asked.

“About ten blocks away from the castle,” Cliff responded, leading them down the main road.

All three ponies had left their armour back in their rooms as the weight of their armour would have been tiresome and a burden. A few minutes later and they arrived at an alleyway which Cliff led them down to an old rustic blacksmith. It had a brick red tiled roof, stone block walls that had moss in between the brick, two windows and a wooden door, Held together by metal strips and studs. The entire building looked as if it had been weathered down over a long period of time. “Well, here we are,” Cliff said pointing at the blacksmith, “Let’s head inside.”

As they entered the building, the door rang a bell just above it and in response, an old kindly voice from the back of the building called out, “I’m at the back o’ the shop. Gif me a sec and I’ll be with ya soon enough.” The smithy’s interior décor of the shop area did not betray its rustic exterior. The floor was made of oak wood planks. A few meters in front of the door was an old varnished wood counter. Behind the counter was a door. All over the shop area’s walls were hoof hammers, hoof saws and other tools of all kind hung on racks. The roof of the blacksmith was surprisingly made of hay, giving the entire building a nice homey scent. The only modern thing in the blacksmith was the cash register on the counter and even that looked old. The entire shop area was lit by old fashioned oil lamps hanging from the ceiling.

“I feel like I just went back into the medieval times,” Ashley uttered.

“But that’s the charm of this place isn’t it Cliff?” Dusk said, very impressed by the appearance of the place.

“Yep,” Cliff replied. Suddenly, the voice from the back of the smithy called out at the mention of Cliff’s name, “Cliff? Is that ya?”

“Yeah it is uncle Edge,” Cliff replied. From the back of the blacksmith there was a crash and the sound of galloping hooves. A second later, an olive green earth pony stallion wearing black hoof gloves burst out from the door behind the counter and tackled Cliff, causing him to stumble and fall. “I missed ya so much ya scoundrel!” The stallion said, smacking Cliff on the shoulder friendlily. “Oof… okay, okay,” Cliff said standing up. After dusting himself off, he turned to Dusk, Storm and Ashley and said, “This here’s my uncle, Edge Walker,” Then turning to Olive said, “These are my friends, Storm is the pegasus, the unicorn goes by the name off Dusk Flamer and The little dragon’s name is Ashley.”

“Pleased ta meet all of ya.” The old stallion said, nodding politely.

“Likewise,” Dusk said, nodding back in response. Edge then looked over at Ashley and mused, “A baby dragon huh, that would be extremely useful ‘round here.”

“Anyway uncle Edge, my friends wanted to try their hooves at smithing, can they try?” Cliff asked politely.

“Sure, any friend of mah nephew is more than welcome ta use mah facilities” Edge replied.

“Thanks! Err…” Storm said, then after a short pause, said, “Mister Edge?”

“Just Edge is fine,” Edge replied, smiling kindly. His eyes twinkling with an age far younger than his own, “Come on then, follow me.” The ponies followed Edge through the door behind the counter and they came out in a large room. The room was vastly different from the shop area of the blacksmith. It was shaped like a dome and was walled with stone bricks. There were five large furnaces, each burning fiercely, sending their heat all over the room. An organized row of many pots of molten gold were lined up at the walls of the room.

“Welcome ta the Blast Room, as I call it at least,” Edge said as he trotted over to a bench at the side of the room. From the bench, he pulled out three pairs of hoof-gloves, similar to the ones he was wearing. “Here ya’ll need this,” Edge said, passing the gloves to the ponies. Then turning to Ashley he said, “Ya don’t need no gloves do ya?”

“I guess?” Ashley said, looking at her white claws. “Now let’s begin,” Edge said, beginning to explain and demonstrate the proper procedures for smithing.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Ahh… that feels good.” Dusk said as he lay down into his large private bath. He, Storm and Cliff had just come back from Edge’s blacksmith and his front legs were hurting like crazy. “How did Cliff do that for seven years?” He mused, rubbing his front legs together. An idea suddenly hit him causing him to bolt upright.

“What’s wrong?” Ashley asked, scrubbing her scales. Her smaller bath beside his overflowing with bubbles.

“Nothing,” Dusk replied, trailing off. A plan formulated itself in his head on how to tap into Cliff’s potential power.

Chapter 6: Fissure

“Alright Cliff, I have a plan for you to not get bullied anymore.” Dusk announced proudly at breakfast.
“What is it?” Storm asked out of pure curiosity.

“Just wait and see.” Dusk replied. Cliff sighed, shaking his head and looking unconvinced.

Just then, Princess Celestia stood up and clanged her glass. “I have an announcement to make,” She said. All the ponies in the hall turned to look at her. A violet colored alicorn stood up next to Princess Celestia, her short light blue mane curling cutely at the ends. She had the same cutie mark as Nightmare Moon. “I present you my sister, Princess Luna!” Princess Celestia said clapping her hooves. All the ponies in the hall began clapping their hooves and some even whooped with joy.
“She’s really different from Nightmare Moon, isn’t she?” Storm commented.

“Yeah, she really is,” Dusk said. Princess Luna smiled and said, “I thank thee my faithful subjects for greeting thou princess with the greatest applause.” A great number of ponies in the hall turned to look in each other in confusion.

“She means to say thank you,” Princess Celestia explained, “She still only knows olden English I’m afraid.” Everypony nodded in understanding.

Later, Dusk, Ashley, Storm and Cliff went to a large grassy field off the back of the castle with a huge oak tree in it. A place known to the royal guard as Oak Hill.

“What’s this?” Cliff asked.

“It’s your salvation.” Dusk proclaimed, his chest puffing out.

“It’s a tree.” Ashley said flatly.

“Dusk, I know you have weird tactics that saved us uncountable times on the battlefield, but I have to agree with Ashley on this one,” Storm concurred, “It is just a tree. A big tree.”

Dusk ignored the two of them. “Okay Cliff, I need you to slam your front hooves on the tree until it falls over.” Dusk instructed Cliff, pointing to the tree with a hoof.

“Huh?” Cliff asked, dumbfounded by the impossibility of the task. “Are you crazy?” Cliff said, looking at Dusk the way one would look at a lunatic.

“Nope, now do it,” Dusk responded, his tone and his facial expression told everypony that he was not kidding. Cliff shrugged and slammed his front hooves into the trunk of the tree. The tree shook a little but that was about it. Cliff looked at Dusk. “Go on,” Dusk said motioning to the tree with his head. Cliff looked at Storm and Ashley, both of whom shrugged and gave him the ‘I can’t help you, sorry’ look. Cliff turned and began pounding on the tree.

“Okay continue doing that until tonight.” Dusk said. Cliff nearly fell over when he heard that. “WHAT?!” Cliff shouted in an unusually exasperated manner, “Why?”

“Because it will help build your foreleg strength,” Dusk said.

“But I have duties,” Cliff protested, trying to get out of the insane task the senior ranking pony was trying to put him up to.

“I have removed your duties as of today until tomorrow morning,” Dusk said, “If anypony asks you what you’re doing, say Lieutenant Flamer asked you to do it.”

“Nah I don’t think so,” Cliff said skeptically.

“Please do it,” Dusk begged, “It really will help you. Just trust me please?”

“I’m not doing it.” Cliff said stubbornly.

“Hey, why can’t he just do normal push ups?” Storm said, cutting into the conversation.

“Yeah, why not?” Cliff said, agreeing with the white pegasus.

“It would give him more foreleg strength but not anymore than he already has.” Dusk explained, “And I wouldn’t have asked him to do it if I thought that he couldn’t do it.”

“But I can’t do it!” Cliff cried out exasperatedly. Dusk turned to him and snapped, “Don’t say that, you need to believe you can do it for it to work.” He quickly shot a glance at Storm and Ashley telling them to not say a word. “Now please continue Cliff,” He pleaded, the turning to the other two he gave them a look that said, ‘Please help me convince him.’

“I think you should do it,” Ashley said, “This does sound crazy but Dusk wouldn’t ask anypony to do anything pointless.” Cliff looked at Ashley, raising an eyebrow.

“I have to agree with them,” Storm said, sighing, “Dusk isn’t one for fooling around.”

“Okay, fine I’ll do it,” Cliff said, giving in.

“Thank you,” Dusk said calmly, “You will not regret this.” He turned and left, Ashley on his back and Storm following them. Cliff sighed and resumed pounding the tree.

“I hope you know what you’re doing Dusk,” Storm said worriedly.

“I know what I’m doing,” Dusk replied, “Have faith in me.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Dusk! What are you doing?!” Shining Armor yelled at Dusk.

“Hmm? What are you talking about?” Dusk replied.

“Why is the new recruit trying to knock down the old oak tree on Oak Hill?” Shining Armor said angrily.

“Because I asked him to,” Dusk replied nonchalantly.

“I know,” Shining Armor said, furiously, “I’m asking you why did you ask him to do something so pointless?”

“It will help him, trust me,” Dusk said looking at Shining Armor very seriously. Shining Armor was about to yell when he was touched on the shoulder by a white wing-tip. He turned to see Princess Celestia. “Your highness!” Shining Armor said, saluting crisply, “Lieutenant Flamer has gone nuts!”

“I have not,” Dusk argued.

“He has made the new recruit pound against the old oak tree until it falls.” Shining Armor reported. Princess Celestia turned to Dusk and asked, “Is this true?”

“Yes, it is true your majesty,” Dusk said, “But please trust me your majesty, good will come from this.” Princess Celestia looked at Dusk skeptically but turned to Shining Armor and said, “I’m sorry, but I’m going to trust Dusk on this one.” Shining Armor’s mouth dropped open while Dusk sighed in relief. “But,” Princess Celestia added, “If no good comes from this, Dusk will have his position removed.” Dusk gulped and hoped that his plan would work.
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Cliff’s he was tired from pounding all day, he was panting like a dog and his body was covered in sweat. His hooves were sore, bleeding and had splinters from pounding the oak tree. Hi front leg muscles were aching and tense from overuse. The part of the oak tree he had been pounding was heavily damaged, leaving the softer inner flesh exposed. Cliff was about to collapse when he heard a voice behind him say, “Good job.” Cliff knew who it was. “What… do… you… want… Dusk?” He asked between pants.

“You did well trying to knock this tree down.” Dusk said, then looking at Cliff’s hooves, he asked. “Do you need some help getting to the infirmary?”

“No… I’m… fi- ” Cliff whispered before he passed out on the ground.
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When Cliff woke up, he felt like his front hooves were on fire. He looked down and saw that they were in bandages. He looked around him and saw that he was in the royal castle’s infirmary. The air was filled with a medicinal smell. The ceiling was white and had electric lights and fans installed into them. The walls were white with large windows at regularly intervals. Through the windows he saw that it was late morning. His bed was a metal bed with railings and an uncomfortable mattress and a lumpy pillow. There were five more beds just like his lined up parallel to his bed. At the end of either side of the room was a door. The door to his right opened and Storm came in carrying a tray of fruits and vegetables on his back.

“Yo Cliff! How you doing?” Storm asked, quickly walking over to him to pass him the food.

“Better I guess,” Cliff said, his aches and tiredness were gone but his hooves still hurt. Storm placed the food on Cliff’s lap.
“Dusk carried you all the way up here you know?” He said, leaning on the railing of the bed, “He really cares about you.”

“Why?” Cliff asked puzzled as to why the lieutenant would help a recruit he only knew yesterday.

“It’s probably because he empathises with your bullying situation.” Storm replied.

“Wait, Dusk was bullied?” Cliff questioned, he did not know that the lieutenant he knew as a friend was bullied.
“Yeah, I was with him when it happened,” Storm said, “Me and him were bullied to no end because we didn’t have our cutie marks.” Cliff began to eat as Storm recounted what happened to him and Storm on their first few days at the royal castle.

“Well, since Dusk and I didn’t have out cutie marks,” Storm began, “We were picked on by the other castle guard the same rank as us and believe it or not, our main bullies are your main bullies; Bright Boast and Crush Ice.”

“No way,” Cliff interrupted, “Wait a second, doesn’t that mean that they didn’t get promoted a single rank since you and Dusk joined?”

“Yup,” Storm replied, chuckling, “All twelve years.”

“You and Dusk have been serving in the castle for twelve years?” Cliff said in awe.

“I guess, well no, two years only as we spent ten years in the war,” Storm replied, “Anyway, we were teased and abused. The torture mercifully stopped only when her highness or Shining Armor was present. The limit for Dusk was when the bullies grabbed me and…” Storm stopped and shut his eyes tightly for a while before continuing, “Broke my wings.”

Cliff gasped, even as an earth pony he knew how sensitive a pegasus’s wings were to their owners.

“Dusk found me in a janitor’s closet bleeding and with my wings literally tied in a knot,” Storm said, wiping some tears that found their way out of his eyes, “He found the bullies and yelled at them. Their response to that was slapping his muzzle and more taunting. Dusk’s horn then glowed red and the ground beneath them exploded into red magic. This led Dusk to lean his signature spell, Eruption. Afterward, Dusk’s lessons became more practical so that Dusk could learn how to control his magic properly, I was sent to let my wings recover and the bullies were left with magic burns and a harsh scolding.” Cliff finished his breakfast just as Storm wrapped up his tale. “Anyway, follow me,” Storm said, getting up, “Dusk wants to see you at Oak Hill again.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Ah! You came!” Dusk said happily as he saw Storm approaching with Cliff in his wake. Ashley was on his back munching on an emerald.

“You really like them emeralds eh?” Cliff said to Ashley, then turning to Dusk he asked, “What do you need me to do?”
Dusk pointed to the grassy ground and said, “I want you to slam your hooves as hard as you can into the ground. Please?” An hour before this and Cliff would have refused but after hearing how Dusk was bullied and how he overcame it, he removed the bandages on his hooves and prepared to strike the earth. He had newfound respect for Dusk and knew that this would somehow help him.

Cliff raised his hooves high above his head and brought it down on the ground as hard as he could. The pain was intense but he withstood it. There was a loud ‘BAM!’ and the ground began to shake and rumble. Then from Cliff’s hooves, a large crack formed in the earth. Cliff could not believe his eyes and neither could Storm or Ashley. “Did I… just… do… that?” He asked, amazed by his own strength.

“Yes you did,” Dusk said, smiling to himself.

“B-But h-how?” Ashley said, hopping off Dusk’s back to inspect the crack.

“Well, I guessed that your strength in your front hooves would be very strong as your legs muscles weren’t aching even after doing at least ten times the amount of work we did yesterday at your uncle’s,” Dusk explained, “Then I had a hunch that you could possibly turn that into a weapon.”

“You mean that you expected him to be able to split the ground?” Storm asked his right hoof scratching his head.

“Not exactly,” Dusk replied, leaning back on the large oak tree behind him. Motioning to the tree he said, “This tree is actually magically enchanted to withstand hard blows. The fact that you could actually damage it this much yesterday shows how strong you are.”

The other ponies looked at the tree and saw that it was completely fine. “Huh? But I bashed it up yesterday.” Cliff said, baffled.

“Well the tree regenerates,” Dusk said, grinning broadly, “So enjoy using it to train your muscles.”

“Thanks Dusk, for helping me realise my true strength.” Cliff said, bowing respectfully to the grey unicorn. Both Cliff’s and Dusk’s flanks started glowing and then two different marks appeared on them. “Hey you guys got your cutie marks!” Ashley exclaimed. Dusk and Cliff turned to look at their respective flanks. Dusk’s cutie mark was a golden capital ‘L’ surrounded by red spirals and Cliff’s was a fissure. Storm tackled the both of them together and shouted, “Yeah! Now we all have our cutie marks!”

“By the way,” Dusk said, regaining his calm composure, “What are you going to call your new move?”

“I think I’ll call it…” Cliff said, pausing to think, “Fissure.”

Chapter 7: The Best Young Flyer Competition

Storm was leisurely flying around the castle when he bumped into one of his old friends, Soarin’. “Yo! Soarin, whassup?” Storm called out as he swooped down to the baby blue colored pegasus. Soarin’ looked up and saw his old flying buddy. “Hey look, it’s Storm!” Soarin said to nopony in particular, “Nice wings by the way.”

“Thanks!” Storm said as he landed, fluffing up his huge wings, “So what brings you here?”

“I heard that you were back in town so I came to catch up,” Soarin said, throwing a hoof around Storm’s neck, “I mean, the last time I saw you was ten years ago!”

“I guess,” Storm admitted, “Okay, let’s head out to our favourite burger shop down the road and we’ll talk there.”

Soarin’ shifted his hooves nervously and said, “Yeah, about that… I can’t really do that.”

“Why not?” Storm asked, he had never known Soarin’ to refuse going there before. “Well you see…” Soarin’ began, “I recently joined the Wonderbolts about a year ago.”

“You joined the Wonderbolts?!” Storm asked, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. He and Soarin’ had always been huge fans of the Wonderbolts ever since they were just colts. “Yep,” Soarin’ said sheepishly. Then he quickly added, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to join without you! It just that you were in the war and-”

Soarin’ was interrupted by a flying hug from Storm. “I’m so glad for you!” Storm exclaimed, hugging Soarin’ so hard he could not breathe. “I… need… air…” Soarin’ gasped. Storm released his hug and apologized.

“So now you understand,” Soarin said, sighing, “It rocks, being a Wonderbolt and all but it sucks being too famous. I can’t even fly down the street without being chased by a mob of fans, trying to get an autograph.”

“Hmmm… it must be if it’s that bad,” Storm said thoughtfully, “So how about the royal mess hall?”

“Sounds like a plan!” Soarin’ said and the two ponies started off down the hallway, racing to their destination.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“And I flew right out of their camp avoiding magic bolts left and right like ‘Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!’.” Storm said, using his hooves to describe his actions.

“Cool…” Soarin’ said as he spooned a mouthful of carrots into his mouth, “Man I wish I was there with you.”

“And I wish I was there when you entered the Wonderbolts academy,” Storm said wistfully as he took a big bite of his broccoli and cabbage sandwich.

“I wish we could talk more,” Soarin’ said, “But I have a meeting to attend.”

“It’s okay, we can catch up another time,” Storm said with his mouth full.

“Yeah, but I have meetings and appointments lined up to no end this week,” Soarin’ groaned, “And my only free day is next Thursday and that’s been taken up as I have to judge the best young flyer competition.”

“Hey, I know!” Storm said, swallowing his food, “How about we catch up during the competition?”

“Aren’t you entering the competition?” Soarin’ asked.

“Nah, I don’t really have any tricks to perform,” storm said, taking another gargantuan bite out of his sandwich, “I prefer raw speed to anything.”

“Then you won’t get into the Wonderbolts,” Soarin’ stated matter-of-factly.

“Well, I’m not really a team flier anyway so my chances are less than nothing,” Storm said, “If anything, joining the Wonderbolts was a dream to me and I assume to you to, right?”

“It was,” Soarin’ said grinning, “Until I actually joined them.”

“Yeah you lucky dog,” Storm said a little jealously.

“So we meet at the best young flyer competition?” Soarin’ asked.

“Sure!” Storm confirmed, finishing his sandwich.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Awww… really?” Storm asked with pleading eyes.

“Really,” Dusk said firmly, “I really need to train with Shining Armor today.”

“Hurry Dusk, we need to go!” Ashley said, even for a baby dragon, she was a real stickler for punctuality.

“But can’t you go to the best young flyer competition with me?” Storm said, pouting.

“No means no,” Dusk said firmly, “And stop making that face, you look like retarded. Just get Cliff or somepony else to go with you.”

“But Cliff has and still is obsessed with pounding the stupid oak!” Storm said exasperatedly, rolling on the ground.

“Come on!” Ashley said, “We have to go now Dusk!”

“Hey, what time do you have to be there anyway?” Dusk asked suddenly.

“Two thirty, why?” Storm replied, picking himself off the floor and dusting himself.

“It’s already two.” Dusk said flatly.

“Oh horseapples!” Storm yelled before flying off, leaving a cloud of dust behind.

Storm felt the wind whistling past his ears as he flew at Mach speed to the stadium. “C’mon wings, fly faster!” He said to himself as his wings beat the wind like there was no tomorrow. He felt his muzzle get pushed back by the wind as he flapped faster and faster. His wing tips turned from white to light blue, then the blue turned into electricity. Soon, he began leaving behind him a spiral of electricity, the same move he did by accident during the war that earned him his cutie mark.

He saw the stadium on the horizon but continued to fly at the speed he was going. His wing muscles protested in pain but he ignored it and kept going until he accidentally crashed into a passing cloud, leaving a ‘Storm’ shaped hole in it.

He tumbled in the air, turning his wing tips back to normal, and somehow managed to land upright on the top of the stadium. He flew down into the relatively empty stadium and saw Soarin’ waving to him in the judge’s panel. He flew over to meet him.
“Hey Storm! You made it!” Soarin’ said, jumping up and down like a little foal.

“Wouldn’t have missed this for anything.” Storm said, wiping a few beads of sweat from his forehead. Soarin’ turned and motioned to a yellow mare with a fiery mane. “This here’s Spitfire,” Soarin’ introduced. The pegasus waved casually at Storm. Then Soarin motioned cream stallion with a light blue mane. “This is Wave chill.” The stallion grunted and showed little interest in the new pegasus. “This here is Storm, my childhood friend,” Soarin’ said, throwing a hoof around Storm’s neck.

“Pleased to meet you.” Spitfire said in a very official voice, “Soarin’ has told me many great things about you.”

“And about you too!” Storm said enthusiastically, “He told me you were made captain within two years of your joining the Wonderbolts!”

Spitfire turned to Soarin’ and said, “Now Soarin’, I believe I told you not to disclose that information to just anypony, right?”
“But he’s my childhood friend!” Soarin’ protested.

“Okay I’ll let you off the hook this time,” Spitfire said. She turned back to Storm and commented, “Nice wings.”

Storm turned and looked around the stadium, it was now filling up with pegasi either here to see the action or cheer for the competitors. Even Princess Celestia was there in the royal box. Then, he saw four mares approach a spot, but what was unusual about them was that one was a unicorn and two others were earth ponies.

“How is it possible that ponies other than pegasi can walk on clouds?” He thought to himself, “A spell maybe?” Then he realized that the unicorn was none other than Twilight Sparkle. “Well lookie here,” He thought, grinning, “Dusk sure missed the jackpot on this one, better rub it in his face so that he never misses anything with me again.” He made a mental note to talk to Twilight after the competition.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“And so that’s how I joined the Wonderbolts,” Soarin’ finished his story.

“Soarin’! Pay attention to the performance!” Spitfire commanded, glaring at him, “We came here to judge not chit-chat!”

“I know Spit but all these performances are so boring.” Soarin’ said exasperatedly.

“I thought the consecutive barrel rolls by number seven was pretty good.” Storm admitted.

“That’s old hat,” Soarin’ said, “I could do that with my eyes closed.”

“You probably could,” Wavechill said blankly, “But still these pegasi are still young so give them a chance.”

Soarin’ just sighed and looked on as the last entrant entered the stadium. But there were two ponies, not one. Storm recognized the both of them, one of them was the cyan blue pegasus with the rainbow colored mane and the other, although heavily disguised by thick make up, was the other unicorn, except she had humongous multicolored butterfly wings. “Damn,” Soarin’ said as he looked over to Storm, whose jaw was wide open, “And I thought that your wings were big.”

“Yeah…” Storm uttered, looking on. Soarin’ turned his attention back to the match and saw the cyan pegasus try out her tricks as some awful classical music began playing. At first, she began by strafing through some cloud pillars which she did quite perfectly, until she biffed it into the last pillar and slammed face first into the hard cloudcrete border. Then she began spinning three clouds, which would have been pretty cool if had she not accidently shot one of them at the Princess. Then she shot upward into the sky.

“Is she going to do a Sonic Rainboom?” Storm asked, looking at the rising pegasus.

“Don’t be silly,” Soarin’ said, “Nopony except the previous Wonderbolt captain has performed that trick for a long time, let alone a young mare.”

“Hey, what’s she doing?” Storm asked, pointing at the unicorn. She was flying higher and higher into the air. Then she spread her wings and the sunlight shone through her wings and down onto the stadium, showering it in a myriad of colors. “That’s pretty cool,” Soarin’ admitted.

Suddenly, the unicorn’s wings disintegrated into thin air. Then she began to fall.

“Horseapples! She needs help!” Storm shouted but the Wonderbolts were a step ahead of him, they shot after the descending mare but they all received a hoof to the face, stunning them.

“Oh no no no no no,” Storm uttered, he prepared his large wings for flight and was about to take off when a cyan bolt cut across the air in the stadium.

“Wha?” Storm said as he saw the cyan mare streak down towards the falling ponies. Her face was pulled back by the wind as she stuck her front hooves out. The sound barrier started to form around her.

Then, she broke it, creating a defening ‘BOOM’ and leaving behind a circular rainbow blast. The mere sight of it took the breath away from the spectators in the stadium, including Storm.

The mare, pushed forward by the speed from the trick, managed to save her unicorn friend and the three Wonderbolts.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Hey, you alright?” Storm asked Soarin’ as he trotted in.

“Yeah I think so,” Soarin said, rubbing his head “Ahh… my aching head. That unicorn hits hard!”

Storm let out a small chuckle then asked. “Hey, so wanna hang some other time?”

“Yeah I guess,” Soarin’ replied, “I need to thank that mare that saved me.”

“Hey~ you got the hots for her?” Storm teased.

“N-No!” Soarn snapped back, blushing. Storm just laughed it off. Then he remembered what he wanted to do. “Hey I gotta go say hi to somepony. Bye!” Storm said.

“See you around then,” Soarin said as he bid farewell.

Storm took off and flew around the stadium looking for Twilight. He eventually found her and her friends taking off in a hot air balloon. He followed them and flew down to them when they had landed. “Hey there!” He called out as he landed. The six ponies turned to see him, the yellow pegasus hiding behind Twilight. “Ummm… who exactly are you?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, who are you handsome?” The white unicorn asked, batting her eyelids at him.

“Just a friend of her coltfriend,” Storm continued, pointing to Twilight.

“A coltfriend?” All six ponies exclaimed, turning to Twilight.

“I-I d-don’t have a c-c-coltfriend,” Twilight stammered, flustered at the random statement from the colt.

“Sure you do,” Storm said casually, “Don’t you remember him? Dusk?”

“Who’s Dusk?” The pink earth pony asked, bouncing up and down.

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied softly.

“You really don’t remember him?” Storm asked, a worry building in his heart.

“I guess not,” Twilight replied.

“Oh well then,” Storm sighed, then he spread his wings and said, “If you want to find me, my name is Storm Whipper, a pegasi guard of the Princess.” And with that he took off for the royal castle, wondering how Dusk would react to the news.

Chapter 8: A Horrible Accident

“I kinda already expected that,” Dusk admitted when Storm told him the news.

“You expected her to forget about you?” Ashley clarified.

“Not exactly,” Dusk replied, “It’s just that I was gone for so long that she probably would have buried herself in something else.”

“I suppose she would’ve.” Storm said shrugging his shoulders. They were walking down the path to Oak Hill to try out something Storm suggested, a Sonic Rainboom. “I still think that you can’t do it,” Ashley said, lying down on Dusk’s back.

“Awww, c’mon, give me a chance!” Storm cried out exasperatedly, “You’re shooting me down before I can even try!”

Dusk simply rolled his eyes. The only pony that was recorded doing one in the past decade was the cyan mare Storm saw perform it and the previous captain of the Wonderbolts, Typhoon Burner. They came out onto the field and saw Cliff there, pounding on the oak tree. “Hey Cliff!” Ashley called out, waving at him.

Cliff stopped slamming the tree and turned to see his friends approaching. He waved back then resumed pounding the oak. “Alright Storm,” Dusk said pointing at the sky, “Are you ready to attempt a Sonic Rainboom?”

“Buck yeah!” Storm said, shooting up into the sky. Ashley simply sighed and watched, waiting for Storm to fail. Storm rose high into the sky before turning and plummeting straight down. He pointed his front hooves forward and flapped his wings as fast as he could. Soon electricity began building around him and trailing behind him. The sound barrier manifested itself around his front hooves. Suddenly, the sound barrier rebounded back on him, shooting him back up into the atmosphere. Storm’s ascension was stopped by a bunch of cirrus clouds, packed together by Dusk’s magic. Dusk brought Storm down in the cloud cushion.

“Well, you tried your best,” Dusk said. Storm popped his head out of the top of the clouds. “Again!” Storm shouted as he took off back into the sky.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Why can’t I do it?!” Storm cried out exasperatedly as he was carried down in the cloud cushion for the fiftieth time. It had been morning when they had started and now it was evening. “Maybe it’s your form.” Cliff pointed out. He stopped pounding on the tree about two hours ago.

“Mmmm… I don’t think so,” Dusk said, stroking Ashley’s top scales. She had fallen asleep while Storm was trying to break the sound barrier and was now snoring daintily. “It could be that he doesn’t have to required speed.”

“How fast do you have to go?” Storm asked, genuinely not knowing.

“I assume more than 330 meters per second,” Dusk replied, “Simply because that’s the speed required to break the sound barrier.”

“More than 330 meters per second?!” Cliff and Storm shouted together incredulously. Then Storm cried out, “That’s impossible!”

“Maybe,” Dusk replied, “But I have an idea of how to help you.”

“How?”

“Spin around in mid-air,” Dusk answered, moving his hoof in a circle to demonstrate.

“I guess I’ll give it a shot,” Storm said, shrugging his shoulders. He shot upward a repeated the same maneuver he had been doing for the entire day except with spinning. Everything seemed to be going the same as before until Storm began accelerating faster than normal. The previous trail of electricity behind Storm began to curve more than usual, melding together and creating a single spiral of electricity. As the sound barrier formed around Storm’s hooves, it too began to spin, becoming more pointed at the tip than usual. Dusk smiled while Cliff mouthed a ‘Holy Celestia’. Sure enough, Storm broke the sound barrier into a circle of blue electricity, creating a loud ‘BOOM!’ waking up Ashley in a fright and leaving an azure blue electric trail behind him.

“He did it!” Dusk yelled out, jumping around in a circle.

“Ummm… Are you sure he’s supposed to be still diving?” Cliff asked, a hint of panic In his voice. Dusk looked up and saw that Storm was spinning out of control, the trail behind him splitting into individual bolts.

The smile on Dusk’s face faded quickly. “Quick!” He cried, trying to bring the cloud cushion in front of Storm, “He’s losing control!”

When Dusk managed to bring the clouds in front of Storm, he just burst through it, destroying the cloud in the process. As Dusk tried to gather up another cushion, Ashley quickly sent an S.O.S. message to the princess. Cliff did not know what to do; he was frozen in his tracks. The scene that played out in front of him reminded him the incident concerning his parents, each flashback sending shivers down Cliff’s spine. “Cliff! What are you doing?!” Dusk yelled at the unmoving earth pony.

Suddenly, Storm took a nosedive straight down towards the earth, crashing and dying almost imminent. “NO!” Dusk screamed. Then, he charged straight to where Storm was to crash, his horn glowing. Ashley turned away; she could not bear to see the impact. Sure enough it came with a sickening ‘WHAM!’
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cliff was snapped out of his trance by a loud sound. He turned to see Dusk and Storm in a heap on the ground. He ran over shouting “Storm! Dusk! Are you alright?!” He saw that they were in a horrible state. Dusk was bleeding out of his mouth and from his temple. His hind legs had to be broken, given the odd angle they were bent. Storm was on top of Dusk. His wings, bleeding and distended and his right foreleg had a bone sticking out the back of it. Both ponies were covered in bruises and unconscious.

Cliff just stood there, shocked out of his mind. Ashley came running over, only to gasp and cry at what she saw. Soon, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrived with a team of unicorns led by Shining Armor. “What happened?” Shining Armor demanded, clearly worried that his right hand pony was unconscious and severely injured.

“Please help,” Was all Cliff could utter. The princesses levitated the injured ponies and the hysterically crying Ashley away, leaving Shining Armor alone with a shocked Cliff.

“It’ll be okay kid,” Shining Armor reassured the earth pony, “It won’t be like with your parents.”

At this, Cliff snapped back to reality and turned to Shining Armor. “You know my parents?” He asked him.

“Of course,” Shining Armor replied, “Your dad was my mentor, the great wizard, Arcane Hanger.” He began to walk toward the castle, then looked back and called to Cliff, “You coming?”

“Yeah…” Cliff replied, walking after Shining Armor, shocked that a pony in the castle was so close to his father.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ashley was crying her eyes out in the waiting room outside the operation room when Cliff and Shining Armor arrived at the infirmary. A nurse came out into the hallway. “How is he?” Cliff asked. The nurse shook her head sadly and said, “Not very good I’m afraid. Apart from their external injuries, they have severe internal ones as well.”

At this, Ashley began to cry even louder, screwing her tiny fists into her eyes. Cliff could not blame her, she was about to possibly lose two of her closest friends, one of which raised her from a baby. “Can we go see them?” Shining Armor asked worriedly.

“You are,” The nurse replied pointing at Shining Armor, “Your magic is necessary.” Then she turned to Cliff. “You however are not. Please wait outside with the baby dragon.”

Shining Armor entered the operation room followed by the nurse while Cliff sat next to Ashley. He gave the bawling dragon a hug. “It’s going to be okay Ashley, don’t worry,” He cooed.

“H-How d-do y-you k-know,” Ashley said in between sobs, “W-What i-if t-they d-d-d-” The last part was drowned out by more crying.

“Nopony is going to leave you.” Cliff replied, rocking her back and forth. His usually expressionless face was now replaced by a face of immense worry and anxiety.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After what seemed like days, both princesses left the room, followed by Shining Armor. “How are they doing?” Cliff asked softly so as to not wake up Ashley who had fallen asleep on his lap.

“They are fine for now,” Princess Celestia replied. She looked worn out the other two ponies in a similar state. “Go get some sleep Cliff, you deserve it.” Princess Celestia said as she went back to her room to retire. Princess Luna flew off to survey the night despite her tiredness and Shining Armor trotted off down the hallway. Cliff looked down at Ashley. She had cried so much that the leg she was sleeping on was soaked in tears. Even as she slept, she sniffled periodically. Cliff leaned on the backing of the waiting bench and fell asleep.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cliff was awoken by the medicinal smell around him. He leaned up and looked around. Then he remembered where he was and what he was doing there. He lay Ashley’s head on the waiting bench and slowly but cautiously entered the room in front of him. When he entered, he saw his two best friends in separate identical hospital beds, similar to the one he woke up in the day after he met them. Both of them were hooked up to a large complex machine that showed their respective heart rate. Cliff went to check on Dusk, he was sleeping soundly and his heart rate had stabilized. His head was partially bandaged and both his hind legs were in casts and suspended. He checked on Storm and saw that he was in a similar state except he had a neck-brace and his right foreleg was in a cast and sling. Cliff sighed in relief and walked back out into the hallway where he bumped into another pony. “Oooof!” The other pony grunted as she landed on the floor.

“I’m so sorry,” Cliff apologized as he offered his hoof. The other pony reached out and grabbed it, pulling herself up. “Thanks,” She said, dusting herself off.

Cliff looked at the mare another time, she was a white unicorn with sparkling light green eyes and a similarly colored mane. On her flank, there was a cutie mark of an orb with rings encircling it. “Hi, my name’s Oracle,” The mare said, running her hoof through her mane to straighten it, “What’s yours?”

“Cliff Hanger,” The light brown earth pony replied, scratching the back of his head. There was an awkward silence until Oracle said, “Ummm… I have to go now, so I’ll… see you later?”

“Fine with me,” Cliff replied.

“Okay then, meet me tomorrow evening at four on Oak Hill. Okay?” Oracle said, twirling a lock of her mane around a hoof.

“Sure,” Cliff replied. As Oracle dashed off, Cliff thought to himself, “Wait, did I just converse normally with a mare and get a meeting out of it?”

He was snapped out of his thought by Princess Celestia. “Cliff? Are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh, Ummm… yeah I’m just… wondering about something,” Cliff said truthfully.

“May I know what is on your mind?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Ummm… sure, do you know a pony by the name of Oracle?” Cliff asked back.

“Oracle?” Princess Celestia replied, “Oh she is a unicorn who helps out in organizing my library. Why the sudden interest?”

“N-Nothing,” Cliff stammered, trying his best to hide his blush. Princess Celestia let out a small giggle at the sight. She turned her gaze to the two hospitalized ponies.

“Anyways, I came to check on them,” She said, “It would seem that their condition has stabilized. Knowing so, I can return to my work with a piece of mind.”

She let out a sigh of relief then turned to leave the ward. Cliff sat there in the ward, thinking about how he would approach Oracle on their first… ‘Date’?

Author's Note

Sorry about the long delay! I had exams and then a lot of stuff to do so I was busy for a while. I'll try to update this story more frequently now that I have some free time on my hands.

Chapter 9: Cliff's Past

After eating a delicious breakfast, Cliff returned to the infirmary to hear loud crying coming from Dusk’s and Storm’s ward. He dashed in quickly to see Ashley crying into Dusk’s fur and Dusk comforting her, stroking her scales. “I’m alright, don’t worry.” Dusk reassured her. Ashley just hugged him tighter and cried louder. Storm, who was now awake, saw Cliff enter the room and called out, “Yo Cliff.”

“Hey Storm,” Cliff replied. Dusk simply waved to Cliff as he was trying to calm Ashley down.

When Ashley had cried herself out, she simply lay down beside Dusk, sleeping. Cliff pulled up a chair from the corner of the ward and sat in between the two beds. “Hey so how are you guys feeling?” Cliff asked.

“Better definitely,” Storm replied, “It just sucks that they bound my wings to let them recover.”

“Oh come on Storm,” Dusk said, “You went through that before haven’t you?”

“I guess,” Storm replied leaning down on the bed and looking up at the ceiling.

Cliff turned to Dusk and popped a random question. “So, why did you join the royal guard?”

“Princess Celestia’s insisted for me to do so,” Dusk replied, “Of course I would join.”

“Yeah but, she took you in only after you entered the royal army, correct?” Storm said, joining in the conversation.

“Well, I guess I joined because I felt like I needed to redeem my family line.” Dusk replied, looking into space.

“What is your family line?” Cliff asked.

“I’d rather not talk about it?” Dusk replied stiffly.

Why?” Cliff inquired.

“Cliff, stop,” Storm said, trying to get Cliff off the topic.

“It’s a sensitive topic.” Dusk replied.

“But I told you about my past, which to me is a sensitive topic.” Cliff argued.

“Cliff. Stop.” Storm said, slightly louder.

“I really don’t want to talk about it.” Dusk said, his tone adopting a hint of anger.

“But I-”

“Cliff! Stop!” Storm yelled out, slamming his good hoof on the wall beside him, “I know you’re curious but stop poking at the topic!”

Cliff and Dusk were both taken aback by Storm’s sudden outburst, but they settled down quick enough. “I’m sorry Dusk,” Cliff apologised, “I was being an insensitive clod.”

“It’s okay Cliff,” Dusk replied, “I will eventually tell you guys about it, just… not now.”

“That’s fine, we can wait.” Storm replied, waving a hoof dismissively.

“By the way Storm, How did you join the castle guard?” Cliff asked, turning to the white pegasus.

“Well, I originally joined to enter the royal pegasi guard, but due to my weak physique, I was shafted to messenger service.” Storm replied, blushing out of embarrassment, “Lame story, huh?”

“It’s not that lame,” Cliff replied, “Some of the new recruits’ stories are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Dusk asked Cliff, “You said your parents passed away right?”

“Yeah,” Cliff replied, looking down at the ground and making circles with his hind hoof.

“I’m just curious to know, how did they die?” Dusk asked carefully.

“Awww c’mon Dusk!” Storm cried out exasperatedly, “Now that’s just plain morbid.”

“No, it’s fine,” Cliff replied, “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you then.”

Dusk and Storm settled down to listen to Cliff’s story. “It was a normal sunny day, me and my parents were having a picnic under the shade of a tree.” Cliff reminisced, “I still remember it like it was yesterday…”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Cliff! Come and get your sandwiches!” A yellow earth pony mare called out to a young colt in the distance.

“Coming mummy!” Cliff called back, running back to her, his brown mane blowing back out behind him. Cliff ran into his mother’s forelegs and embraced her warmly.

“Hey kid! Want a bite?” A red unicorn stallion sitting beside them asked, taking a huge bite of his sandwich.

“No thanks daddy,” Cliff replied, reaching down and picking up a sandwich, “I have my own.”

At this, both parents laughed at how cute their little bundle of joy was. Cliff’s mother put Cliff on her lap and looked out at the scenery. “I must say Sapling, You make the best sandwiches in all of Equestria.” Cliff’s father, Arcane, said, causing Cliff’s mother, Sapling, to blush.

“Awww… you’re just saying that, Arcy.” Sapling replied, playfully chucking Arcane’s shoulder and calling him by his pet name. Arcane looked at Sapling, her beautiful light brown mane pulled back into a ponytail, her tail done in a similar fashion. He leaned in toward her and kissed her.
“You’re still as beautiful as the day I fell in love with you.” He said, his pink eyes glinting in the sunlight.

Sapling was admiring the scenery when she saw a huge, blue hot air balloon come into view. “Look sweety,” She said, pointing to the balloon, “A hot air balloon.” Cliff’s orange eyes opened wide at the strange contraption in the distance. Arcane laughed at his son’s reaction.

“Don’t laugh at him like that Arcy!” Sapling said, playfully tugging at Arcane’s dark green mane.

“Ow ow ow, okay I’m sorry Sapling,” Arcane replied, wincing slightly.

“Mummy,” Cliff said.

“Yes sweety?” Sapling replied hugging the colt tighter.

“Why did the balloon go pop?” Cliff replied, his eyes looking out into the distance.

Sapling and Arcane both looked up and saw that the hot air balloon had indeed sprung a leak. And was crashing straight towards them. Sapling let out a cry of fear, scaring Cliff a little bit while Arcane got on his hooves and began trying to use his magic to stop the hot air balloon but to no avail. Cliff just sat there, rendered immobile out of fear. The balloon began picking up speed and just as it was about to crash into them, Arcane grabbed Cliff and hurled him out of the way. The balloon crashed into the couple, smashing the tree behind them as well. A shocked Cliff regained his senses and ran over to the crash. He began looking around for signs of life and found his mother, seriously injured and bleeding.

“Mummy!” Cliff cried, tearing streaming down his face.

“I’m… so sorry… sweetie…” Sapling managed to say, “But… mummy… doesn’t… have much… time…”

“Mummy! Hang in there! Don’t die!” Cliff screamed, his tears blurring his vision.

“Sweetie…” Sapling whispered, tears welling up in her eyes as well, “Always… remember… daddy… and I… will… always… love… you…” And with that, she passed on.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At this point, Cliff had tears in his eyes. “I’m… so sorry… for making remember something so painful.” Dusk apologised.

“It’s fine,” Cliff replied, wiping his tears away, “You guys were bound to ask sooner or later.”

“You -sob- poor thing!” Storm said between sobs as he too was crying, “I feel -sniff- so sorry -sniff- for you!”

“It’s alright,” Cliff said, “Don’t worry about it.”

Then turning to Dusk he said, “Now you know why I was scared stiff when Storm went out of control.”

“I understand completely.” Dusk said.

There was a silence in the room for a while before Cliff spoke. “So, anypony here have a special somepony?”

“Dusk does,” Storm replied nonchalantly.

“Seriously?” Cliff asked, surprised that the lieutenant of the royal guard could have found love already.

“Well, kind of,” Storm admitted.

“So what’s she like?” Cliff asked, turning to Dusk.

“Well…” Dusk said, then began explaining his short ‘romance’ between him and Twilight.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next day, Cliff made his way up to Oak Hill, butterflies filling his stomach. As he reached the old oak tree, he saw Oracle sitting under it, reading a book with a pile next to her. “Hey Oracle.” He greeted casually, hiding his nervousness.

“Oh, hi there Cliff!” Oracle greeted, turning to him from her books, “I’m sorry I was so absorbed in my books that I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s quite alright,” Cliff replied. He sat down next to her, peering over her shoulder. “What’re you reading?”

“A book,” Oracle replied seriously. Cliff gave her a disapproving stare.

“Okay, okay, it’s a book on how to utilise magic more efficiently,” Oracle said, holding the book in front of him with her magic.

“Why would you need to read something like that?” Cliff asked, slightly surprised that it was even possible to do so.

“Well, I have to help organise Princess Celestia’s library,” Oracle explained, “As a result, it is extremely taxing to concentrate for hours in order to arrange books.”

Then she turned to Cliff, a glint in her eyes. “Furthermore, I get the privilege of borrowing as many books as I want without paying!”

“I suppose you like free things,” Cliff said cautiously. The last thing he wanted was to make her feel upset or angry.

“I guess so,” Oracle replied, returning to her book, “But honestly, what’s there not to love about free stuff?”

He had to agree with her. Anypony would love to have items free of charge. An awkward silence permeated the air as Oracle continued reading her book.

“Umm… Why did you ask me to meet you out here?” Cliff asked monotonously, getting a better hold of his emotions.

“Well, I wanted to show you this,” Oracle said, getting up. She moved around the tree and pointed at its side. The tree was obviously misshapen, flatter and broader here than anywhere else on the tree.

“I found this irregularity here,” She said, “And since I did, I cannot figure out why It is like this.”

“Er, well, you see…” Cliff said, stumbling over his words, “Um… That would be my doing…”

“Huh?” Oracle asked, puzzled.

Cliff then began to explain how he has been using the tree to train his muscles. Then he showed her how he could pound and damage the tree.

“Impressive!” Oracle commented, clapping her hooves together, “This is amazing! I’ve never seen anypony do any kind of damage to this tree in my life!”
Cliff began to blush, despite his best efforts at remaining stoic. Oracle giggled at the sight.

“You’re cute when you do that,” She remarked, causing him to blush even more. She proceeded to pick up her books with her magic.“Sorry, but I have to leave now,” She said, “Gotta go put these books back before dinner.”

“Need a hoof?” Cliff asked, offering his hoof.

Oracle smiled warmly at him. “Why thank you Cliff.”

Chapter 10: Friends

-TWO WEEKS LATER-

The days flew by. Cliff hung out with Oracle in the day and with Dusk, Storm and Ashley at night. Storm escaped the boredom by sleeping through most of it, if not stuffing his face at other times. Dusk entertained himself by reading books, borrowed through Cliff/Oracle. His favorite one was a series called ‘Daring Do’ in which he particularly loved the protagonist’s way of finding means of escape and yet still manages to foil the plans of the antagonist. It just so happened that Ashley enjoyed the story too, so Dusk read to her multiple times. Tonight, Dusk, Storm and Cliff were in the ward and Cliff was relaying what happened between him and Oracle today.

“And so that’s how we ended up eating dinner together.” Cliff said, finishing his recount.

“This Oracle sounds like a really nice pony!” Ashley said, rolling around on Dusk’s lap.

“She is,” Cliff said flatly.

“I would like to meet her actually,” Dusk thought out loud.

“Me too!” Storm chimed in.

“Er… well, when are you guys discharged?” Cliff asked.

“Tomorrow!” Ashley cried out. She was so excited about their release that she was jumping up and down on Dusk’s bed.

“Okay, calm down,” Dusk said, smiling slightly.

“So can we meet her?” Storm asked, “Me and Dusk are still off-duty until tomorrow.”

“I… Suppose so,” Cliff replied, “Meet me at Oak Hill at one O’clock.”

“Cool,” Storm said, lying back down on his bed, “Anyways, you should go back to your bunk Cliff, look at the time.”

Cliff turned to look at the wall clock above Dusk’s bed. He saw that it was ten O’clock, the curfew for all ponies not in the Lunar Guard.

“You’re right, I’d better get going,” Cliff agreed, getting up and leaving the room, “Bye.”

Dusk, Cliff and Ashley bid farewell to Cliff and lay down in their beds, falling asleep soon after.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next afternoon, Dusk and Storm made their way to Oak Hill. Ashley was perched on Dusk’s back as she always would be, Storm’s right hoof was till in a cast but his wings had made a complete recovery. Dusk’s hind legs were both covered in magic casts that could help him walk, provided they were fueled with magic energy. As they approached their destination, they saw two ponies under the oak tree. One of the ponies waved to them.

“That must be Cliff,” Storm said, waving back, a wide grin plastered on his face. They soon met up with Cliff and the other pony.
“Hi, I’m Oracle,” The other pony said, her short green mane flowing in the breeze, “Nice to meet you!”

“I’m Dusk,” Dusk introduced, then pointing to the red and white dragon on his back said, “And this is Ashley.”

Ashley waved politely.

“And I’m Storm!” Storm said proudly, then leaning in closer to Oracle said, “Saaaaay… You’re much prettier that Cliff described you to be.”
Oracle blushed a bright red and averted her gaze to the ground. Cliff moved close to Storm.

“H-Hey!” He whispered, “What are you trying to do?”

“My, my,” Storm said, smiling slyly, “Isn’t somepony a little protective of his marefriend?”

“M-M-Marefriend?!” Cliff and Oracle cried out together. Now they were both blushing like crazy. Ashley snickered at the sight while Dusk rolled his eyes.

“Anyways, where do you guys want to eat lunch?” Dusk asked.

“Umm… I know this place down the street from here,” Oracle said, the red disappearing from her face, “It’s not too fancy and has a nice atmosphere.”

“Great!” Storm exclaimed, flying off the ground, “What are we waiting for?”

“So how did you meet?” Ashley asked, her eyes glued to the two ponies in front of him. They had come to the diner Oracle was talking about and were seated, waiting for their food to arrive. The diner’s layout was in a circular fashion, with a large circle in the center that served as a counter and a bar. Behind it was the kitchen and in front and around its sides were smaller circles of cushion chairs surrounding circular tables.

“Well… We met by bumping into each other,” Cliff said.

“Literally,” Oracle added, winking at the earth pony.

“Umm… yeah so I helped her pick up the stuff she dropped when we bumped and… that’s all there is to it,” Cliff finished, taking a sip of his water.

“And that, fillies and gentlecolts, is how the romance of the century started,” Storm said, snickering. This statement caused both Cliff and Oracle to sport an interesting shade of red on their face.

Dusk simply stared blankly at Oracle, there was something about her that felt off but he couldn’t put his hoof on it. For now he just ignored it and resumed listening to the conversation the others were having. Soon the waiter arrived, placing their food in front of them. Dusk tipped him and thanked him for his services.

“So how did the three of you meet?” Oracle asked, trying to stay away from the topic of romance.

“Well, I met Dusk In a rather similar fashion to you guys, by crashing into each other,” Storm said, “Then Dusk met Cliff through Princess Celestia. Or kind of.”

“I see,” Oracle said, slightly tickled by the thought that Dusk and Storm could have made the romance of the century, according to Storm. “I am actually curious as to how you and Ashley met,” Oracle said, looking at Dusk.

“Well, Okay,” Dusk began.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Dusk! Where are you?” Princess Celestia called out, her voice echoing through the royal hallways.

“I’m coming!” Dusk yelled, running towards the source of the voice. When he met the sun princess, she showed him a brown sack. “Princess Celestia, what is in the bag?” Dusk asked ignorantly.

“Dragon eggs,” Princess Celestia explained, showing him the contents, “I confiscated this bag from a dragon poacher earlier.”
“A dragon poacher?” Dusk said. He had read about dragons before and was puzzled as to how a pony could be capable of poaching the powerful beasts.

“A dragon egg poacher to be exact,” Princess Celestia clarified, “You may not know this but many rich ponies out there are willing to satisfy their hunger with odd delacies. Dragon eggs happen to be one of them.”

“That’s horrible!” Dusk cried out, his face etched with disgust, “Can’t you do anything about it?”

“I know of it, but I am unable to act,” Princess Celestia said, sighing, “I may have control over Equestria but even the greatest of empires have their hidden side, the underground organizations.” She shook her head of these thought of helplessness then said, “Dusk, I have an important task for you,”

“What is it your majesty?” Dusk asked.

“I need you to hatch one of these eggs,”

“What?” Dusk cried out, falling back from the shock.

“I know it may seem like a tall order, but I have faith in you,” Princess Celestia said confidently, smiling at the very pony she hoof-picked from the Equestrian royal army.

“A-Alright, if you say so,” Dusk replied, nervous shuffling his hooves.

“Go ahead then, pick one,” Princess Celestia said. In the bag there were two eggs, one of them was purple with darker spots while the other was white with grey spots.

“I’ll pick… the… white one…” Dusk said slowly, hesitating as to whether he made the right choice.

“Alright then,” Princess Celestia said, levitating the egg out of the bag and placing on the ground in front of Dusk.

“Umm… your majesty?” Dusk asked, “How am I supposed to hatch this?”

“By giving it energy,” Princess Celestia explained, “If you supply the egg with enough energy, it will hatch.”

The sun princess turned and strode down the hallway while Dusk held the egg with his magic and brought it back to his room. When he reached his room, Dusk placed the egg in the center of the room, making sure to treat the egg with the utmost care. He then positioned himself in front of the egg and lowered his horn to the egg. His horn glowed red and shot forth a blast of magic, sending the egg skidding across the floor.

“Oops,” Dusk thought to himself, “Guess it was too powerful?”

Luckily for Dusk, a dragon egg’s shell is relatively tough and resistant to magic, so even after two hours of trying, the only significant difference was that the egg was a charcoal color. Dusk was getting worn down, he was panting hard and his legs were beginning to buckle. Although he had not expended a lot of magic energy, the amount of energy it took to suppress his magic was taking its toll on him. He raced his mind for possible ways to hatch the egg as he only had enough strength left for one shot.

“Why? Why can’t I hatch it?” He spat out, frustrated and exhausted, “What did Princess Celestia say that I forgot?”

Then it hit him, he did not have to blast the egg with magic, he had to supply it. He lowered his horn and let his magic go, the only restraint being that it was unable to harm anything substantially. The egg began absorbing the magic energy flowing out of Dusk’s horn and sure enough, the egg hatched.

Dusk collapsed on the floor, mentally and magically drained from the ordeal. The baby dragon crawled up to his face, her red scales shimmering in the light of the sunset entering through his window. Dusk raised a hoof and stroked her top scales gingerly. For something hard like scales, they were actually pretty soft.

“I think I’ll call you…” Dusk said, pausing to think, “Ashley…”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“That’s so cool!” Storm exclaimed.

“I told you the story before,” Dusk said, raising an eyebrow at the white Pegasus.

“I know,” Storm replied, “But it’s so cool every time I hear it.”

Dusk face-hoofed while Oracle giggled at the explanation. Ashley just sat there chewing her hay fries.

“So does this mean that only unicorns can hatch dragon eggs?” Cliff asked.

“I suppose so,” Dusk replied, still rationalizing the question in his head, “I mean, it’s not like they were meant to be hatched by ponies in the first place.”

“By the way,” Oracle asked, “How did you guys get your cutie marks?”

“Well I got mine at the same time Dusk did and Storm got his during the war,” Cliff answered, still thinking about the answer he had just given, “Right?”

“That’s right!” Storm confirmed, leaning back into his chair.

“Do you guys know what you cutie marks represent?” Oracle asked.

“Umm…” Storm began, “Mine is speed, Cliff’s is strength but I don’t know what Dusk represents.” He turned to Dusk. “Do you know?” He asked.

“Not really,” Dusk replied, taking a bite out of his clover and lettuce sandwich, “But I’m not really too bothered by it.”

The group soon finished eating and paid the bill. They left the diner and set off into Canterlot to explore for the rest of the day. The days flew by afterwards, with Dusk occupied with his royal duties, storm with his deliveries and Cliff with his guard and Oracle with her library shifts. Soon it was time for the grand galloping gala…

Chapter 11: The Preparations

-TWO MONTHS LATER-

It was the morning of the Grand Galloping Gala and there was not a single pony that was not excited in any way. Oracle was excited as she loved free food that was served at parties. Cliff was shifting around as he had always wanted to the opportunity to ask Oracle for a dance. Storm was even more hyper than usual, not only delivering his tasked items twice as fast, but also helping with setting up streamers and the like. Ashley was excited as she would be able to experience a party. Dusk was extremely excited, so much that his usually calm composure was a slightly happy one, and the cause being the fact that Twilight Sparkle would be attending the event.

“You look awful chipper today Dusk,” Oracle commented as Dusk entered the library.

“I guess,” Dusk said, placing a couple of books on the counter. Oracle came and registered the returned books.

“Where’s Ashley?” Oracle asked.

“She’s receiving a spa from the Royal masseuse,” Dusk explained, “She said her muscles were a bit tense from helping out with the decorations.”

“I see,” Oracle said, “Speaking of which, how are the preparations going?”

“Good,” Dusk replied, “Although Princess Luna will not be attending due to her recovery, she told us that she would make it the most beautiful night possible.”

“I hope you can meet her tonight,” Oracle said, turning to return to her duties. Dusk nodded in appreciation.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The wind whistled past Storm’s ears as he tore through the air in front of him. He loved this feeling, one of true speed. Although the packages of streamers and such in his hooves weighed him down, the speed that he was going at made their weight negligible. He ducked through the low arches and flew over the other castle personnel as they milled about the castle. His feather tips drew blue lines of electricity as he glided through the castle. He was flying low when a pony suddenly entered his path, unable to dodge fast enough, they collided. There was a loud crash as streamers and bags of miscellaneous items flew all over the place.

“Oof!” Storm said, keeling over and clutching his right wing. Then he yelled at the pony he had crashed into, “Watch where you’re going!”

“You should take your own advice!” The other pony yelled back. Looking at him a second time, Storm recognized the pony as Cliff. He grinned sheepishly at him. Cliff stood up and sighed as he packed the decorative ornaments back into their respective containers.

“Luckily nothing was damaged beyond repair,” Cliff said, stuffing a marble rose into a box.

“Sorry,” Storm apologized, rolling some streamers into a ball, “I was going too fast for me to react.”

“Then go slower next time,” Cliff spat back as folded a gold tapestry, “You’re lucky you crashed into me. Can you imagine what would happen if you crashed into one of the kitchen staff?”

Storm shuddered at the thought.

“Anyways, how are you going to ask Oracle to a dance later?” Storm asked.

“W-What?” Cliff said, dropping a crystal ornament. His cheeks flushed red, revealing his embarrassment. Storm burst into laughter.

“It’s not funny!” Cliff protested as he picked up the dropped item and put it back into another box.

“Alright, alright,” Storm replied, wiping tears from his eyes.

“So what are you going to be doing?” Cliff asked, stacking up three boxes, “I know what the rest of us are, but not you.”

“I’ll just linger around the place in general,” Storm answered, “I am under patrol duty after all.”

“I see,” Cliff responded as he put the boxes on his back, “Well see you later, I have to deliver these to the decorations committee.”

“Bye!” Storm said cheerfully as he grabbed his bags and took off.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So how are you going to talk to her?” Ashley asked, “She’ll treat you like a stranger if what Storm said is correct.”

“I know,” Dusk replied to the dragon sitting on his back, “But I’m not too sure myself.”

He trotted down the hallway quickly, as he received a summons from Princess Celestia via dragon message. He soon came upon the royal chambers and entered.

“Ah hello Dusk,” Princess Celestia greeted, “I have some orders for you.”

“What would they be your majesty?” Dusk asked.

“They are a set of royal duties that I need you to carry out during the gala,” Princess Celestia said, a tone of importance in her voice, “Are you willing to accept them?”

Dusk gulped back his anxiety. The orders he was about to receive may decide if he does or does not get to meet Twilight during the gala.

“Y… Yes, your majesty,” Dusk said. He knew that is duties to Princess Celestia were more important than his infatuation with a filly that does not even remember him.

“Well then,” Princess Celestia continued, smiling, “I hereby relieve you of your royal duties for the duration of the gala with the exception of an emergency.”

Dusk’s jaw dropped. He could not believe his ears, the princess was relieving him of his duties. He bowed reverently and thanked her profusely.

“Alright,” Princess Celestia said, “Your welcome.”

“Anything else your majesty?” Ashley asked as Dusk was still thanking the sun princess.

“No, Ashley,” Princess Celestia replied, “You are dismissed.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later that night, the group gathered in the mess hall to have a sumptuous lunch… At least by canteen standards.

“So how were your days?” Oracle asked, tucking into her asparagus soup.

“Kinda boring,” Storm replied frankly, taking a bite out of his eggplant casserole, “Though anypony can sense the high spirits of all the soldiers.”

“Well it is the most awaited event of the year,” Ashley pointed out as she ate her hay fries.

“Aside from the Summer Sun Celebration,” Cliff corrected, munching on a stick of celery. He turned towards Dusk and asked, “What do you think?”

“I agree,” Dusk said.

“Dusk, why are you not eating your food?” Storm asked. Dusk looked down at his untouched apple pie.
“Also, I thought you hated apples?” Storm continued.

“Well… umm…” Dusk murmured.

“Leave him be,” Oracle said, taking another sip of her soup, “He’s obviously thinking of you-know-who.”
“I see,” Storm replied, raising his eyebrows.

Dusk rolled his eyes, he was indeed thinking of her. To be perfectly honest though, why would he not be? This is the pony that got him through the war mentally. The pony that he first fell in love with. He was called back to reality by Princess Celestia’s voice.
“Attention all ponies,” She began, “I am here to thank you all for your hard work in preparing for the gala and in your duties.” This was met by loud applause and cheering.

“Although it is my pleasure to welcome all of you to the gala, I am afraid that something has cropped up and as a result, captain Shining Armor and a few select ponies must go to resolve the matter.” Gasps could be heard from the mess hall as well as plenty of small chatter.

“I will now read out the names of the ponies selected,” Princess Celestia continued. Every time a name was called out, there were hooves being slammed on tables, gasps of despair or sighs of defeat.

“Cloud Hopper, Bright Boast, Cliff Hanger,” Princess Celestia said, finishing the listing, “All of the called ponies are to assemble in the courtyard after lunch, that is all.”

The mess hall burst into small conversations as most ponies griped about their plans being destroyed. Cliff sat in his chair, not saying a word.

“Cheer up Cliff,” Storm said as happily as he could, “It can’t be too long of a mission. Can it?”

“I guess so,” Cliff agreed, disheartened. He had made many plans of what he and Oracle were going to do during the gala. Now his plans were the equivalent of mud.

“I’ll miss you,” Oracle said sadly, putting a hoof on Cliff’s shoulder.

An air of sadness fell over the table until Dusk spoke up.

“Tell you what. I’ll go in your stead.”

“Huh?” All of them said, turning to Dusk and looking at him as if he was crazy.

“I said I’ll go instead,” Dusk repeated, “That is, only if Shining Armor allows it.”

“But I thought that you wanted to see Twilight?” Storm asked.

“Yeah but not as much as Cliff wants to spend time with Oracle,” Dusk replied calmly, “Besides, if what you said is true and she really did forget me, I probably have less of chance with her than the anypony else.”

“Are you okay with this?” Ashley asked worriedly. Dusk was the closest thing to an elder brother she had and treated him as such. As a result, she was as concerned about him as any normal younger sister would be of their older brother.

“Yeah I’m fine,” Dusk answered, smiling weakly. Then turning to Cliff said, “Enjoy your time at the gala.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shining Armor made his way to the castle courtyard sluggishly. He had a headache as a result of not getting enough sleep due to the preparations. In addition, he had to take care of an uproar in the Everfree forest. In order to contain the damage and leave the gala and Ponyville unaffected, a strong core force was necessary.

“Captain!” Came a voice from behind Shining Armor. He turned around and saw his reliable lieutenant, Dusk, standing behind him at attention in full armor.

“Hey Dusk,” Shining Armor said, rubbing his head with a hoof, “What do you need?”

“I’m here to replace Cliff,” Dusk replied briskly, “I hope that is fine with you.”

“Really?” Shining Armor asked, brightening up, “If so, thank you so much for helping out.”

“Hey, no problem,” Dusk said, “You don’t look too good.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Shining Armor replied, putting on his helmet, “I didn’t get enough sleep last night. Anyways, lets go, we have a platoon to address.”

After the moral of the troops were raised from an inspiring speech from their captain, they were quickly filed into a mass military transport chariot and sent off towards the Everfree Forest. When it arrived in at its destination, the soldiers quickly dashed out and got into formation.

“Alright, listen up!” Shining Armor commanded, “Force one and three follow me, force two stay and prevent the creature from passing beyond this point and group four follow Lieutenant Dusk. Are we clear?!”

“Sir yes sir!” Everypony replied crisply.

“Then let’s move!” Shining armor yelled, leading two groups of soldiers into the forest. Dusk led his group around the right side of Shining Armor’s coalition into the forest as well. Force two spread out, forming a wall of soldiers.

Dusk charged into the dense undergrowth, using his magic to clear a somewhat traversable path for him and his platoon. He soon heard the sound of magic bolts being fired and the clanging of armor. He led his troops further on for a while, then gave them the signal. Dusk and his group burst forth from the forest into a sun lit clearing. In the clearing were ponies fighting all sorts of creatures; timberwolves, cragadiles, manticores and even a hydra. Dusk’s troops took many of them by surprise, allowing them to be dispatched swiftly.

“Alright, let’s give them hell!” Dusk shouted as he shot a magic bolt at a timberwolf.

Chapter 12: The Grand Galloping Gala

Cliff, Storm and Ashley were gathered at the side of the ballroom. Storm and Cliff were decked out in their armor, Ashley was pretty much the same save for a blue ribbon she tied in a bow over her top scale.

“Will Dusk be okay?” Ashley asked, concern evident in her voice. Time flew by and now the guests were entering the grand ballroom.

“He’ll be fine,” Storm reassured her.

“I know he will be fine physically,” Cliff said, “But will he be fine emotionally?”

“Dusk is a strong pony,” A voice pointed out, “He won’t be emotionally defeated by something trivial like this.”

The group turned towards the source of the voice. Cliff’s jaw dropped. Oracle was dressed in a beautiful tiered green dress with blue lacings in a flower design. She wore a blue headband over the top of her light green mane.

“Hey, Oracle, you look… stunning,” Storm remarked.

“Thanks Storm,” Oracle said, then turning to Cliff, “How long are you going to stand there like that?”

Cliff immediately snapped back into reality, blushing. He averted his gaze and said, “Um… you look gorgeous…”

“Thank you, Cliff,” Oracle said, a slight blush coming to her face as well.

“Anyways, I’m going to patrol the castle,” Storm said, “See you later love birds!”

Storm took off, walking quickly out of the ballroom. Ashley bid farewell to them and went to try and mingle with the crowd. Cliff and Oracle stood there awkwardly for a while. Cliff’s mind searched itself for a solution to this awkward situation.

“Should I ask her to dance with me? Should I get her some punch? What should I say?” Cliff thought to himself.

“Um… I’ll go get some food, do you want anything?” Oracle asked Cliff.

“Not really,” Cliff responded, “Just get what you want.”

As Oracle walked off to the buffet table, Cliff mentally slapped himself in the face.

“Why? Why are you so stupid?!” Cliff scolded himself, “That was your chance you idiot!”

He sighed and sat back on his haunches. This was going to be a long night and Cliff was determined to make the best of it.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Storm trotted along the hallways, glancing around himself and keeping an eye out for trouble. Usually there would not be any anomalies during the gala but, better safe than sorry.

As he patrolled the empty hallways, he came to a stretch of it that was illuminated by the moonlight that shone through the huge glass windows. He stopped and looked out the windows, admiring the beautiful scenery that was the royal garden at night. The lush green plants and elegant metal framework were painted by the soft moonlight, emphasizing their beauty. The sky was black, decorated with small white sparkles, the main centerpiece on the black canvas being the snow white moon. Even the animals milling about seemed so calm and docile that the entire scene seemed as if it had been taken from a dream.

“Princess Luna did a pretty amazing job at making this night gorgeous,” Storm murmured, unable to take his eyes off the magical scenery. Suddenly, a butter yellow pegasus came into the picture, attempting to interact with the animals.

“I know her,” Storm told himself, “She was on the cover of the fashion magazine ‘She’s All That’ for a while. And she was with Twilight at the Best Young Flyer Competition.”

The pegasus kept trying to cuddle the animals but they kept shying away, running into the trees and hiding from her. Storm merely rolled his eyes, smiled and left.

“The animals are always skittish around strangers,” he thought to himself, “She’ll probably understand that after chasing them for a while.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oracle returned to Cliff, levitating a plate of assorted foods and eating a candied apple. Cliff glanced up at her and immediately, his mind began racing for what words to say.

“He Cliff,” Oracle said, offering the apple, “Want a bite?”

“Umm… sure,” Cliff muttered, not thinking about his answer fully.

Oracle dropped the candied apple into Cliff’s hooves. The feeling of the apple landing on his hooves snapped Cliff back from his thoughts.

“Huh? Wha?” Cliff said. He turned to see Oracle looking at him expectantly.

“Go ahead, take a bite,” Oracle said, smiling at him.

Cliff looked down at the apple in his hooves, most of the skin was eaten, leaving him without a spot to bite that had not been bitten by Oracle in one way or another. He gulped hard as the following thought flashed through his mind: Indirect kiss.

He gingerly took a bite out of the apple, chewing it slowly. Suddenly he heard Oracle laughing.

“What’s so funny?” He asked after he swallowed the bite.

“Your face!” Oracle replied, still laughing, “It’s so red!”

This comment made Cliff blush even harder. Oracle soon calmed down from her fit of laughter and took the apple back.

“So, was it good?” She asked him.

“Y-Yeah it was good,” Cliff replied awkwardly. He still felt the flush on his face but could do nothing about it.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Storm walked out onto the main outdoor garden. The garden was more like a field, with grand white pillars decorated with creepers and ribbons. The entire garden was filled with rich ponies and celebrities, talking to each other about current events and the like. As he walked through the garden, he felt the disapproving stares of the rich ponies. Along with the occasional barely audible insult or rude comment.

“Bunch of spineless snobs, that’s what you are,” Storm muttered under his breath.

“Hey Storm!” Called out a voice. Storm snapped his head towards the source and much to his delight, its owner was none other than Soarin’.

“Soarin’! Nice to see you,” Storm shouted, walking to meet his old friend.

“Hey dude, what’s up?” Soarin’ said, giving Storm a bro-hoof.

“Nothing much,” Storm answered, “So how’s the party?”

“Good,” Soarin’ replied, “Man, you look good in uniform.”

“Thanks dude, these snobs keep insulting it,” Storm said, wiping his armor with a hoof.

“Well what do you expect from a bunch of ponies that were weaned on a diamond encrusted bottle?” Soarin’ pointed out, rolling his eyes. Storm nodded. He and Soarin’ had always hated rich pony celebrities and their snobbish attitude. That was also a reason that they admired the Wonderbolts as all of them had to prove their worth, rich or not.

“Anyways, I gotta go continue my patrol, I’ll catch you later though.” Storm said, walking off.

“Same here,” Soarin’ said, “I gotta go get one of those scrumptious looking apple pies before the meet and greet with the snobs.”

“Apple pies?” Storm thought to himself. To his knowledge, the only ‘apple’ food stuffs were candied or turned into sherbet. He turned and saw Soarin’ buying an apple pie from an unknown food stand. The vendor however, Storm recognized, it was the orange earth pony with the Stetson that was with Twilight.

“Hmm…” Storm thought to himself, “Usually, the princess never invites ponies that don’t live in Canterlot, let alone normal ponies from other towns. Things might get interesting around here.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ashley stormed out of the ballroom. All evening she was ignored, scoffed at or played with like a toy. She had enough.

“Stupid snobs and their stupid stuck up attitudes!” She cursed as she made her way to the front gates. She thought tonight was going to be fun, exciting, maybe even life-changing, but definitely not what it turned out to be. She didn’t even have Dusk around to comfort her. Disheartened and upset, Ashley made her way to the place where she always drowned her sorrows, with or without Dusk. Pony Joe’s donut joint.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Storm walked through the ballroom, he had finished his shift and was now free to do whatever he pleased. He walked over to the Wonderbolts meet and greet area to have a little chat with Soarin’ when he spotted a cyan mare sitting down and looking at the floor dejectedly. The very same mare at the Best Young Flyer Competition.

“Hey, what got you down Rainbow Dash?” Storm asked as he approached her. The mare perked up, flicking her rainbow mane away from her face to see who it was.

“Do I know you?” She asked frankly, “And how do you know my name?”

“I saw you at the competition,” Storm replied, “Nice sonic rainboom.”

“You saw it in person?” Rainbow asked, “Anyways, thanks for the compliment… Um…?”

“Storm,” Storm answered, “So why you feeling blue?

“Well you see Storm,” Rainbow Dash began. She then proceeded to explain how she wanted to hang out with the Wonderbolts but was prevented by the clingy fans.

“Hmm… I see” Storm said, “Well… I can try to arrange a meeting with one of them.”

“You can?!” Rainbow cried, standing up.

“I can try,” Storm repeated, emphasizing the ‘try’, “Anyways, meet me at the Silver Lining after the gala at nine and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you so much!” Rainbow exclaimed “Er… whatever your name was…”

Storm rolled his eyes and left the cyan mare. He had a Soarin’ to talk to.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cliff and Oracle were walking around the ballroom floor, staying close to each other but not too close. Cliff desperately wanted to ask Oracle for a dance as the music was a nice slow classical. The only thing between him and that dance however, was his own lack of courage.

“Come on Cliff, you can do this,” He told himself in an attempt to boost his confidence.

“But what if she rejects you?” His doubts argued back, “What if she thinks of you as a loser member of the guard?”

After about two minutes of this mental debate, Cliff managed to gather up enough courage to pop the question. He turned and, lo and behold, some snobby rich pony in a garish suit was trying to chat up Oracle.

“Excuse me madam,” The rich pony said, straightening his green and yellow striped tie with magic, “Could I bother you with a dance?”

“No thank you,” Oracle replied politely but firmly.

“But I must insist,” The unicorn pressed, “You must not know who I am. I am Sir Dudley, duke of-”

“Excuse me mister Dudley,” Cliff interrupted, “I believe the kind mare just turned you down.”

“And who might you be?” Dudley asked, looking down on Cliff, “A peasant in royal armor? My, my, what a jest!”

Cliff merely shrugged off the comment and turned to Oracle.

“Let’s go.” he whispered. As they were leaving, Dudley commented loudly, “Would you look at this, such a fine mare strolling with a lowly guard. Why, she must be with extremely low standards to hang about with one of such a filthy caliber.”

Oracle flinched at the statement. Cliff noticed her reaction and promptly turned around, pushed his face close to Dudley’s ugly grey mug and glared into his piss yellow eyes.

“You can insult me, but insult Oracle one more time and I swear to Celestia I’ll beat you so hard you wouldn’t be able to walk for three days,” Cliff threatened, his eyes sparking with rage, “Got it buster?”

Dudley backed off quickly, visibly intimidated. He then proceeded to sniff and leave in the opposite direction. Cliff turned to face Oracle and was just about to ask her for a dance when a pink earth pony stood up on stage and yelled, “Come on everypony, I know what’ll make you shake those groove thangs!”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rarity stood in the corner of the ballroom, waiting for her ass of a date, Prince Blueblood, to come out of the restroom. She was fuming, to think that this stuck up, selfish, boorish unicorn was supposed to be a prince and her date! She leaned on the wall and looked on at the party. A classical remix of Pony-Pokey had begun playing and many of the guests were giving faces of disapproval to the perpetrator, Pinkie Pie. Rarity rolled her eyes and pulled her dripping shawl over her shoulders, leave it to Pinkie to liven up a white tie event. She was snapped out of her thoughts by a glass of champagne being offered to her.

“Want a drink?” The pony offering her the champagne asked.

“Why, thank you good sir,” Rarity answered, levitating the drink out of his hoof. She turned to see the gentlecolt who did this kind act. Although she had trouble recognizing him through his armor, she knew it was the same handsome pegasus that she and her friends talked to at the competition about two months ago.

“Oh, you’re Storm right?” She asked. The pegasus nodded.

“Oh, well hello there, my name is Rarity,” She introduced herself, taking a sip of her drink. “Thank you for the refreshment.”

“My pleasure,” Storm replied, casually adjusting his helmet, “Anyways I saw you were down and I came to find out what was wrong.”

“Oh this night has been just terrible,” Rarity complained, “I wanted to find my true prince tonight but all I found was a prince in name only.”

“I see, “Storm said sympathetically, “Most of these snobbish rich ponies are like that I suppose. Selfish and rude, especially to ponies from a lower class.”

Rarity was just about to agree when Prince Blueblood came out of the restroom.

“Rarity my dear,” He said, his voice reeking of fake politeness, “Why would you talk to a castle guard out of all these other
respectable ponies?”

Rarity would have slapped him in the face for insulting such a polite and refined gentlecolt but she held it back, she had an image to preserve.

“I’ll just leave you two now,” Storm said. Then he turned and left.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ashley walked down the empty streets, her tears of disappointment dropping onto the stone path below her. She soon saw the neon sign that said ‘Pony Joe’s’ a sight she only saw when she was sad, or craving donuts. She dragged her feet into the shop and was greeted by the owner, Pony Joe. She looked up and to her surprise, she saw another dragon, not a pony, a baby dragon, sitting on the counter. She simply stood there, amazed that there was another dragon around. The other dragon eventually turned and saw Ashley. His face frozen in shock once he saw her. They stood there for about a minute until Pony Joe broke the silence.

“Umm… The usual?” He asked.

“That would be nice,” Ashley said, thawing out from her shock-induced freeze. She went up and sat next to the dragon as Pony Joe went into the kitchen. He had a purple body, green top scales and equally green eyes.

“Uh, hi there,” The other dragon said nervously, turning to his chocolate frosted donut, “Never seen you before.”

“Same here,” Ashley replied awkwardly, putting her claws together, “Um… My name’s Ashley.”

“I’m Spike,” The dragon introduced himself, turning to Ashley and offering a hand, “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Ashley replied, shaking his hand.

He smiled sheepishly back at her, revealing his sharp white teeth.

“You have nice teeth,” Ashley commented.

“Thanks, you do too,” Spike replied. Pony Joe soon came, pink frosted sprinkled donut in hoof.

“Here you go,” He said, plopping the donut on the counter in front of Ashley. She reached for her little coin purse but Pony Joe stopped her.

“Nah, it’s on the house,”

“Huh? Why?” Ashley asked bewildered.

“I know an upset pony, or in your case, dragon when I see one,” He replied, smirking. Ashley looked down at her donut and took a bite out of it.

“So, you like pink frosting?” Spike inquired.

“Yeah,” Ashley replied, “Why?”

“I personally think chocolate is much better.” Spike stated.

“Really?” Ashley said, taking another bite out of her donut, “I like pink frosting because it has a happy feel to it.”

“Happy feel?” Spike asked, scratching his head, “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, typical boys,” Ashley said, rolling her eyes, “You wouldn’t be able to pick up a hint of emotion even if it was in your face.”

“I resent that!” Spike protested. Soon they began a petty argument. Pony Joe rolled his eyes and smiled to himself.

“They get along together, those two,” He said to himself, chuckling.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Storm walked out onto the garden, inhaling the fresh air. The party was still in full swing without any sign of stopping. He went over to the buffet line and grabbed a glass of wine. He sat on the soft grass and looked up at the night sky in all its glory.

“Hey,” A voice said from behind him, “What’s up?”

Storm turned and saw Soarin’ standing behind him, champagne in hand.

“Hey Soarin’,” Storm said, sipping his wine, “How was the meet’n’greet?”

“Terrible,” Soarin’ replied frankly as he sat down next to Storm, “Those snobs really think they have it all.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Storm replied.

The two of them sat there staring at the sky for a while until an annoying rich pony approached Soarin’ wanting an autograph.
“Please wait until the next session,” Soarin answered curtly, earning him a grunt from the pony.

“I’ll pay you a hundred bits,” The pony offered, knocking his hooves together. Two ponies in black suits came seemingly out of nowhere, in their hooves a sack of bits each.

“Meh,” Soarin’ scoffed at him, turning away, “Don’t want it.”

“Please good sir,” The rich pony pleaded, “I’ll double the offer!”

“Go away,” Soarin’ said firmly. The rich pony gasped in disbelief, but eventually left, mumbling a curse under his breath.

“Oh yeah,” Storm said, “Can I ask of a favor?”

“What is it?” Soarin’ asked, sipping his champagne.

“I want you to meet a friend of mine,” Storm replied, “She’s a big fan of you guys and I promise you won’t regret meeting her.”

“I she a snob?” Soarin’ asked flatly, raising an eyebrow.

“Nah,” Storm answered, “She’s just a regular pony.”

“Normally, I would refuse,” Soarin’ said, “But because you’re my good friend, I’ll do it.”

“Thanks dude,” Storm said, finishing his drink, “All you gotta do is meet her at the Silver Lining at nine. I promise you won’t regret it.”

As Soarin’ left, Storm muttered to himself, “You definitely won’t, especially since you have a crush on her.”

“Erm, ‘scuse me pardner,” Came a female voice from behind Storm, “Ah would like ta ask where the kitchen is.”

Storm turned and saw an orange earth pony behind him next to a large cart of apple themed foodstuffs. She had a yellow mane tied back into a ponytail and freckles. But the defining feature was the brown Stetson she was wearing.

“Why? Would you like to cook?” Storm asked.

“Uh yes, ah guess ah do,” She replied.

“Walk down this hallway and you’ll eventually reach it,” Storm said, pointing down a well-lit corridor, “It’ll be to your left, you can’t miss it.”

“Well thank you very much,” The earth pony replied and began walking off in the indicated direction, pushing her cart along with her.
“Oh yeah,” Storm said, calling out to her, “If they ask, tell them Storm sent you.”

“Ah’ll keep that in mind,” The earth pony yelled back as she pushed her cart through the corridor.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cliff slowly walked around the ballroom. The music was a beautiful romantic waltz and many other ponies had begun dancing with their dates. He made his way around the dancing ponies in the center, scanning the entire room for signs of Oracle. She had been by his side until she left to use the little mare’s room. He did eventually find her, but he also found Sir Dudley cornering her and pressing her for a dance.

“I… I don’t want to,” Oracle said, beginning to feel a bit scared, “Please leave me alone…”

“But madam,” Sir Dudley said, “You simply must accept this dance, I insist.”

The last part of the sentence was said threateningly, his eyes flared with hatred of Oracle’s resistance.

“I… r-refuse…” Oracle replied, her voice wavering, “Please… j-just go away.”

Sir Dudley grabbed one of her hooves, surprising Oracle.

“Now, now you classless bitch,” He said in a dangerous tone, “I’ve never been rejected before nor do I ever intend to be. So what don’t you be a good little filly and accept my invitation?”

Oracle felt like bursting into tears. She was scared, very scared of the pony before her.

Suddenly, a brown hoof placed itself on the shoulder of Sir Dudley’s cream jacket, drawing the attention of both ponies.

“Hey,” A venomous voice said from behind Dudley, “It’s not nice to insult mares like that you know?”

The grey unicorn turned and received a powerful hoof to the face. Dudley doubled over in pain whimpering and covering his face with his hooves.

“And that’s what you get for calling Oracle a bitch,” Cliff said, stepping forward. He turned his attention to Oracle who was now cowering in fear.

“It’s alright now.” He said, putting a hoof on her shoulder, “He’s been taken care of.”

Oracle looked up. Her eyes were watering and she was sniffling, a sight that made Cliff almost turn and smack the disgusting unicorn behind him. She threw her arms around Cliff and whispered, “Thank Celestia you’re here.”

“I’m brleedig!” Sir Dudley screamed as he pulled his hooves away from his face. Cliff turned to see the ugly rich pony, his eyes flaming with rage and fury. Sir Dudley face was bashed pretty badly, he had a few missing teeth that were on the floor and his nose was bleeding and probably broken.

“You’rll bay for thish!”He hissed angrily as he levitated a hoofkerchief from his breast pocket and wiping his face.

“Oh really?” Cliff asked with smoldering eyes and raising his hoof, “Would you like another?”

Before Dudley could reply, a loud hip-hop beat started playing, and a pink earth pony began zipping through the crowd, tossing ponies left and right. Not long after, an orange earth pony entered the room wheeling in a large fancy cake. The pink pony leapt, landing on the cart and flipping the cake away. A hoof reached out and pulled Cliff and Oracle back. Both ponies turned and saw that it was Storm.

“You should leave,” Storm said seriously, “Now.”

They took his advice and left the ballroom as a giant alicorn statue fell over.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Okay, I guess pink frosting is a nice flavor,” Spike conceded, “But chocolate is still my personal favorite.”

“Each to his own,” Ashley said, finishing her donut.

Spike grumbled as he drank some of his hot chocolate. He could not believe that he lost a debate to a girl. A girl! Of all the people to lose to.

“Ah well, that was fun while it lasted,” he thought to himself when Ashley giggled to herself.

“Why’re you giggling?” Spike asked.

“Because that argument was the most fun I had all evening!” Ashley said, now laughing, “Isn’t it funny?”

Spike smiled, he saw the irony. Then he began laughing too. Suddenly, Ashley coughed out a small green flame and a scroll sealed with a red ribbon fell onto her claws.

“A message from Princess Celestia?” She asked no one in particular.

“Princess Celestia?” Spike asked, dropping his donut, “You help her?”

“Yes, well not really,” Ashley replied, unraveling the scroll, “I help Dusk, the lieutenant of the royal guard.”

After reading the letter, Ashley’s eyes widened.

“Oh no,” She said, then she got up and quickly began to leave the shop.

“It was nice meeting you Spike, but I just received a very urgent message!” Ashley called back as she ran, waving a claw.

“Yeah, nice meeting you too Ashley!” Spike yelled, then he turned back to his donut and ate it as loneliness surrounded him again.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Some party,” Storm said, brushing the dust off his armor. He, Cliff and Oracle had just barely escaped the chaos that had broken out in the ballroom.

“Yeah,” Cliff replied blankly. He looked over at Oracle, who was sitting in the moonlight. Her green mane was now dirtied and frayed in places where the animals had landed on her as they tried to escape the ballroom. Her dress was now crumpled from all the running and dodging.

“Go talk to her,” Storm whispered, throwing a hoof around Cliff’s shoulders.

“What?!” Cliff asked quietly, “I can’t do that!”

“Why not?” Storm asked.

“Because… well because…” Cliff began but stopped. He knew he could but he just could not bring himself to do it. His courage reserves had been run dry after all the events from tonight. Suddenly, he felt Storm smack his back, sending tumbling forward. He rolled a couple times then got up and yelled, “What the buck was that for?!”

He turned and realized he was sitting next to Oracle. She looked at him with large light green eyes.

“Yes Cliff?” She asked him, “May I help you?

“Uh… yeah,” Cliff replied, “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure,” Oracle said, running a hoof through her mane. Cliff glanced back and saw that Storm was gone.

“Thanks,” He whispered.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy walked along the moon-lit path. Since the gala was cut short, they still had until nine thirty before their train arrived. She and her friends decided that they would just wander around Canterlot, as long as they met back at the station at nine fifteen. They had all changed out of their gala dresses and split about half an hour ago. She looked at the ground, sad that she was unable to make friends with the animals in the castle, but happy that she and her friends still spent time together tonight.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when a white pegasus in front of her said, “Hey, I heard you like animals.”

She turned away and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know you.”

“Aww really?” The pegasus said, “And I introduced myself to you too.”

“You did?” She asked, turning toward him slightly.

“Yeah, you know, back then?” The pegasus asked, “At the Best Young Flyer Competition?”

Fluttershy looked up, looking at the pegasus’s face.

“Anyways, let’s try this again,” He said, “My name is Storm, what’s yours?”

“I’m Fluttershy,” She said almost inaudibly.

“Okay, so I saw how you had trouble with the animals in the castle,” Storm said, offering a hoof, “Wanna go try meeting them again?”

“Um… I’m not so sure…” Fluttershy said nervously. She was not too interested in visiting the royal castle any time soon.

“It’ll be fine,” He reassured her, “We’ll go through a secret back way that only guards are aware of.”

“Um, well then… okay I guess…” She replied, “Lead the way then.”

“So what did you want to talk about?” Oracle asked Cliff.

“How was tonight for you?” Cliff inquired tonelessly, “Was it enjoyable?”

“Frankly, it was fine,” Oracle replied, “Even with all the little hiccups and the… bigger problems…”

She shuddered as she said the last two words, making Cliff clench his teeth.

“I should hit him harder next time,” he uttered under his breath.

“Hm? Did you say something?” Oracle asked.

“No,” Cliff said. Then turning to her, he asked, “How come the night wasn’t that bad for you? Even with its problems?”

“Well,” She said, shuffling her hooves together, “It was because I got to spend time with you.”

“Really?” Cliff said, a blush creeping onto his emotionless face.

“Yes, really,” Oracle confirmed, blushing as well, “I really enjoy spending time with you Cliff.”

She moved closer to him, until her body touched his. Then she put a hoof on his hoof. Cliff was slightly taken aback by this, causing him to flinch a little. But eventually, he calmed down. He moved a little, allowing Oracle to rest her head on his shoulder, which she did. Cliff could feel Oracle’s warmth through his side, her touch on his hoof, her breath on his foreleg. He could smell the floral shampoo she used for her hair. He smiled to himself, thanking Storm for this moment.

The two of them sat there for a long time, just bathing in Princess Luna’s moonlight and surrounded by the calm serene nature in the garden. A picture of peace and serenity.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Come on, this way,” Storm said, ushering Fluttershy through a small doorway that had been concealed by a bush and some magic.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” She asked anxiously, “It looks awfully dark in there.”

“It’ll be fine,” He reassured her, “I wouldn’t bring you in here if it wasn’t safe.”

“Alright, if you say so,” She said, walking through the doorway. It was slightly damp and muddy, and the ceiling was a bit low. But, what should one expect from a secret doorway made by guards?

Fluttershy soon stepped out into the moonlight, looking at her surroundings. She was in the castle garden, the exact same place she had been trying to catch the animals earlier.

“Here we are,” Storm said, walking out of the doorway, “Well, let’s go meet the animals then.”

He walked into the center of the garden and whistled loudly. Seemingly out of nowhere, animals of different kinds, birds, rabbits, squirrels and other little critters came and surrounded him.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy said, “Is your special talent talking to animals too?”

“Nah,” Storm replied, “I just hang out here a lot more often then I should, as a result, I know most of the animals here.”

Most of the animals flinched at the sight of Fluttershy, some even began to back away slowly. This made Fluttershy feel guilty.

“Don’t worry guys, she won’t hurt you,” Storm said jokingly as he walked over and took her hoof, “See?”

Fluttershy let out a small ‘Eep’ as Storm took her hoof, but quickly shut herself up when she saw what was happening. Some of the animals crept over nervously, circling around both ponies, some even approached and touched Fluttershy, poking her legs as if they were deadly weapons of mass destruction. Eventually, the all settled down and allowed Fluttershy to cuddle them and play with them.

“Oh, thank you Storm,” Fluttershy said, hugging three small rabbits, “For allowing me to befriend these animals.”

“It was nothing,” Storm replied modestly, spreading his wings.

“You have very beautiful wings,” Fluttershy commented as she stroked a ferret.

“Really? Thanks!” Storm said. He had always been told that his wings were large or his wings were cool, but never beautiful.

“Um… what time is it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Let’s see…” Strom said, looking at his watch, “Nine. Why?”

“Oh dear,” FlutterShy said, standing up, “I’m sorry, but I have to get going, it was nice meeting you though.”

“Sure thing,” Storm said, escorting her to the doorway, “Come back anytime.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ashley burst into the ballroom, panting for breath. Princess Celestia, who had been leading the clean-up effort after the party, turned to see her.

“Why hello there Ashley,” She said serenely, “How may I-”

“Dusk needs help!” Ashley cried out, cutting the sun princess off, “He sent me an S.O.S. message!”

Princess Celstia quickly flew over and levitated the scroll out of Ashley’s claws. She read the following text:

Dear Ashley,

I need you to show this letter to the princess immediately after you receive it. Shining Armor and I are having trouble fending off the outburst. This is not a random occurrence, we have proof it was planned. We don’t know who but they are well-organized and powerful. Please send help as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,

Dusk Flamer.

“Oh no,” Princess Celestia said, dropping the scroll. Then she turned and Shouted to all the guards in the ballroom, “Attention all guards! I need you to meet me in the castle courtyard immediately! Pass this message on to the rest of the guards!”

Author's Note

Hey guys! Viscolorus here and thank you all so much for bothering to read my story up till this point! this just about wraps up season 1 so thanks again for reading!

Chapter 13: Survival

Dusk bit back the pain in his left shoulder as he shot a magic bolt. The entire force was being pushed back by the seemingly infinite amount of monsters. Many of the troops were already injured and some even had to receive emergency treatment in make-shift tents. The monsters continued to attack them, slashing, beating and biting the few front-line ponies they had left. Shining Armor was at the head of the force, scoring multiple clean hits on the larger beasts at the cost of his own safety.

Dusk cursed as he took another magic blast to the side. It all had been going fine until ‘they’ showed up, a group of ponies armored in crimson. They helped the monsters by firing magic from behind as well as swooping down, attacking Dusk’s forces from the rear. For some odd reason, the monsters did not seem to notice the red armor clad ponies, let alone attack them.

“Captain!” Dusk yelled, shooting one of the enemy pegasi out of the sky, “We need to fall back!”

“We can’t afford to!” Shining Armor yelled back, breathing heavily, “We need to wait for reinforcements!”

Suddenly, some of the enemy earth ponies blindsided Shining Armor, bashing him brutally. Shining Armor grunted and shot at them but they merely dodged behind the safety of the monsters.

“He won’t last,” Dusk thought to himself, “I’ll just have to use it!”

“Unicorns! Pull the injured towards the tent!” Dusk commanded, “All front line ponies fall back and take Shining Armor with you!”

The soldiers obeyed him, doing as they were told. Dusk charged forward, running into the monsters and crimson ponies. When he was right in front of them, he focused his magic into his horn, causing it to glow a bright red.

“Lieutenant! You need to fall back too!” One of the soldiers shouted.

Dusk ignored him, allowing his magic to overwhelm himself. Soon, his horn was glowing four different shades of red in a spiral pattern. He ignored the pain inflicted by the weapons crimson ponies and the monsters, remaining in front of them. Suddenly, Dusk released his energy, causing a huge explosion of magic. The blast shot up vertically and expanded radially, disintegrating everything within it. The unicorns at the tent set up a barrier, shielding them and the rest of the soldiers from the blast. After it had subsided a massive crater was left, all inside it were the unmoving bodies of monsters, ponies in red armor and Dusk.

“Retrieve the lieutenant!” One of the soldiers yelled, rallying the rest of the troops to surge into crater. The enemy had a similar idea, sending waves of monsters and ponies in as well. The soldier clashed with them, managing to hold them off long enough to retrieve Dusk’s body. Afterward, they fell back to the tent where they used their height advantage to keep the enemy at bay.

Suddenly, a few of the crimson unicorns began casting a spell together, causing a ball of energy to glow above them. They then released it, firing a massive magic missile at the tent. The soldiers were blasted back, leaving them exposed to the attacks from the monsters. The hydra advanced, brutally striking at the weakened ponies.

“It’s over…” One of the soldiers whispered as a manticore lunged at him. Screams of terror filled the air as the monsters and ponies alike relentlessly attacked the soldiers, blood spraying high into the air. Out of nowhere, a massive ball of light fell from the skies, crashing straight down onto the battle field, blowing all the enemies away. In its wake, the light formed a soft glowing disc that covered the battlefield, healing the ponies in it. A majestic white alicorn descended onto it.

“What is the meaning of this?” Princess Celestia asked, her voice filled with anger. The monsters and enemy ponies stood up dizzily, recovering from the blast. They glared at her, running to attack when they were interrupted by an azure streak slicing through their ranks. Three mass military transport chariots landed around the princess, soldiers flooding out of them. One of them ran forth and slammed his hooves into the ground. The ground split and cracked, opening up and swallowing the enemy ponies and monsters within range. The monsters charged forth, earning punishment in the form of magic bolts from the unicorn guards. The swift pegasi flew through the enemy ranks, attacking the frailer units at the back. The earth ponies engaged the enemy ponies, bashing them back.

Storm darted through the sky, his armor glinting in the moonlight. He dived down, slashing the hydra’s heads. The tall beast screeched in pain and retaliated by lashing out at the pegasi. Storm expertly ducked under its heads, managing to score a few clean cuts on some of them. The other pegasi harassed the hydra with their lighter attacks, remaining out of its range.

“Alright! Now we go in for the kill!” Storm yelled, diving towards the hydra’s body. Many of the other pegasi followed him but not all reached the base of the hydra’s necks. Storm plunged his hoof claws deep into it, followed by the others. Blood cascaded out, spraying everywhere and dousing Storm and the others in the crimson stuff. They continued shoving their claws deeper and deeper, cutting through the neck bone. The hydra’s heads all fell off landing on the others monsters and ponies.

“We did it!” Storm exclaimed triumphantly, pumping a hoof into the air. The other soldiers chorused with shouts of joy, charging forth with their raised morale.

“Wait!” Princess Celestia yelled, flying towards the beheaded beast, “Get away!”

The hydra’s headless neck suddenly sprouted heads, much more than it had previously. The new head proceeded to then bite the surrounding ponies, avoiding the red ones.

“Curses!” Princess Celestia swore, charging her horn. She focused her magic into her horn, causing to glow from a soft yellow to a blinding white. The hydra was immediately drawn to the source of the light lashing out at the sun princess. Storm flew to intercept its heads, lacerating them in an attempt to draw their attention away. The hydra decided to go after the flying nuisance, snapping its jaws at Storm. This gave Princess Celestia the time she needed; she released a huge blast of burning light into the hydra, incinerating all of its necks and cauterizing the base of it.

“Storm!” The sun princess yelled, “You should know that you need to burn the base in order to prevent more heads from regenerating!”

Storm smiled sheepishly and laughed nervously, flying backwards away from Princess Celestia slowly.

“Anyways, we have to exterminate these monsters and rebels now!” Princess Celestia said, charging up another sun bolt.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cliff charged forth with the other earth ponies in a wedge formation. The hydra had just been felled and they took advantage of the situation to attack the enemy. He slammed his shoulder into one of the timberwolves, splintering it into pieces. He pressed on, breaking through the enemy ranks as easily as a hot knife passing through butter. Soon, the enemy earth ponies came forth to intercept them. Cliff smacked one of them upside the head, causing him to fly backwards. The ponies clashed, bashing each other over their heads with their hooves. Cliff managed to break through, battered, but still able to fight.

Suddenly, a manticore, came from nowhere and swiped at him. Cliff barely dodged the attack by barrel rolling to his right. He bared his teeth and blew at the monster. The beast let out a roar in response, lunging at him. Cliff used his hooves to block the attack. He followed through by sweeping his hind hooves under the manticore, tripping it over. He rolled the monster onto its back and bashed its exposed torso into a pulp. He was shot off the lifeless body of the manticore by a magic blast. Cliff gritted his teeth together as his body was racked with pain. He turned to see the guilty unicorn get slashed up by a familiar white pegasus.

“Thanks,” Cliff said briskly, as he regrouped the other earth ponies.

“No problem,” Storm replied, zooming off to attack other enemies, “Let’s wrap this up!”

Dusk awoke in a tent. He sat up and looked around him. Around him were many other ponies that were badly injured, possibly from the fight. His eyes widened. The fight. How could he be sitting here when the others could still be fighting? He tried to get to his hooves only to be rooted to his mattress by pain.

“I see you’re better,” He heard a familiar voice say. He turned and saw Storm leaning on the cloth wall of the tent reading a book.
“I heard you ‘exploded’,” Storm said, smirking.

“Shut up,” Dusk replied, “I was trying to protect the rest of them.”

“I know, I know,” Storm said, turning a page, “Man this book is good.”

“What is it?” Dusk asked.

“Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone,” Storm replied, his eyes still glued to the book, “It has a really drawing plot.”

Dusk rolled his eyes. He had read the book a long time ago. It had superb storytelling and description but the plot was so predictable and straightforward. Still, those were the qualities that would trap somepony like Storm.

“So, what happened?” Dusk asked indifferently, “After I blacked out.”

“Well, essentially, Princess Celestia rode in like a boss, kicked some plot and healed all those injured,” Storm summed up. He paused for a bit before continuing.

“Though there was nothing she could do about the dead.”

Dusk hung his head. How could he be so stupid! He knew he should have protected them better. He should have formed a barrier instead of charging out like an idiot.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Storm said, not looking up from his book, “You did what you could.”

“I should’ve done more,” Dusk cursed, slamming a hoof into the dirt next to his mattress, “I could’ve saved them. I should’ve-”

“You should stop beating yourself up,” A radiant voice said. Dusk looked up and saw Princess Celestia standing in the entrance to the tent. She had two saddlebags on as well as a bandaged wing.

“Hey your majesty,” Storm greeted, waving a hoof, “Please convince your lieutenant that he’s not at fault here.”

“I know,” The sun princess said. She walked over to the gray unicorn who was currently biting his lip, blood leaking out of his mouth. She knelt down next to him and placed her good wing over the gray unicorn.

“Dusk, I know you feel responsible for these deaths,” She comforted soothingly, “But you are not. You did all you could, and there was nothing wrong with what you did. Do you understand that?”

Dusk nodded bitterly. His face was a picture of sadness, guilt and regret.

“If anything, I’m the one at fault,” Princess Celesta said, “I shouldn’t have sent both of you out without sufficient troops.

“But your majesty!” Dusk protested, “You assigned the right number of guards. There was no way you could’ve foreseen the ambush.”

“By the way your highness,” Storm said, closing his book, “Who were those red armored ponies? I asked Cliff and he said he’s never seen their sigil before, even in the armorer’s trade.”

“I don’t know, I’m afraid,” Princess Celestia replied, shaking her head sadly, “I’ve tried interrogating some of them, but they are either a really loyal bunch or just tough to crack. They won’t even reveal their group name or own name for that matter.”

“Can I see the sigil your highness?” Dusk asked.

Princess Celestia nodded. She reached into one of her saddle bags and pulled out one of the sigils on the armor.

Dusk took a good long look at it. It was red in color and circular in shape and had the side profile a pony’s head etched into it. Behind the pony was a dragon head in black. Dusk gulped hard, how could he have not noticed this before?

“Dusk? Is something wrong?” Princess Celestia asked in a concerned tone.

“N-No your highness,” Dusk replied, “I’m fine.”