The Equestria Offensive

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 1
Chapter 4

Chapter 2

Grand Galloping Gala, March 6th, 10:10 P.M., 2013

“Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student, and Midnight Flare,” Princess Celestia said by way of invitation, calling the two ponies to enter her private chambers. “I’ve been waiting for you two. Come in, we have important matters to discuss.” The Princess looked distracted to Midnight as she crossed the room and sat down. He and Twilight remained standing, not sure what to do.

“Why have you called us here, Princess? Is there some kind of emergency?”

“Not yet, but in all likelihood there could be very soon. Twilight, are you familiar with the Griffin country of Caeli?”

“Of course.” Twilight was quick to respond. “Caeli: the Griffin nation lying on Equestria’s western border, ruled as a monarchical state for twelve generations independently after its formal separation from the greater Kingdom of the Griffins. In that time it has defended itself successfully from numerous attacks by various opposing factions and held nearly all of its original territory. Equestria and Caeli have been under strained relations for several decades now, but peace has mainly held through mutual benefits of trade and treaties of security. The beginnings of the friction too place over one hundred years ag-” Celestia raised a hoof letting her know she had sufficiently answered the question. She chuckled at Twilight’s vast memory bank of textbook knowledge.

“I can see your reading has not slowed down since your move to Ponyville, Twilight. Well done. Yes, Equestria’s peace with Caeli has indeed been under some stress recently. It seems that King Gryphem is no longer listening to negotiations, and has become more interested in controlling more land and expanding the reach of his kingdom.”

“So Princess,” Midnight asked, “what exactly are you saying?”

“The land he has his sights set on happens to be within the borders of Equestria. I am saying there is a very present possibility of war with Caeli. Obviously he does not simply desire a few hundred miles of forest or plains, the areas he is after are important to Equestria’s continued prosperity, filled with innocent ponies who can not simply be told to move out of the way of the Griffins. It is for their sake that we will have to challenge any aggression coming from Caeli. It’s coming to the point where we will have no choice but to fight back.”

“Well, this all sounds very important Princess,” Midnight stated. “But why are you telling us? Of all ponies, why should we be the ones to know about this?”

Celestia turned to him. “I understand your confusion, Midnight. I wanted Twilight to know because if this conflagration comes to pass, I want her by my side. She is my most faithful student and she is far more important to me than she knows. And for you Midnight, I have seen you deal with conflict before, I’m sure you remember when Luna and I were forced against you, I know I do. Even with both of us against you, it was still a hard fought battle.”

“But Nightmare Moon was-”

“Yes, I know. She is gone from you and with her left some of the powers you wielded. Nevertheless, you would be a formidable opponent to any who would go against you. That alone might be enough to dissuade some members of the forces we could very well be facing in the months to come. Midnight, Equestria has many fine warriors, and all would give their lives to defend it... but with you... fighting alongside them, they may not have to. You can save them.”

“I, umm. I’m not sure if I...” He didn’t know what to say. Would Celestia take no for an answer? Did he even want to say no? Confusion aside, “yes” was certainly not the word on his tongue. Celestia could obviously see the indecision staying his response, and resumed her speech.

“I know this is a difficult decision Midnight, and I would not expect you to make it lightly. All I ask is that you consider it. Despite the severance of negotiations with Caeli, it does not seem that conflict is imminent just yet. However, they don’t seem to be backing down either. As we speak, Luna is in talks with the Court of King Gryphem urging him to reconsider his position. Luna is a skilled negotiator in these matters and I put my faith in her. Nevertheless, I would still like the both of you to remain in Canterlot until we know the result of her negotiations.”

Twilight, ever the faithful student of the Princess, was the first to respond. “Of course, Princess. And while we’re here, you can count on the both of us to help in any way possible to help with your efforts to keep the peace with Caeli. Right Midnight?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. Of course Princess, it’s just-”

Before Midnight could voice his concerns, a the far window burst open with a gust of wind and a diminutive griffin flew in through the opening. He carried what looked like a mail bag, hung around his neck. Without a word he reached inside and pulled out a letter. The large scroll was adorned with an official looking red ribbon fastening it closed. He held the letter out for the Princess to take. Only after she had taken it with her magic did he speak. “E sippih zuh auy, Bhormill Celestia, zhuc Gork Gryphem.”

“Is that Caelian? How are we supposed to-” His thought was interrupted by a quick response from the Princess.

“Pnerg auy, auyrk Avi.” Celestia answered him in practiced Caelian, which took Midnight off guard. The messenger nodded and walked over to the window, but stayed inside. He looked as if he was waiting on something.

“Princess, I never knew you spoke Caelian.” Twilight said, looking genuinely surprised.

“Of course, Twilight. I’ve never had reason to with you. Both Luna and I learned the language to ease communications between Equestria and Caeli for both sides. It is also harder to ignore us when we can speak to King Gryphem or his officials directly, rather than through messages or even other ponies going in our place.”

The Princess impressed Midnight. He always knew Celestia was a wise ruler, but he had never really known any details of how she did it. Seeing her at work was something he wouldn’t soon forget. “That’s amazing, maybe one of you could teach me the language. I wonder if Gilda knew it.”

Celestia used her magic to open the letter and began reading:

Bhormill Celestia,

Jnosi auyh lolpih, Luna, cea byp yb kuut ehkycirpl, O juyst bhizih auy dupn di nihi lu O meh kip dupn uz auyh uborourl. O jess rup mnerki ca cort yrsill auy timoti pu lnuj auyh zemi nihi or Caeli, ert muci pesg pu ci uri ur uri.

Gork Gryphem

“I’m sorry you two, I must leave for Caeli right away. Please, enjoy the Gala. And Midnight, consider what I said.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, Princess.”

Celestia turned to let the griffin know he could leave, and with a bow, he left back the way he came. “I will see both of you again soon.” An intense glow came from her horn, wrapping its self around her until she teleported out of the room with a flash.

Midnight and Twilight entered the hall and started back to the main hall which contained the Gala. Soon they started to hear the noises of the party echoing through the passageways of the castle, growing steadily more present in their ears. Twilight couldn’t help but notice a distinct change in the sound of the party, far from last year’s classical motif, she could now hear a steady thumping rhythm coming from the Hall. A deep bass permeated the beat and soon she began to see flashing multicolored lights bounding out of the space of the party. Midnight had been walking alongside her all the way from Celestia’s chambers, but he hadn’t said a word since they left. “Okay, the Princess had a lot to say. I hope nothing comes of this situation with Caeli. But for now, I think we should enjoy the party, right?” Her statement was accompanied by a half genuine smile.

“Yeah... sure...”

“You’re still thinking about what the Princess asked you, I take it?”

“I don’t know what I should do, Twilight. The thought hasn’t left my head this whole time.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “Celestia has given you time to think about it. Maybe Rainbow Dash can help? I’m sure she’ll have something to say, and that might help you make a decision.”

“I’ll see if I can find her later. For now you’re right, let’s see what’s going on with this party.”

Coming onto the main floor of the Gala, it was nothing like Midnight had imagined ever seeing in what was normally such a tranquil and serene palace. There were vibrant blue banners hung from the ceiling, the tips of which were all that was visible. The moonlight which would usually have entered through the multistory windows was blocked out, and illumination was instead provided by the bright stage lighting coming from the far side of the room. A far cry from the stifling boredom Twilight and the others had described.

As he observed, Pinkie Pie bounded out of the crowd and nearly crashed into him and Twilight. How she scoped them out so quickly was beyond him. “Hi Pinkie Pie, I see your plan worked, whatever it was. This place is nothing like what I heard about the last time you were here.”

“Yeah, I knew it would work! You can always count on Pinkie Pie to bring the PAR-TAY!”

Twilight was restrained by Pinkie for a moment as she grabbed her and bounced excitedly. “Pinkie Pie, what exactly was your ‘master plan’ anyway?”

“Oh, right. I didn’t want to tell anypony before because it would have spoiled the surprise. All I did was use a little of my magic of persuasion to get Vinyl Scratch to work some of her own magic on all these boring party ponies! Pfft, if you could even call them that. I had to do something after last time!”

“I didn’t know you were friends with Vinyl, Pinkie.”

“Oh, I’m not. I’ve never met her before tonight.” Pinkie answered with a smile.

“Then how did you know where to-” At that moment she was smacked in the nose by the unfurling of Pinkie Pie’s party horn and she bounced off back towards the stage.

“Okay... I’m going to find Applejack. See you later Midnight, I hope you have a good time.” Twilight trotted off back out of the room, probably back towards the entrance where Applejack had already set up. Midnight however, was looking for somepony else. An old acquaintance. Making his way up towards the stage, he could see her. The center of tonight’s attention, or at least the pony behind it. She was on stage, scratching away at her records, flipping the cross-fader expertly back and forth, and generally doing everything she could to keep the party going for everypony there. It was really something to watch her work. Music was her life and she lived it every day. Her head bobbed to the beat and the smile on her face communicated her love of the crowd. At this point in the set, the music was blasting through Midnight’s ears as he approached her from the side of the stage.

‘Hey, Vinyl!” She couldn’t hear him obviously, but he still tried waving a hoof to get her attention. “Vinyl?! Hello?!” No luck, she was so deep in the performance it was clear she wasn’t even aware he was standing next to her. “I probably should just catch you after! I’ll just let you get back to playing then!” He turned to leave and began to step off the stage when Vinyl turned and spotted him. It looked like she recognized him by the friendly wave.

“Hey, Midnight! Come on back!” She used her magic to flip a new record onto the table and let it play. “Sorry dude. I didn’t notice you standin there.”

“That’s alright, you looked like you were pretty concentrated up there, I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Nah, it’s all good, dude.” She pushed up her trademark violet lensed sunglasses and set them up on her horn. He’d met her a few times before at various parties she’d DJed, but he never really got used to those scarlet eyes. She looked him over quickly and nodded before she spoke again. “Well, you’re looking good. Nice suit ya got on. Are you here with Rainbow Dash, or did you guys...”

“No, we’re definitely still together, these past few years have been great with her.”

“Good to hear. But you’ve been together that long? Did you ever think about marryin her?” she asked lightly as she leaned back onto her rolling chair.

“Well of co-...wait, I. Hmm...” That had never really even come up between them. Here Vinyl was, making him wonder why he’d never thought about it before. She was right, but it only took him a few seconds to remember why. Rainbow Dash wasn’t the kind of pony to care about romantic formalities. In his mind and hers, as long as they were together, it didn’t really matter.

“I’m gonna take that as a no.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ve never really thought about it. Dash has been busy performing with The Wonderbolts recently.”

“So she’s gotten that down, has she? That’s good for her. Well, I guess that’ll come up when it comes up.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it will. So, what did you do to get all of these uptight ponies to actually have fun here for a change?”

“Well that’s simple. Imagine in your mind how this place would normally be, kinda like a posh country club; the stuffy old money where the poor get snubbed. The spread was bland like watered down chartreuse. There was no way these ponies would ever cut loose. So that’s why Pinkie hired me to play here. First, I walk in this room and held my boombox high. And what happened next, will blow your mind. Everything got outta control. The music was so entrancing. Everypony got out on the floor. It was a bunch of old ponies dancing.”

“Wow, can’t believe that actually worked. Well, from what I heard about The Gala before.”

“Yeah, I know, dude. I’ve heard this place totally bites most years. I’m surprised I’m even DJin’ a place like this. Then again, I guess it’s not really my choice, it’s the studios.”

“Wait, I thought Pinkie said she hired you.”

“In a way, she did. She came and talked to me first. No idea how she knew where to find me tonight, but I told her that it wasn’t up to me so she had to go talk to the studio and they took care of the rest pretty fast once I told them it was at the Palace.”

“Oh, well that’s new to me. I always thought it was your decision.”

“Well, I guess yah learn somethin new everyday. Am I right? Aw man, this song is almost over, so I gotta get back to DJing. I think you should go find some of your friends, and enjoy The Gala. This place is actually a party for once.”

“Alright, you enjoy yourself then, Vinyl.”

“Okay, see yah later, dude.” She hopped out of her chair and pushed it away from the table. Dropping her sunglasses back down onto her face, she picked up her DJing where she left off. “I hope everypony out here is enjoying their night tonight. I know I am. Remember, there will be an opportunity to win some of these sick prizes behind me sponsored by Equestria Radio, and partially funded by AJ’s Apple Accessories. For all the ponies rockin it here, stop down in the palace courtyard to try a everything she’s got! We’re coming live from The Grand Galloping Gala. I’m your host, DJ PON-3. That last song was Atlas Mare by Flaxen Attack. And here’s one of my favorites, Big Boss by Pony P. Hope you enjoy it.”

By the time Midnight made it off the stage, the next song was already blaring from the speakers, which were taller than he was. Time to find Dash. “She’s probably in the V.I.P. section with the Wonderbolts, I’ll just start there.”

Outside the Gala hall, main hall of the Gala, Twilight had met up with Applejack. From the look of things when she first arrived, business was booming at the apple stand.

“After the way things went last time, ah never expected sales to be anywhere near this good. With these kind of bits comin’ in I’m sure we’ll have more than enough to fix up everything on the farm. We might have even more after that!” She gestured to a large unorganized pile of coins behind the stand. She’d been too occupied by droves of customers to even keep them in order.

“Wow AJ, this is amazing! I think everypony in the Gala has heard about your apples, what exactly did you do to get this much attention?” Twilight asked in amazement.

“Well, when Pinkie got Scratch to do her music, I asked if she could mention my stand out here in exchange fer a small piece of mah profit. She said sure, and I guess it got the job done!”

Ponies were arriving from all over the Palace to get a taste of what they heard inside was “the best food on the party grounds.”

“Excuse me, ladies.” a tan coated colt announced. He was dressed quite tastefully for the Gala, just like everypony else, with a simple black tuxedo. “I’d like to get two apple fritters, for my fillyfriend and I.”

“Sure thing!” Applejack replied eagerly, “That’ll be 2 bits.” The colt happily handed the bits to Applejack. She tossed them casually onto the growing pile behind her and gave him the fritters in exchange. “Thank yah kindly, sir.” He nodded to her and trotted off, back to his date, an equally well dressed filly, just a shade lighter than him. Splitting the fritters, they trotted off, holding each other’s gazes.

“Oh Lincoln, I just love those golden eyes of yours.” she remarked as they made their way back towards the palace.

Twilight’s head sunk just a little at their clear enjoyment of each other’s company. She’d always wondered what it would be like, even read books on the subject, but never really thought about a serious relationship for herself. Now it felt like she was missing out on something, they certainly did look happy, after all.

“What’s the matter, sugarcube?”

“It’s nothing, AJ. Let’s... organize the income or something.”

“Oh come on now, you can tell me.”

“Well... I never really thought about it before, but... I don’t have anypony, Applejack.”

“What d’ya mean? You’ve got us, and Midnight, and Spi-”

“No, I mean anypony like that.” She gestured at their most recent customers. “I just feel a little... lonely. Midnight has Rainbow Dash, and most ponies here aren’t by themselves or just with friends. AndIguesssomeponiesarecomfortablewiththatbut-” Applejack cut her off before she got talking too fast.

“Twi, I’m sure you’ll find somepony that’ll make ya happy. Shoot, I’ll bet ya won’t even have to look too hard. A nice pony like you, ah’d be surprised if ya couldn’t find a colt interested right here in Canterlot. Fer now, let’s get yer mind off it and sell the rest of these apples.”

“Thanks, Applejack. I hope you’re right.” The two went back to tending the apple stand and Twilight’s worries began to lessen. The sales and helping the Apple family seemed to serve as a decent distraction to her own problems, but it still bothered her. “I know Applejack is my friend and she’ll do whatever she can to help me, but what if she’s wrong about me? I hope she knows what she’s talking about. I hope this works.”

Chapter 3

Grand Galloping Gala, March 6th, 11:17 P.M., 2013

As Midnight approached the V.I.P area, he could see a large crowd had formed around the entrance. The size and volume of the crowd made him fairly certain Rainbow Dash was inside somewhere. She’d become a veritable superstar in her short time with the Wonderbolts. Making his way through, he tried calling out for her, in hope that she’d recognize his voice and let him through this madness. Immediately he discovered that he was drowned out by the frenzied shouts of admiration from the rest of the onlookers. Not even half way to the entrance gate, a large brown colt blocked his way. Midnight tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

“Yeah? What do you want?” This pony was certainly not interested in talking, and much more focused on what was happening in front of them.

“Excuse me, but I need to get through.” The colt looked at him incredulously this obviously was not a good enough reason for him to step aside.

“I’d like to talk to Rainbow Dash, she’s up there right?”

“Yeah, it’s her. We’d all like a minute with her, but unfortunately that’s not an option for anypony here, now is it?”

“Well, no. I can see that, but I’m kinda her boyfriend, and I need to discuss something important with her. I think an exception can be made.”

“Come on, you’re kidding. Right? You want me to believe that cardboard box of a story?”

“What?”

“Everypony here knows that Rainbow Dash ain’t dating. Plus, she’s way to famous for a pony like you. If you had any business here, you’d be up there already.”

“Hey! I helped her get where she is today, I’ve known her since flight school in Cloudsdale when we were young! I don’t know where you get your info, but we’ve been together going on 2 years now.”

“Alright hot shot, make me believe you. Prove to me you’re with her and you can go anywhere you want.”

“Well, if I could get a second to see her that would be no problem!”

“Okay, fine. Hold up. Hey, everypony!” he had a booming voice that sounded over half the ponies around him, they all looked. “This foal claims to be dating Rainbow Dash!” They had stopped cheering and were now laughing at what they saw as the desperate attempts of another hopeless fan. A few of them called out:

“Yeah right.”

“Everypony knows she’s not dating.”

“Oh, but he says he can prove it!” the colt went on. “So let’s let him! How about it?” His sarcasm could hardly be laid on any thicker at this point. Several ponies stepped aside to let them pass, eager to see somepony make a foal of themselves tonight. Midnight ignored them and trotted on through to the gate. He could finally see Rainbow Dash now, she was all suited up in her Wonderbolts uniform, giving the crowd a show, dancing and generally showing off for them. Only when the cheering suddenly toned down did she notice something was going on and stopped.

“Hey, what gives? I’m still here, you can keep cheering you know.” She turned her attention to the gate in confusion.

“Dash!” Midnight called from the front of the crowd.

“Midnight! What are you doing out there? I guess your meeting with the Princess is done, how’d it go?” she asked as Midnight was let into the V.I.P. section, to the surprise of everypony in the crowd. The guard took care to only leave enough space for Midnight to squeeze through, everypony else still had to keep out.

“Thanks Dashie, I have something important I want to talk with you about.” he said, just before turning his head to smirk at the still shocked crowd, and then giving a grateful nod to the guard in turn. When he got to her, Dash pulled his head down and greeted him with a quick hello kiss. He wondered if he was just imagining the gasps he heard coming from behind him. Better make sure. He pulled Rainbow Dash back in and gave her another kiss full on the lips, which seemed to surprise her as well.

“Good to see you too, Midnight.” Dash remarked, blushing just a little. Midnight backed off and then gave her the sternest look he could muster given his current good mood.

“Question, Dash. Why did those ponies tell me that ‘everypony knows that Rainbow Dash isn’t dating?’”

“Well, you see. I didn’t want you to get caught up in all the fame, so I kinda denied that we were dating.”

“You just wanted to eat up all the attention, didn’t you.”

“Eh heh heh heh heh. Maybe...” Her cheeks turned brighter red as she scratched the back of her head. “So, what’d yah need to talk about?”

“That’s something I’d really like to talk about in private if that’s alright with you.” He motioned to the crowd. “ I think they can get on without you for a little while at least.”

“I can do that, the privacy comes with a few... extra benefits, too.” She said, giving Midnight a wink. Midnight couldn’t help but give a glance back to the crowd of adoring fan-colts, by now burning with envy of him, a pony they were coming to hate more and more. He couldn’t help but laugh to himself at the situation.

“I like the sound of that, but first we should get the important matters out of the way. Let’s go.”

“Okay, I’ve got a private room here to use for the show, follow me. We’ll be able to talk there.” Dash gave her fans a final wave as they left the V.I.P. area for the private rooms. A short way down the back hall, they came to a door featuring an over-sized recreation of Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. She pushed open the door and let Midnight walk inside. It wasn’t as small as he would have expected, obviously the Canterlot Palace planners spared no expense when it came to their entertainers. Midnight stepped over to the large bed on the far side of the room and hopped on, landing in the middle of the mattress. Dash shut the door behind her and joined him.

“Hey Midnight, I have something to ask you first.”

“Alright, shoot.”

“Well, I was talking to Applejack on the carriage ride, her birthday is coming up soon. 2 weeks, so I was thinking what I should get her...”

“Okay... go on.”

“I promised I’d do ‘something special’ for her and it sort of involved you.” Midnight raised an eyebrow.”

“How exactly am I ‘involved.’”

“It’s her 18th birthday, Midnight.”

“I’m not sure I-”

“Oh come on, do I have to spell it out for you? I want you to have sex with AJ for her birthday. Got it?”

“What?! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! This is a trap isn’t it?! Well, I’m not falling for it! You’re testing my trust! Well, I figu-”

“Midnight! It’s not a trap! Really, do you think I’m smart enough to try and trick you into something like that? No, I’m not. I promised her that because I know I can trust her. I let her do it because we’ve been together for so long, I know I can trust you. Heck, we’ve been together long enough to start thinking about gettin married.”

First Vinyl, now Dash? This was certainly a day full of surprises.

“Alright, but only since it’s you asking.”

“Really? Huh, I thought it’d be harder to convince you than that. Okay then. Now what was it you wanted to talk with me about?”

“Earlier, when I went with Twilight to talk with the Princess, she asked me to join Equestria’s army. Dash, there’s a possibility of war with the Griffins, I could be fighting them in open combat.”

“Are you serious? War with the Griffins? I haven’t even heard anything about trouble with them.”

“Celestia’s kept it under wraps for a long time now. I’m one of the few non-military ponies who even knows about it. She trusts all of us to keep quiet about it too.”

“Don’t worry about it, I won’t tell anypony anything.”

“Good. But I still need to make a decision on joining in this war or not.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking that my life here with you is too good a thing to just give up and leave. If it came from anypony else, I would say no, but the Princess herself asked me to do this. That kind of request is an honor I can’t just pass up so easily. Either way, she’s asked us to find a place to stay here in Canterlot until a decision is made, by me or by the Griffin king.”

“Wow, that’s a tough choice. Celestia has asked for our help before, you know, from Twilight and me and the rest of our friends, but never anything like this.”

“I know, I just don’t know what to tell her!”

“I really don’t think I can help you on this one, I’ve got nothin’. You’ll just have to wait until you can make a decision for yourself. Sorry I couldn’t give you an answer.”

“That’s okay, thanks anyway. I’m just glad we could talk about it at all.”

“No prob, Midnight.”

“I just don’t want to think about this any more right now.”

“I’ve still got another hour or so before the performance, that leaves us with plenty of time to come up with... something.” She traced a hoof over the patch of sheets between them. “That tux really looks nice on you," She said, "but I think it would look even better on the floor."

Midnight was happy to oblige, and the two of them sank under the covers.

An hour later an alarm went off letting Rainbow Dash know the show was beginning soon. She shot up and slipped into her uniform. “Aww yeah, now that was a heck of a warm up. I’ll see you after I’m finished with the show, alright? Later Midnight!”

Midnight hopped off the bed, grabbing the various pieces of his outfit that were strewn about the floor. A few minutes later he was ready to gather the rest of the girls to head to Dash’s performance. He took a different route out of the hall containing the Wonderbolt’s private rooms to avoid any more contact with the crowd. Soon he was outside, and soon after that, standing in front of Applejack’s stand, where she and Twilight had apparently made a killing earlier. Most of the stand had already been packed up, and there was hardly anything left that hadn’t been sold.

“Hey AJ, Twilight. Good, there isn’t much left to do here, Dash’s show is going to start soon. We should get everypony else and head over there.”

“Ah almost forgot about the Wonderbolts doin’ a show here every year. We didn’t really have much of a chance to see em last time around. Let’s get goin’ then, I’ve got this all closed up and locked. Who should we get first?”

“Let’s see what Pinkie Pie’s up to in the Gala hall, I’m sure everypony’s had enough partying for one night. It’s probably about time we rescued them from her.” Twilight suggested, starting off toward the Palace entrance. Midnight and Applejack fell into step behind her and the music steadily grew louder as they got closer to the hall. Midnight couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward walking with Applejack now, after what Rainbow Dash had agreed to between them. “I wonder if she knows I agreed to it yet.” he thought to himself as the three of them walked through the door. The scene inside was very much as they’d left it, with everypony parting just as hard if not more so. Pinkie Pie sure knew how to throw a good party, and everypony here agreed it looked like.

“Now how are we gonna find Pinkie in all this?” Applejack wondered as she strained to see over the waves of partying ponies and through the flashing lights. Midnight set himself to searching the crowd from their position and eventually came across a bright pink speck in the crowd, Or rather, on the crowd.

“Is...is she...crowd-surfing?” They all looked at each other, not exactly surprised, but it was still a sight to see, Pinkie pie bouncing across the crowd, probably having the time of her life. Twilight decided to try calling to her over the noise of the room.

“Pinkie!” No luck. “Pinkie Pie!!!” It became obvious near immediately that this course of action would get them nowhere. Time to use some magic. Twilight’s horn lit up with her signature purple glow as she searched the crowd to get a good view of Pinkie again. It wouldn’t help them at all if she picked up the wrong pony from the crowd. As soon as Pinkie came into view again, Twilight reached out and grabbed a hold of her with her magic and pulled her over the crowd and to them.

“Oh hi guys!” she said enthusiastically immediately after Twilight released her from her magical grip. “Can I go again Twilight? That was fun!” She could tell pretty quickly from their faces that they had other things to get to. “Soooo what’s up?”

“We’re all headed over to see Rainbow Dash perform with the Wonderbolts, the show is about to start so we came to get you and everypony else on the way.” Midnight answered her.

“Okie dokie lokie.” She bounced bast them and out toward the gardens.

“Well, I guess that means we’re getting Fluttershy next.”

In a minute they had all caught up with Pinkie Pie and were heading into the Palace Gardens. A short walk from the main hall, they still had time to find Rarity, wherever she was. As they entered, a cheerful tune could be heard through the gardens, somepony was whistling, most likely Fluttershy herself.

“Ah think she’s over in this direction.” Applejack said, pointing a hoof toward some high bushes that had been trimmed to resemble two ponies rearing up on either side of the path. Sure enough, they could see the yellow pegasus sitting on the far side of a small courtyard, surrounded by the garden’s animals. As Midnight stepped into the open area, the creatures took notice and fled back into the garden.

“What’s wrong? Did I...” Before she could finish apologizing for whatever she thought she had done, she spotted the four ponies at the edge of the clearing and smiled to them. “Oh, what are you all doing out here? Not that I’m not happy to see you, I just-”

Midnight put up a hoof to stop her. Her excessive politeness was endearing at times, but they only had a short while before the performance by now. “It’s alright Fluttershy, we know what you mean. We were all going to see Rainbow Dash’s performance, and we wanted to get everypony to come along, are you ready to go?”

“Oh, yes. Um... okay. Would you mind holding on just for a minute? I’d like to thank my new friend for helping me to meet all the garden animals. She gestured to the old pony leaning on a rake not too far away. She trotted over to him. “Um, sir? Excuse me but I’ll have to be going now. Thank you for helping me get acquainted with all the little critters.”

The elderly pony looked up. “Oh, sure. No problem at all, miss! Farewell!” He waved goodbye and went back to leaning with his eyes closed.

As soon as Fluttershy came back to join them, they were off. “Okay, that just leaves Rarity, and I think I can guess where she is.” Twilight said, turning to face a particularly colorful tower nearby. “She said she was meeting with some influential designers like Hoity Toity, so she should still be with them I think.”

“I hope so, we’re going to be running out of time if she’s not there. I don’t want to miss any of the show if we can help it.” Midnight said, eager to get on with finding her.

The group came up to the entrance to the tower and found themselves at a large, ornate door, flanked by two official looking ponies. They lacked armor, but still gave off the impression of guards. Midnight had had a less than successful time trying to talk his way into private areas before at the Cloudiseum, but he thought it over and decided he might as well try anyway.

“Excuse me, is this the tower being used by the designers commissioned for the Gala?”

The larger of the two looked at him after a moment, narrowing his eyes. “The rooms are private, please be on your way.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. We’re friends of Rarity, she’s speaking with the rest of the designers and we’d like to see her.”

“Unless you have an invitation from one of th-”

“Midnight? Is that you down there?” A voice came from above. Rarity was leaning over a balcony that jutted out from the tower several floors up. “Ah it is! And Twilight, and Pinkie... oh, everypony it seems! What are you doing down there? Come up, everypony! I’ll see you all in a moment.”

“Rarity we just wanted to te-” Too late, she had already disappeared inside. It looked like they’d have to go up and get her after all. Midnight gave the guard an expectant look and he opened the door for them.

Everypony filed in, and up the winding staircase inside. The entire tower looked very nice, inside and out. It was obviously set aside for the artists and designers hired on by the Princesses or other influential ponies in Canterlot or at the Palace. The walls were nearly covered with tapestries or paintings of all sizes. After several times around the center, they reached another door, this one more decorated than the last, which was saying a lot. It seemed to be the right floor, or rather, they hoped it was. Nopony was looking forward to any more stairs for the night. Midnight was about to knock when it swung in slowly to reveal the room inside. For a moment, Midnight was dumbstruck by the sheer amount of suits and gowns, all expertly designed with priceless materials and decorations. He couldn’t even guess at the value of the contents of this room.

“My friends!” Rarity exclaimed. She’d barely been noticeable at all in the sea of outfits, she blended right in with them in her self-styled dress. It matched the style of a good number of others, meaning they were probably her designs as well. “Come in, make yourselves at home. This is Hoity Toity, I think you girls might remember him from the time he showed up in Ponyville for my fashion show.”

Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack remained at the door while Pinkie pranced around the room, looking at everything. Midnight was surprised everything stayed in place with her so excited about it. “Well it’s nice to meet you, Mr.... Toity, but we have to go. There’s a show we have to catch soon.” He shook his hoof without a word of response and turned to Rarity. “So, are you coming? Rainbow Dash is performing.”

She seemed hesitant, giving Hoity Toity a nervous glance before he turned to one of her dresses he had had his eye on when they first entered. “Run along Miss Rarity, I will be here when you get back. I have heard good things about the Wonderbolt’s newest member, it should be quite a show.”

“Phew, alright. Let’s go then.” Rarity said, relieved.

“Let’s get going then, we only have a few minutes left to get there. The Palace amphitheater was not a long distance from the tower and the group made it with a bit of time to spare. The show hadn’t started at any rate. “Come on everypony, let’s find our seats. After making their way to the edge of the upper stands, Midnight was able to see down to where six seats in the front row had been reserved just for them. They had just gotten down to them when the announcer’s voice rang out through the stadium:

“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Get ready for... The Wonderbolts!” With that, the crowd erupted with cheers and streaks shot across the sky, storm clouds and rainbows.

After the show had ended, they all decided to wait in the courtyard outside for Rainbow Dash. After a few minutes, she showed up, still in uniform, practically glowing with happiness. The show had gone as perfectly as anypony could have hoped. “Did you guys see me out there? I was awesome!”

“That was incredible, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Bravo, Rainbow, a marvelous show indeed.”

“I ain’t seen anything like that in mah whole life!”

“I um... really liked it, Rainbow Dash”

“Yeah! You were all WHOOSH! And then Spitfire was all like WHOOM! And then you both went like-” Twilight put a hoof over Pinkie’s mouth before she was able to re-tell the entire show again.

“Thanks a lot girls, I’m glad you all enjoyed it. Now,” She said, turning to Midnight, “what did you think?”

“I think you have to be the only pony that can perform that amazingly while still staying that beautiful.” Midnight said, keeping his face as serious as possible while laying it on that heavy.

“Awwwwwwww.” The girls said collectively.

Rainbow Dash laughed and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “My onyx prince! Thanks Midnight.” She laughed again at her own attempt at starry-eyed admiration, then turned to fly back to the stadium to catch up with the rest of the team. Midnight watched her go for a few seconds before remembering.

“Twilight, we have to go find our parents soon, we’ll need a place to stay in Canterlot while Celestia wants us here. I’d like to see if we could stay with them.”

“Well, I think we should take our leave, girls.” Rarity said. “We all have places to be as well it seems. We’ll see you two later, Twilight, Midnight. I hope all goes well with your parents.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. I haven’t seen them in so long. It’s been... even longer since they’ve seen you.”

“I know what you mean. Well, let’s get it over with then, do you know how to get there from here?” He still had a mental image of what their house looked like, but it had been so long, any number of things could have changed about it since he left.

“We’re gonna get going girls, we’ll see you later I guess. Bye!” They all turned their separate ways and departed to their temporary Canterlot homes. Most of them also had relatives living in the city, and Rainbow Dash had the Wonderbolts. Rarity had been invited by several different designers to stay with them, apparently she’d been a hit with them.

The route Twilight had decided on took them out past the main road leading to the Palace. Most of the guests were leaving or getting ready to leave by now. Several carriages pulled away as they walked past.

“So,” Midnight started, “where did Spike run off to? I didn’t see him all night”

“Oh, I saw him while I was at the stand with Applejack. He knows we’re staying in Canterlot and I told him that we’re going to our parent’s. I offered to let him come, but he said he’d prefer it staying at the Castle.” A few minutes went by with neither of them saying much, Midnight was still feeling nervous. Twilight decided to try to start up a conversation again. “I can’t believe how long it’s been since we were all together, I can barely even remember.” Twilight said. “I wonder how they’ll react when we get there.”

“I haven’t been thinking of much else this whole time. However it goes, I just want to get it done with. Now let’s just focus on getting there.”

“Midnight’s obviously not interested in talking about it, this must be really hard for him to go back.” Twilight thought as they passed down smaller and smaller side streets on the way to their childhood home. Their parents lived in Canterlot, but still a good distance from the Palace itself. Twilight was starting to get a little uncomfortable with the silence when they finally arrived at the doorstep. She could see Midnight still wasn’t sure about the whole thing so she was the one to go up to the door and knock. A few seconds later, the door was answered by a white mare with a purple streaked mane, their mother.

“Oh, Twilight, it’s so nice to see you. I didn’t know you were in Canterlot.”

“Well we were here for the Gala, so a visit here seemed in order.”

“We?”

“Yes, I’ve brought somepony you might remember.” Mrs. Sparkle seemed confused as she looked past Twilight to the other pony standing just off the street. She probably hadn’t recognized him, after being gone so long. His mane was a bit if a give away, but it probably hadn’t crossed her mind that her son would just show up one night after so long lost. Her eyes widened as she focused on him, standing in front of her.

“Hi, Mom.”

“M-Midnight? Oh sweet Celestia, I can’t believe it’s really you! You’re alive! Honey, come here, you have to see!”

“What is it? What’s so exciting there?” A stallion, a bit older than their mother, appeared in the entryway. He was a blue pony, a pipe in his mouth, which dropped to the floor when he realized who was standing at the door with his wife and daughter. “I... I never thought I’d see the day. My son.”

“I’m glad to see you too, Dad.” As much as he’d thought about this moment recently, he still couldn’t have imagined exactly what he was feeling now. He was finally seeing his family again. Finally with them after years of separation. He was just beginning to feel the tears welling up when his mother pounced on him, holding on like letting go was not an option any more. He felt her own tears hit the top of his back. He was home.

“Midnight, where have you been all this time? Where did you go?” His father stood back, simply smiling at the sight of his family reunited. Midnight was about to respond when his father picked up his pipe finally. “Come on, come inside, we can talk there. Honey, I think you can let him go now, he’s not going anywhere.”

“Just a few seconds more. Please.” She held him tighter for a moment before finally letting go.

They all moved into the living room and made themselves comfortable. Midnight was still trying to get his bearings on the situation. It had been so long, but it still felt just like home to him.

“I guess you know what I’m going to ask you first.” his father said from his green recliner. Midnight did, and looked to his sister before responding. “Why did you leave, Midnight?”

“I knew the question, and I think you already know the answer, Dad. You too, Mom. You were both there at Celestia’s test. You witnessed me kill those instructors when I lost control of my power. I couldn’t stay after that. I thought about Twilight and what a terrible example I’d be for her here. I didn’t know, I might have even hurt her, or hurt you. I didn’t want to take that chance after what happened. I took what I could and went to Cloudsdale. I felt like there was no other choice to be made. I lived there for five years. The rest is another story entirely.”

“But why did you leave so suddenly? You could have told us!” his mother said, springing up, “We were devastated when you left.”

“I know. I didn’t realize everything I was doing back then, I was so young. I just did what I thought was best, without really thinking it through all the way. I didn’t mean to just abandon you all like that...”

“It’s okay Midnight, your intentions were good. I think we’ve all moved on from that. I’m just happy to see you’re alive. You have no idea how much that means to us.”

“I’m just glad you’re not angry with me.”

“So, now that that’s out if the way, I’m curious to know how you’ve spent all this time exactly. What’s your life been like?” his father asked.

“Well let’s see...” Midnight had to think about it for a moment, he’d been busy living his life, never really expecting to be asked to recite it to anypony. But, the details came through clear after a few seconds of thinking. “Are you familiar with the Wonderbolts? The performance flying team.”

“Of course, your father and I watched them perform at the Palace from town just tonight, we only got back maybe an hour before you arrived. They were spectacular.”

“Alright, then have you heard about their newest member, Rainbow Dash?”

“Sure do, she’s quite the showpony. Why? Do you have some sort of interest in her?”

“The very morning that I arrived in Cloudsdale, I met little Rainbow Dash; heading on her way to her first day as a paper pony. She was saving up to go to flight school. Ever since the first day of flight school in Cloudsdale together, she was my best friend for years. We went through plenty of spectacular ups and downs in those years. Almost 3 years ago, I finally told her that I loved her, but, for reasons that would take me a long time to explain, I had to leave her for an entire year. The very day I came back to her, we began dating. We’ve been happily together for years now. I even helped get her to her life’s dream of being a member of The Wonderbolts.”

“Well that’s fantastic, you sure haven’t been wasting your time away.” his mother said.

“So, you’re what, 21 years old now? If you two have been together for so long, have you ever gotten ‘intimate’ with her?”

“Well, I, um...” Of all the things Midnight had imagined them talking about when he showed up, this was not among them.

“Oh sweet Celestia.” Twilight was quick to interrupt him, “Those two are at it every night.”

“Yeah, we- wait. How did you know that?”

“Oh please, Midnight. You two live together in a house made of clouds flying over Ponyville. If you two haven’t realized yet, clouds aren’t the best sound barriers. I’m pretty sure everypony in Ponyville can easily hear you two going at it every night.” Midnight was taken completely off guard by Twilight’s explanation, and turning his head, he saw their mother had much the same reaction, which did nothing to diminish his embarrassment. After a moment it looked like her initial reaction had worn off and she tried to make it a little easier on him.

“I-It’s alright. You’re a grown pony, it’s perfectly fine whatever you want to do at that age...”

“Ha Ha!” Mr. Sparkle was at this point cracking up at the sheer awkwardness he had constructed. Midnight remembered that about him now, he was nothing if not a joker. “You know, I think things were much the same between your mother and I at that age.”

“Honey I don’t think that’s something everypony should kn-”

“Oh, come on, honey. They’re our kids. I don’t think they have any plans on going out and telling their friends that they learned how much sex their parents had. Hell, I could tell them right now how much we’ve been at it since Twilight moved out, and they wouldn’t tell a soul.”

“Okay, dad. That’s enough. I know I don’t wanna hear anymore, and I’m pretty sure you’ve left a permanent mental scar in Twilight’s mind.” Sweet Celestia, he has the strangest sense of humor of anypony I’ve met.

“I’m sorry, forget I said anything.”

“Umm... sorry to interrupt or anything, but we didn’t just come to stop by and visit.”

“Oh? So what brings you then?” their father replied to Twilight’s vague statement.

“Well, Midnight and I have been asked by the Princess to remain in Canterlot while she attends to some business, and we immediately thought of you. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. Even longer for Midnight.

“Of course you can,” Mrs. Sparkle replied happily. “All you had to do was ask, we’d love for you to stay. It’ll give us more of a chance to catch up with Midnight as well.” Their father stood up from his chair and motioned for them to follow him.

“Come on, let’s get you two settled in.” They followed him down the hallway before he stopped and turned around. “Twilight, come with me, we’ll have to do a little re-arranging in your old room. Midnight, there’s something in yours I feel like you’ll want to see... alone.”

“Alright, well... you go on then.” It seemed like a strange thing for his father to tell him, what could be in his room that he wanted him to find on his own? He took a few more steps down the narrow hall before reaching his old room. At first glance it was apparent nothing much had changed. He’d left so suddenly and they probably wanted to keep it as he’d left it all those years ago. His sheets, the wall color, the rug. All of it was unchanged. Everything was in its place. It could have been just the day after he left if he didn’t know any better. All except one detail. Lying on his bed there was a framed picture. He walked to his bed to get a better look. It was them on their last family vacation together. Lining the frame were eleven roses. Going around the picture, each was progressively more wilted than the last, yet somehow preserved. Attached to each rose was a small card, tied on and carefully folded closed. He needed to know what they said. Quickly Midnight opened them in succession, starting with the oldest. Written in each was a short dated message:

We Miss you every single day.

July 20th, 2002

We pray to Celestia for your return.

July 20th, 2003

Forever in your parent’s hearts.

July 20th, 2004

We hope you’ve found a better place.

July 20th, 2005

Praying for your safety, Midnight.

July 20th, 2006

We hope everyday that you’re still

out there somewhere.

July 20th, 2007

You’re always in our thoughts.

July 20th, 2008

With every day, every year, and every

rose, we miss you more and more

July 20th, 2009

Wondering if we’ll ever see you again.

July 20th, 2010

After 10 years, we have lost no hope

that you will return.

July 20th, 2011

Midnight Flare, forever in our hearts, minds,

thoughts, and our dreams.

July 20th, 2012

He stood next to his old bed, silent, holding the newest rose in his hoof. His parent’s words running through his head. They’d never given up on him. He’d abandoned them, but he was never really let go of here. He didn’t know what to say, he couldn’t really even think of anything. Even if he could, it wouldn’t do what he was feeling justice. Tears began to well in his eyes. Somepony was coming down the hall now. He quickly wiped them away and set down the rose letter.

“Hey Midnight,” It was Twilight in the doorway. “I’ll be reading in my old room if you need me for anything.”

“That’s okay Twilight, I think I’m good now.” he said, not turning from the bed as he replied. He was sure she could hear something in his voice, but for one reason or another, she let it go and turned to leave. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Twilight.”

Chapter 5

Sparkle Family Home, 8:28 A.M., March 21st, 2013

“Midnight, wake up.” A faint voice came out of the blackness. “Midnight, we need to get going.” As he opened his eyes, he could see a blurry purple shape, pushing him in his bed. “Midnight!” He was suddenly forced out of his bed, and onto the floor. Twilight was standing over him with an impatient smirk across her face. “You sleep in way to long, Midnight.”

“Yeah, I think I get it from Rainbow Dash.” He replied nonchalantly from the floor.

“Well, hurry up! We gotta get going to the library.”

“Wait...” Midnight sat up scratching his head, “Why am I coming with, again?”

“You said last night that you were gonna come with me to the library today.”

“Oh yeah; that. Well, I guess we better get going so you can see your little ‘colt friend’, Starbuck.” The lack of any care in Midnight’s voice was obvious. He clearly had no interest in coming and would rather stay in his comfy bed. But, nevertheless, she still decided to drag him along. After all, she still wanted him to have a positive image of Starbuck, and she knew he would be there. And she definitely wanted to spend time with him.

“Well, come on, Midnight. We need to get going.” Twilight said as she stepped to the doorway.

“Yeah, let’s get going.”

“You’re really not excited about this, are you?”

“Twilight, I’m tired. Nothing is exciting to me.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But still, we can make this fun, can’t we?”

“We’ll see, Twilight; we’ll see.” The two stepped out the door; Midnight, shutting the door behind him. They stepped from the hallway to the living room; their parents sitting in the same spots as every morning. “Mom, Dad, Twilight and I are going to the library.”

“Okay, then. You two have fun.” Their father dismissed them, not taking his eyes off of the newspaper in front of him. Realizing that their dad was captivated, neither of them bothered saying anymore, and set off out the front door, on their way to the library.

“So Midnight, is it okay if I ask what you find wrong with Starbuck?”

“Didn’t we go over this last night?”

“We did, but I guess I’m still kinda curious what you have to say.I don’t have anything against him, I just don’t wanna see you going out with somepony I don’t know.”

“Just give him a chance when we get there. I’m sure you’ll come to like him, eventually.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” The two had arrived quickly; a little quicker then usual. Right as they stepped in, Midnight went straight up to the front counter. “I’m looking for a book on the language of Caelian.”

“Oh, why certainly. I’ll have Starbuck show you where it is. Oh, Starbuck!”

Starbuck peered around the corner of a bookshelf. “Yeah, grandma?” Then Midnight caught his attention. “Oh, hey Twilight. H-hi, Midnight.”

“Oh, so you already know each other. Well then, Starbuck, this nice young colt has a book he’s looking for. Would you please help him find it?”

“Umm...s-sure.” The small drips of sweat beating down his face, and his obviously fake smile made it obvious that he had felt intimidation from Midnight.

“I’m looking for a book to help me learn Caelian.”

“S-sure, th-that’s in the n-non-fiction section...”

“Well, thank you for telling me, then. I think I’ll go find the non-fiction section on my own.”

“O-okay. Have fun!” Starbuck was quick to dash around the corner, and get away from Midnight. And right as he was out of sight, Twilight punched Midnight in the side.

“Ow! The hell was that for?!”

“You came here so you and Starbuck can get along.”

“Well, he seems like he’s afraid of me.”

“So make it that he’s not afraid of you.”

“*sigh* fine!” Though Midnight obviously had no interest in Starbuck, he still trotted over to find him. “Hey, Starbuck. Wait up.” Starbuck stopped in the aisle, trembling where he stood. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“Then what do you want from me?”

“I just want to get to know you so I know you’re not gonna hurt my little sister, okay? Come on, why don’t you show me where that book is? Maybe you could tell me a little more about yourself.”

“A-alright...follow me.” Midnight could see Starbuck was still afraid of him. Yet, he still held no interest in showing that he truly cared about Starbuck. He only wanted what he felt was best for Twilight, which was making her happy.

“So, what do you usually do in your free time?”

“Well, most of the time, I’m just reading whatever I can find in my family’s library. I’d kinda like to spend more time with Twilight; she seems really sweet,and I’d like to get to know her more.”

“Yeah, just watch yourself, boy. Don’t try anything you’d regret me knowing about.”

“Don’t worry, Midnight. I won’t do anything I wouldn’t if you were there.”

“Good. Just remember,” Midnight pointed his hoof at his eyes then to Starbucks, glaring him down. “I’m watching you.”

“*gulp* I’ll be sure to remember that.” Starbuck said as they made there way into the non-fiction section. “Alright, let’s see.” He scanned the bookshelf for Midnight’s request. “Ah, here we are.” He said as he pulled a little yellow book off of the shelf. “The Language of Caeli. This is what you’re looking for, right?”

“Perfect, thank you.”

“N-no problem.” The sweat beating down Starbuck’s face as he gave Midnight a big fake smile made it obvious that he was still afraid of Midnight.

“I’ll see you around then.” Midnight replied, quick to dash around the corner of the bookshelf. Starbuck let out a small sigh of relief as he was relieved from his stress of Midnight’s presence.

“Alright, Twilight. I got my book. You ready to go?”

“Just a second, I’m just looking for one more book.” She scanned the top shelf of the bookshelf labeled, ‘romantic fiction’. “Ah, here it is.” A blue book with a coarse gold lining lit up in purple as it levitated from the shelf to the top of a stack of books on the desk in the front of the library.

“Is this everything, Twilight?”

“Yes it is. Thank you, Mrs. Ray”

“Alright, I’ll just check these out for you, quick.”

“Oh wait, I have one too.” Midnight interrupted.

“Oh, that’s right. You wanted to check out the book on learning Caelian, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, well then. You can just go ahead and keep it.”

“Really? You’re giving a book to somepony you don’t know.”

“Nopony ever checks out any of our language books, and if you’re Twilight’s brother, I’m sure you can be trusted. You have the nicest little sister a pony could ask for.”

“Wow, well, thank you.”

“No thank you needed. It was my pleasure. Let me just finish checking out Twilight’s books.” A blue light surrounded the book at the top of the stack and floated down in front of Mrs. Ray, folding open on the desk.

“Jeez, Twilight. Do you normally get this many books?”

“Actually, I usually have more. I have plans for the day, so I don’t have as much reading time. It’s how I usually pass my time while we’re in Canterlot.”

“Wow. Have you ever tried getting out of the house more? I mean, I’ve been balancing my time between spending time with our mom and dad and spending time with Dashie.”

“I’m getting out of the house today, aren’t I? I think that counts.”

“Yeah, I guess. I never really see you as the one to leave home that often.”

“Okay, that’s the last one.” Mrs. Ray interrupted as she levitated the last book to the top of the stack. “Happy reading you too. I’m sure I’ll see you again tomorrow, Twilight.” The stack was surrounded by a purple light as they floated over to Twilight.

“I’ll be looking forward to it.” Twilight replied as she trotted out the door, Midnight following behind her, and shutting the door behind himself.

“Wow, what a nice librarian.”

“I know she is. She’s one of the nicest ponies I’ve met in my life. Not to mention, how much Starbuck takes after her.”

“Oh, don’t give me that, Twilight. Just because he has a nice Grandmother.”

“Midnight, he’s afraid of you. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to him?”

“Of course I do. I’m showing authority.”

“But you don’t need to show authority.”

“Well, of course I do, Twilight.”

“*sigh*, whatever, Midnight. But, no matter what you say, I’m still going to be spending the day showing Starbuck the rest of our friends.”

“Fine, but just remember, don’t do anything you wouldn’t if I were watching.” Giving his final regards to Twilight, he picked up his wings and flew off into the sky past the high rooftops of Canterlot.

“Oh, Midnight. I worry for you sometimes.” Nevertheless, Twilight had plans. Midnight’s actions had to be the least of her concerns. She did, after all, want her friends to give their best impressions of themselves and Midnight. She thought that five other ponies giving a positive opinions of Midnight would help Starbuck to not be so afraid.

Twilight had planned to meet the rest of her friends with Starbuck in Hay Stack Cafe, a small, family-owned Cafe, in the middle of down town Canterlot at 9 that morning. After Midnight had went to bed, the night before, Twilight had began thinking “Maybe if Starbuck could meet the rest of my friends, they could help me show Midnight isn’t as bad as he presented himself. I can talk to them in the morning before I wake Midnight up.” And so she did, not but two hours before they had gone two the library that morning. Though most of them didn’t appreciate an early awakening, all of them understood Twilight’s concerns for Midnight, and were obliged to help her out.

Hoping for something to come out of this, Twilight began making her way through town, looking for the Hay Stack Cafe. As she walked down the busy Canterlot streets, she kept thinking “Why is Midnight acting like this? He’s never hated anypony without a good reason before. I just really hope my friends will be able to change Starbuck’s mind for the better.” Just a few buildings ahead was a small wooden sign, hanging from the side of one of the many short buildings crammed together in one large wall of buildings, that read ‘Hay Stack Cafe’. And just under the sign, resided Twilight’s friends, all gathered at a table, waiting for Twilight.

“Hey! There’s Twilight!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as Twilight drew nearer. The rest of the girls looked over and called for her to sit with them.

“Hey girls, you all know why I called you here, right?”

“Why of course.” Rarity answered. “To try and show your new colt, Starbuck was it?, the good side of your brother, Midnight. I’m sure he has enough good qualities we could tell Starbuck about to make him change his mind.”

“He sure does.” Applejack sighed as she stared off into space, fantasizing. Rainbow Dash and Twilight both gave her a quick glance that told her to take this seriously. “Err...sorry...”

Rainbow spoke up then. “Well me and Fluttershy know him the most. I’m sure we could convince Starbuck easy! Right Fluttershy?”

She tried to speak. “Well...yes, I mean...-”

“Of course we can convince him!” Pinkie interrupted. “I mean, come on! We all know Midnight and what he’s been through, like how he went to flight school with Dashie and Fluttershy, and how he got hurt in the rainboom accident, and how he got possessed by Nightmare Moon, and how-”

“Pinkie Pie!” The other girls yelled simultaneously. “We know about it all already!”

“Yeah, save it for Starbuck.” Rainbow spoke over them again.

“Heh...sorry girls. Guess I was getting a little carried away there.”

“Well you are Pinkie Pie, we all kinda got used to it a while ago.”

“Girls.” Rarity said. “Might we get back on topic here? We still need to figure out what exactly we’re going to tell Starbuck.”

“Well it looks like we don’t have to wait for long.” Twilight said, gesturing down to the end of the street she came from. Starbuck was trotting along the road towards them.

The other girls turned to see him. “So that’s Starbuck?” Rainbow Dash asked

“I say Twilight,” Rarity said. “based off what you’ve told us about him, his looks, and your personality, I’d say he’s perfect for you! Not all too shabby either.”

“Hey Twilight!” Starbuck said as he arrived at the cafe. “These must be your friends you told me about. Hi, I’m-”

“Starbuck!” Pinkie Pie interrupted. “Twilight has told us so much about you! Like how you met at the library, and how you went on your first date in the park, and how you both kissed, and how-”

Applejack pushed her hoof forcefully to Pinkie’s mouth. “Mighty sorry ‘bout that Starbuck. Pinkie Pie here tends to get carried away with herself.” She turned to Pinkie Pie then, hoof still shoved in her mouth. “Now are you gonna keep it under control?” Pinkie slowly nodded her head. Applejack put down her hoof.

Pinkie Pie stood there, licking her lips. “Mmmmm, apples!”

Rarity came up and extended her hoof towards Starbuck. “It’s so wonderful to finally meet the colt Twilight has told us all so much about. How do you do, my name is Rarity.” Starbuck shook her hoof with his.

“Howdy there, the name’s Applejack, nice to finally meet’cha!” She shook Starbucks hoof excitedly, like she does with every new pony she meets.

“Uh, yeah...” Starbuck managed to say while trying to keep his balance after the dizzying tremor of a hoofshake.

“And I’m Rainbow Dash!” Dash announced, coming, seemingly, from nowhere. “Fastest flier in all of Equestria! I’m sure you’ve heard of me from other ponies that Twilight here, right?” She got up really close to Starbucks face, awaiting an answer.

Starbuck began sweating nervously. “Um...yeah, I...you’re Rainbow Dash, of course, the...uh...” Twilight quickly leaned over and whispered something into his ear. “The new leader of The Wonderbolts! Right! I hear about you from everypony!” Dash went back over to her seat, a satisfied look on her face. Starbuck looked back over to the last of the girls there, who hadn’t introduced herself yet. He walked over to her. “And you must be Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy looked up. “Oh, yes...um...hello.”

“Sorry, Starbuck.” Twilight added, “Fluttershy can be very timid around new ponies.”

“It’s okay, Fluttershy. I can be the same way around new ponies, too. I’m still a little too timid around Twilight’s brother.”

“What do you find wrong with him?” Rainbow added, “He can be a little scary at times when he’s angry. He nearly scared Fluttershy out of her fur the first time they met. But underneath, you just gotta get to know him. I’ve been dating him for years now.”

“Well, if you must know. The first instant I had met Midnight, he was blowing up in my face for dating Twilight. I had no idea it would’ve been a problem. I didn’t really know what to do or what I did to provoke him.”

“You didn’t do anything. Midnight was just being a little too protective.”

“Hehe, yeah. Midnight can be a little too over protective sometimes.” Rainbow Dash said. “You should’ve seen him when some colt tried hitting on me when we were vacationing in our hometown of Cloudsdale. Let’s just say that that pony’ll be heading for the hills if he ever sees Midnight again.”

“Rainbow.” Twilight glared at her from across the table. “That’s not really helping.”

“Sorry. Just believe me, on most occasions, he’s the nicest pony you’ll ever meet. He’s been through a lot of negativity in his life that he comes off to new ponies a mean pony. I can talk to him later about how he’s acting. I’m sure I can convince him.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash. Though I’m not so sure that’ll help too much.”

“Don’t worry about it. I can convince Midnight to do anything. And I mean anything. Right, Applejack?”

“Hehehe, yeah. Midnight was pretty amazing last night.” Applejack light-heartedly responded as she stared off into space.

“Aaanyways.” Rainbow Dash said, “Just believe me when I say he’ll listen to me.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I’m happy to see that Twilight has such a nice group of friends. I’d really like to see Midnight’s good side for a change.” Starbuck replied with a breath of relief in his voice.

“So, what did you two talk about when you were showing Midnight where his book was?”

“Nothing much, he just asked me what I do in my free time. He was kinda nice about it, but he clearly told me to not do anything I wouldn’t if he were around and told me that he’s watching me.”

Little did Starbuck, or the rest or the group know, Midnight had been watching them for quite awhile. Secluded on a 3rd story roof top, not too far from the Hay Stack Cafe, Midnight had been watching Starbuck’s movements; paying close attention and not letting Starbuck make any rash decisions. “Whatever path you take, wherever you might go, and whenever you decide to leave, I’ll follow. I’ll follow you, Starbuck. Um...wait.” he flipped open his Caelian book that he had next to him. “O’ss zussuj...auy...ehijnihi auy...ku. Hmm, mnuli iruykn.” Midnight set the book back down and looked back to see Starbuck, wrapping his arm around Twilight, with her read resting on his shoulder as the two sat at the table together. “You little fucker, get your hoof off of her! No no, Midnight. Calm down. He’s not doing anything. He’s not...gonna...take Twilight...away.” Though trying hard to deny his overprotective paranoia, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that Starbuck was trying to separate Midnight’s family. “*sigh* Just ignore it, Midnight. Twilight’s not going anywhere yet.”

Midnight reluctantly just kept watching from his distant rooftop, rather than charging in. For hours he had followed and watch the couple, intent on not letting anything go wrong. This had become his routine as spending time together had become theirs. Everyday, for the next three weeks, Midnight had followed Twilight and Starbuck all around Canterlot.

The night was still young in Canterlot as the dimly lit moon shined over Nom Restaurant Chic. It was the night of Twilight and Starbuck’s 1 month anniversary; Starbuck only thought it to be fitting to make the night special. Their dress was simple yet casual; a sleek black tuxedo with a red boutonniere for Starbuck, and a nice lavender dress for Twilight. The food they had ordered was nearly gone. Starbuck had almost finished his spaghetti while Twilight was just finishing the last of her salad. “That was delicious Starbuck! I just feel so bad that you’re paying for all of this. It must cost so much!”

“Oh it’s nothing, really, I get paid surprisingly a lot of bits while working for the library and my grandmother.” A waiter came over to their table and gave them a check, which Starbuck paid without skipping a beat. All the while, Midnight was watching them, just waiting for Starbuck to slip up so he could prove to Twilight that he was right. He can just swear he heard Twilight saying that she felt bad. Though he knows this could just be his paranoia, he listens closer and more carefully from then on.

“I’m so lucky to have found you, Starbuck.” Twilight said, raising her head to give him a kiss on the cheek. They both blushed bright red right then, which just so happened to make Midnight turn red too, though from anger rather than love.

“Heh, that’s my line.” He bent forward and placed his lips onto hers, enjoying the warmth they gave each other. This was the last straw for Midnight. His rage had almost completely boiled over. Twilight and Starbuck were still deep in their passionate kiss, when Twilight heard something. She looked over to where the noise was and saw what appeared to be steam rising from a tree. She broke the kiss then.

“Oh no...” She said silently, anticipating what she already knew...that Midnight had followed them, and did not like what he had just seen. When she broke the kiss, Starbuck followed her gaze towards the tree, also noticing the steam.

“Oh no...” Starbuck repeated. Right then, a small burst of flame shone within the tree branches, and a black, fire-maned alicorn appeared from it. He flew straight at the two ponies, making them both take a few paces back from each other. Midnight landed between them, staring Starbuck down; fire quite literally in his eyes. Starbuck, nearly paralyzed with fear, still had enough sense and muscle control to keep backing away from Midnight as he crept ever so closer.

“Midnight!” Twilight tried to scream at him. “Midnight, stop! Just stop it! Right now! Midnight!” She kept trying to pull him back, kept trying to talk sense into him, but he was too consumed with rage.

“How dare you...” Midnight said in a low, guttural tone. “How dare you even lay a hoof on my sister, let alone kiss her!” With each passing word his flames grew bigger, brighter, and hotter. Sweat was pouring from Starbuck now. Sweat from fear, though, not the heat.

Starbuck couldn’t take it anymore. He began to sprint off towards his home, and as he was speeding away, he yelled back. “I’m sorry Twilight! I just don’t think this is going to work out!” He ran until he was out of sight, tears streaming down his face, tears for fear of his life, and tears of losing his love.

Midnight just stood there, watching as Starbuck faded into the distance, calming down so that his flames were extinguished. “Feh, look at him! Leaving you behind. That little-” But he was cut off by the sounds of sobbing. He turned around to see Twilight bent over in sorrow, crying into her hooves. “Twilight, why-”

“No, Midnight! Just no! I don’t want you to even talk to me right now! You just ruined any chance of me finding love!” She screamed at him though sobs.

“Hey! I was only protecting you! You don’t know what’s best for you, I do!”

“What’s best for me?! Midnight, I found somepony that shared so many things with me! We laughed together! We cried together! We’ve kissed a lot more times than what you just saw! We shared so much together, had so much in common... I loved him and he loved me! And you just ruined it!”

“Twilight...you don’t understand what love is...you’re my sister, and I love you, that’s why I had to get him away from you. He would’ve just torn us away from each other, just like before. I don’t want our family to be apart again.”

“Midnight, our family wouldn’t break apart. It would’ve grown! We were going to have such a happy life together and you...you just ruined everything!” She turned to run away.

“Twilight! Come back here! Twilight! Why can’t you see I did this for our family?! Why can’t you just-”

Twilight stopped, she turned around, and she screamed as loud as she could. “What do you know about our family?! You were gone! You don’t know anything! And as far as I’m concerned, you’re not apart of this family!” She turned and was about to run again, but then she said, just loud enough for Midnight to hear. “I hate you!” And with that, she ran home, to go to her room and cry herself to sleep.

Midnight stood there, seething with more rage than ever, but it was quelled by an even more powerful feeling of hurt. The twang of pain that shot up through his body at his sister’s last words only coaxed the flames of his anger even more. “Well fuck you then!” He screamed out into the night. Just then, he noticed a small commotion behind him. He turned around to see other ponies watching him, obviously having seen their fight. “What the hell are you looking at?!” The other ponies immediately tried to find something to preoccupy themselves with to keep them from angering Midnight even more.

Then Midnight, not really wanting to go home to face all that again, flew over to the stadium, where Rainbow Dash and the other Wonderbolts were staying. He went down a hallway, eventually reaching a door with Dash’s cutie mark on it. He opened the door a bit too forcefully, waking Dash up from a nap. “Wuh...huh? *yawn* Midnight? Why are you here?” She asked while rubbing her eyes.

Midnight was pacing all around the room now. “I just got into a small fight with Twilight, it’s nothing...”

“Oh Midnight...you didn’t break her and Starbuck up did you?”

“So what if I did?!” He snapped back. “All I’m doing is protecting my family, and if a few fights happen to pop up because of it well then so be it!”

Chapter 6

Canterlot Square Garden, 11:37 A.M., April 12th, 2013

The day after Twilight’s fight with Midnight, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were holding a gathering for residents of Canterlot in Canterlot Square Garden. Midnight and Twilight’s parent’s, having heard about their fight, decided to bring the two to the gathering, hoping they could find a way for the two to make up somehow. Though their plan was thoughtful and ambitious, their efforts came out to be futile. All the two would do was glare at each other in their anger and frustration with the other, not breathing a word good or bad.

“Come on, you two. You’re brother and sister.” Their mother tried reassuring them. “I’m sure you can work something out between you two, can’t you?”

“No! Not for what Midnight did....”

“I keep telling you, I wasn’t trying to do any harm. I was trying to keep you safe.”

“Well you know what? You didn’t help at all. You shot down my chance at love.”

“Starbuck was weak. If he were a real colt, he would’ve stood up to me rather than run away.”

“Starbuck was kind, sweet, generous, cute, and one of the best colts I could ever be with and you ruined it!”

“Now now, you two.” Mr. Sparkle interrupted. “I’m sure we can find some way to come to an agreement. We are a family, we shouldn’t be at each other’s throats.”

“Your father is right. Why don’t you both go and talk to the princesses? I’m sure they’ll be able to help you two come to some common grounds.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Midnight argued.

“Both of you. Go. Now....” Mrs. Sparkle snarled.

“Y-yes m-ma-am...” Now, Midnight was a full grown colt. He’s been through countless unspeakable things. But, despite all that and having been gone for so long, he feared nothing more than his mother’s scorn.

“Grrrrr. Fine. Come on, Twilight.” The two trotted over to the stands set up in the center of the park. Princess Celestia was sitting with Princess Luna, greeting anypony who would come to greet them. “*sigh* Let’s just get this over with.” Midnight walked his way up to the stand. “Hey Princess!” He shouted “Can Twilight and I talk to you?!” Midnight had caught Luna’s attention.

“Oh hey, Midnight, Twilight. What’re you two up to?” She waved her hoof, signaling for them to come up to see them. “Hey Celestia, Twilight and Midnight are here and they wish to speak to us.”

“Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student, and Midnight Flare. How can we help you two?”

Midnight looked at Twilight, then back at the princesses. “Well...you see your majesties, me and Twilight have gotten into a fight...and our parents think it’d be a good idea to ask for your help on the issue.”

“Oh? Well what seems to be the issue? Let’s hear both sides to this. Midnight, you start.”

“Alright. Well, it all started about 3 weeks ago. I had spent the day with Applejack, and I come home to see Twilight alone with some colt I’ve never met before. Now, we had just gotten our family back together and I had been really happy to have an actual family again. Then when I saw this colt, I didn’t want just anypony taking Twilight out of the family that I had just gotten back together. So for the next few weeks, I showed him my dominance and I think he got a little too afraid of me. So last night when I was making sure he doesn’t do anything wrong, I might’ve came on too angrily to him when I saw them kissing. After that, he ran away leaving Twilight alone.”

“Alright, now I’m fairly interested to hear Twilight’s side of this.”

“You see Princess, ever since I’ve been here in Canterlot, I’ve been looking for somepony to be with after seeing Midnight with Rainbow Dash so much. Two weeks later, I met Starbuck working at his family’s library with his Grandma.” She gave Midnight an angry scowl, like he knew he had done something wrong. “We struck up a conversation about our lives and interests and we found to have a lot of things in common. A few hours later, we spent the day in the park, his idea was for us to sit under a tree, his hoof around me as he read a book to me. That was our first day together. When he walked me home, he got to meet our parents who were thrilled to see I found love. Then when Midnight came home, he was furious that I found love on my own. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t convince him to believe that Starbuck was one of the best ponies I could ever fall in love with. And just yesterday, when Midnight was watching us, all we did was kiss. Midnight came out and scared the living daylights out of Starbuck. Midnight had decided to give the impression upon Starbuck that made Starbuck afraid of Midnight more than anything. And because of Midnight, I won’t be able to get back together with Starbuck.”

“Well, from what I’ve gathered, I can see you both had good intentions. Especially you Midnight. I know you were trying to something good for your family because you just got back together as a family. But I don’t think you saw what harm you were doing. It seems to me that you might’ve been fighting an issue that wasn’t even there.”

“Well...I...I just...”

“Midnight, could you just please take a second to just think about it. I want to see if you can calm down and realize what you were really doing. Please, just do it for your sister.”

Midnight had never thought about this situation from anypony else’s point of view. And when it came down to it, he had come to notice all the little things that had played such a big part. All the things that he thought he had been doing right were now suddenly clearly the worst choices that he could’ve made.

“Oh damn. Twilight, I...” He stumbled to find the his words. “I’m so sorry...”

“It’s too late for apologies, Midnight.” Twilight turned her back to Midnight and the princesses. “This is the worst thing I’ve seen you do out of your own will.”

“Twilight, just give me a chance. I can make things right again.” Midnight pleaded.

“No! Just stay out of this, Midnight. I don’t want you ruining anything more.”

“Twilight...I’m sorry...” Suddenly, over the horizon to the west, came a small fleet of large, muscular, armored griffins, armed with peculiar weapons that Midnight had never seen before. Each holding the weapon by a handle coming out the bottom with one claw in some sort of ring on the bottom of the weapon. In front of the ring was a long curved piece of metal protruding from the bottom. The whole thing was made from wood and a sleek black metal. It looked nothing like any weapon Midnight had seen, which made him wonder how he even knew it was a weapon.

The griffins landed down by the princesses. One larger griffin from the crowd stepped forward, confronting Princess Celestia. The griffin was undoubtedly tall, with his stature almost twice as great as Princess Celestia’s. Though he was somewhat slender, his muscles were clearly defined throughout his body. He had a large scar tearing across his face, from in between is glowing yellow lifeless eyes, and down to his left cheek, cutting across the edge of his large chipped beak. His large sharp yellow talons had been tightly gripping onto the weapon that Midnight could only imagine what it can do. “Bhormill Celestia.” His voice was deep and raspy. “O newi e bhubuli zuh pni duroil uz Equestria.”

“If you have something to tell the Equestrians, Fortis, you could at least tell them in a language they can understand.”

“Hmm...fine then.” Fortis cleared his throat. “Ponies of Equestria, the leaders of our two countries have been in dispute for more than a year now on who should own the land we’re standing on. Though we already know that the land is owned in the name of Equestria, the motherland of Caeli can hardly contain her population. We need more land before we have no room left. Fortunately, for Caeli, there is all this land to our east that is free for the taking. I mean, we know you’re not simply going to just give us the land; your princesses have already made that clear to us. But I can already tell just by looking at all of you that taking this country over won’t be a challenge. We will be giving Equestrians three options to decide from over the next month. You can either flea the country for new homes, stay here and serve Caeli as slaves, or we can simply kill you if you refuse to cooperate. One way or another, Equestria as you know it will be destroyed.”

“What are you talking about?!” Celestia interrupted “Equestria’s not gonna be destroyed!”

“Never? Opesa was destroyed. Dihloe was destroyed. Drakuv was destroyed. Kehma was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you think your ‘country’ will last? Forever? Do you really think Equestria stands a chance against Caeli? Please, you’re nothing but worthless wastes of space or simple servants to us. And you, Celestia, will be our King Gryphem’s personal slave. And maybe I could drag your sister Luna’s dead body through the streets of Castum as a victory prize.”

“Hey!” A voice came out of the crowd of trembling ponies. It was Mr. Sparkle’s voice. “You have no right talking to the princesses like that!”

“Dad, stop!” Midnight cried out. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Who do you think you are?! Coming to Canterlot and insulting the princesses and the ponies of Equestria like we’re nothing but filth!”

“I don’t think you know who you’re talking to, peasant! My name is Fortis! I am the general of Caelian military! You should probably think before you speak up to someone like me!”

“I don’t care who you are! Ever since I was young, I was taught to never give up and fight to protect what you believe is right! And you coming in and taking Equestria for yourselves is far from right!”

“You scum!” Fortis lifted his claw up off of his weapon and plunged his hand down piercing his talons through Mr. Sparkle’s back. The life faded from his eyes as his lifeless body was lifted off of the ground and tossed to the side. “Anypony else here wish to act up against me?!” The crowd stayed silent. Everypony in the crowd all filled with fear. Midnight had been crying silent tears of fear, despair, and anger. “No one? Alright then. You all have exactly one month to decide what to do. We’ll be heading back to Castum.” Fortis spread his massive wings and took off into the air, with the rest of the griffins following close behind him.

The corpse of Mr. Sparkle lied in the open field of Canterlot park, with blood dripping from the holes pierced through his back. The crowd stayed silent as the Sparkle family stood over the lifeless body. No words had been spoken among the family; not a single word came from Midnight until the day of the burial service just a few days later.

The sky above Canterlot Lunar Cemetery was a bleak grey as the thick clouds spiraled through the air. Midnight had been standing silently by the grave many hours after the burial service was over. The rain had just began to pour from the sky as it ran down Midnight’s motionless face. The smooth grey headstone before Midnight read:

Dusk S. Sparkle

1970-2013

Gone but never forgotten

In Midnight’s absence of movement, 1,000 thoughts were storming through his head. “Why my dad? Why now? Why didn’t I do anything to save him? Could I have done anything? What did Equestria ever do to deserve this?”

“Midnight?” Twilight stepped up next to him. “You’ve been standing here all day. Don’t you want to come home at all?”

“Nah, I’m good. Thank you...Twilight...”

“You sure? You haven’t been home to eat anything all day.”

“It’s fine...I’m not hungry...”

“Oh...okay. I guess I’ll see you at home then.”

“Alright...See you at...home...” Twilight trotted out of the grave yard, reluctant to say more, but still showing her concern for Midnight.

“Hey, Midnight.” A new voice came from behind him. “We’re all worried about you. You’ve been here all day.” Rainbow Dash was just behind him, and following her was Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.

“We’re all sorry to hear about yer father.” Applejack stated. “T’aint fair to lose somepony so close to y’all like that.”

“Please, dear, let us know if there is anything we can do to make you feel better.” Rarity added.

“Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed “You know you’ll always have friends there for you.”

“I’m sooo sorry, Midnight.” Fluttershy added, “I couldn’t imagine how tough it would be to lose somepony close to you. I wish there was something we could do to help you.”

“Thank you...all of you...”

“Hey, Midnight.” He heard the same thing from behind for the third time. This time, it was Starbuck. “Twilight told me what happened to your dad. I’m really sorry to hear about it.” Starbuck stepped up next to Midnight right in front of the grave. “I know how it feels. My parents were killed right in front of me in an alleyway by a griffin when I was only 7 years old. I’ve been living with my grandma ever since then. Believe me when I say I know how you feel.”

“That...fucking...griffin...*grrrr* Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!!” Midnight cried out and flames burst from his mouth into the sky tearing through the clouds above. “I’m gonna kill him!! No one fucks with me or my family like that and gets away with it! When I find him, I will not hold back in burning him into a pile of pathetic ashes!!”

“I’m sorry, Midnight.” Starbuck was a little frightened by Midnight’s outburst. “W-we’ll leave you alone.” But before they could leave, Midnight trotted away from his father’s grave, past his friends, and just stopping at the cemetery gate. “Are you alright, Midnight?”

“Starbuck, listen to me and listen closely.” Midnight’s voice was shaky as he spoke his in his sorrow. “I’m gonna be going away from home for awhile. And when I’m gone, I want you to stay by Twilight the entire time. I want you to hold onto her as tight as you can and never let her go. I’m going to take Princess Celestia up on her offer. I’m joining the Royal Military to protect the rest of Equestria from those evil griffins of Caeli.”

Chapter 7

Fort Celestia Military Base, 9:53 A.M., April 17th, 2013

“When I call your name, step up to the line.” Decision: a simple part of our every day lives. “Thunderstreak.” A decision is a fork in a one way road. “Winter Storm.” A fork in the road that we will never meet again. “Ace.” Every decision we make will forever change the coarse we ride in life that we can never go back on. “Midnight Flare.” And there was certainly no going back for Midnight. “You will all be sharing Cabin D. Grab your bags and head out.” A new day had risen, another challenge is born. Midnight’s enlisting had been one of the biggest decisions in his life. Moving away from his family and his friends just to protect them.

Today was the first in Midnight’s new life style. He was moving into his new basic training cabin. He and his new bunk mates found themselves with fresh buzz-cut manes, and short trimmed tails. The cabins were far from new, let alone had anypony cleaned them. Equestria hadn’t been to war for a good 80 years, so the need for a trained military wasn’t there. The twin sets of bunk beds took up most of the room in the cabin. They were made from hard wood bases that were surprisingly still standing, with torn up steel spring mattresses. The dark green covers on the be bed were torn up and a little too small for the beds themselves. The pillow cases had no pillows in them and had tears along them. The dark-green shades draping over the cracked window between the bunks barely let any light in from the outside. Their only source of light was the one light bulb hanging above them in the center of the cabin.

“Well, this sucks.” Ace, a brown furred pony, was the first pony in the cabin to say anything.

“I guess it could be worse.” Midnight added

“Yeah, I’ve lived in worse places in my life.” Winter Storm, a white unicorn with a sky blue mane and tail and a blank flank added to the conversation.

“Well, we have some time before training starts.” Thunderstreak said as he walked over to the bunk bed on the right of the room. “Maybe we should take that time to set up here and get to know each other.”

“Alright, that sounds good to me. Who wants to introduce themselves first?”

“Well, why not you Mr. alicorn?” Ace replied

“What do you mean, ‘Mr. alicorn?’”

“Well you don’t see too many alicorns running around. Everypony knows alicorns are rare occasions in the royal bloodline. I’m sure you’re gonna have a pretty interesting story.”

“Wait, I never knew I was part of the royal bloodline. How do you know that?”

“You learned it in school, didn’t you?”

“No, I went to flight school when I was young. You see, when I was young, I was supposed to go to Princess Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns, but the only magic I can use is fire. And after a tragic accident at the entrance exam, I left home for Cloudsdale for the better of my family. I went to Cloudsdale Junior Speedster Flight School when I got there. Actually, I think you might know the one of the girls I went to school with. You know the famous fliers group, The Wonderbolts, right?”

“Yeah, of course we do.” Thunder said as he hopped up to the bunk above Midnight.

“Well, the day I made it to Cloudsdale, I met their newest member, Rainbow Dash, heading to her first day as a paper pony trying to pay for flight school herself. I officially met her on our first day of flight school together. For the next 5 years, Rainbow Dash and I were the best of friends along with another filly named Fluttershy. About 5 years into our friendship, at summer flight camp one of the most tragic accidents that would affect our friendship for another 5 years, had occurred. Rainbow Dash was racing some bullies we had known from school. The bullies were making fun of Fluttershy so Rainbow Dash was racing to protect Fluttershy’s honor. As the race had just started, all of the racers unknowingly knocked Fluttershy off of the cloud she was standing on. Now, believe me when I say Fluttershy was not and still is not a strong flier. So I knew that she wasn’t just gonna come back flying up. Doing what any good friend would do, I jumped down and tried to keep her from falling to her death. On the way down, I saw something on the ground breaking her fall. I had stopped mid air go catch my breath in one of the most unfortunate places. Something, that I later find out was a Sonic Rainboom made by Rainbow Dash during the race, flew at me, knocking me through the sky, and destroying my left wing.”

“Wait.” Thunder interrupted. “You still have your left wing.”

“I’m getting to that. Don’t worry. Anyway, the Sonic Rainboom had landed me in Whitetail Woods. For the next few hours, I was crawling, bleeding on the forest floor, crying for somepony to find me. By the middle of the night, I had found myself bleeding out in a field in the middle of the forest. As I let out my final cries for help, an ominous cloud of purple smoke came down from the full moon and worked its way into my mind. After what felt like forever of continuous sharp stabbing pains all throughout my body, I had never felt more alive in my life. My body had grown twice in size. My tail and mane were made of fire. My left wing was made of fire. My hooves were flaming, and I wasn’t sure how any of this had happened. Then, I heard a different voice inside my head. She told me her name was Nightmare Moon.”

“But I thought Nightmare Moon was just an old pony’s tale.” Ace added

“That’s what I thought. But after she entered my mind, I was convinced. But of course, she wouldn’t just save my life like that without a price. She had the power to control my actions. She wanted me to kill everyone that had ever hurt me in my life, including my best friend, Rainbow Dash. I spent the next five years fighting Nightmare back; trying to keep her from killing my best friend. Many innocent ponies had died, along with a few that I wanted to kill. After about five years, I had met Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with their new friends in a town called Ponyville. Rainbow Dash had actually made friends with my little sister, who was originally from Canterlot, and Princess Celestia’s main student. At this point, the real Nightmare Moon, not the one in my mind, was removed from Princess Luna by the new holders of the Elements of Harmony, who just happened to be Rainbow Dash and her five friends. So their plan was to use the Elements to remove Nightmare from me, but Princess Luna had told them that it would revert me back to my dying state, so they had the princesses there ready to use their magic to heal me after Nightmare was released, which their plan was very successful. After I was revived, I finally got the chance to tell Rainbow Dash that I loved her. Lucky for me, she felt the same way. But unfortunately, right after our first kiss, I heard Nightmare’s voice in my head again. I wanted to keep my friends safe, so I fled Ponyville, determined to find a way to get rid of Nightmare. For a whole year, I lived in New Fillhi with a pony named Zero training my fire magic, and learning to control myself. On the exact day one year after I left Ponyville, I told Zero that I was leaving, but she didn’t want me to go because she loved me. But since I loved Rainbow Dash more, and because I promised her I’d be back, I had no choice but to leave for Ponyville. Though most of the day, Rainbow Dash was curious to see if I was cheating on her for a year, I still had a good day. I met my new friends at a birthday party, I spent most of the day with my new girlfriend revisiting our home town of Cloudsdale, and we even had sex for the first time.”

“Woah woah, what? Storm interrupted him. “You mean you’ve been tapping that?”

“Well of course I do. We’ve been together for years now.”

“Well” Ace spoke up, “Come on, then. Tell us already.”

“What?” Midnight asked

“How’s the sex?”

Midnight hesitated, looking back and forth at his bunk-mates, all impending his answer. “...Amazing...”

“Wait a second.” Thunder budged in, “If I remember right, all of the celebrity articles say that Rainbow Dash is single. What’s that about?”

“Yeah, I just found that out at the last Gala. She keeps me a secret from her fans because she’s the kind of pony who loves eating up attention. In fact, I was the one who got her the audition for The Wonderbolts.”

“So one thing you haven’t told us yet.” Storm added, “Whatever happened to Nightmare Moon? Is she still in your brain?”

“As far as I know, Nightmare Moon is gone for good. Last I saw of her, was when she took over Zero in Ponyville and made her try to kill me. Luckily for me, I learned I’m fire-proof. But I kinda feel bad for Zero. The princesses had came in at the right time and killed Zero leaving no traces of her or Nightmare Moon. But enough about me already. Let me hear about the rest of you.”

“I guess I’ll go next.” The first to offer was Thunderstreak, a light gray pegasus with a blond mane and tail with black stripes running through them. His eyes were a dark crystally blue and he never seemed to crack a smile. “My name is Thunderstreak.” Midnight could here in his voice that he wasn’t from Equestria. “And I am a prince from Kouma. I was raised in the palace in the city of Uma. Ever since I was only three, I was trained to fight with the art of the sword and the magical gem embedded onto me beneath my fur. I left Kouma when I was thirteen, and settled in Equestria with a large group of Kouman ponies. We founded the town of Ryoko in southern Equestria, where I was to share Kouma’s culture with Equestria. I have been living in Ryoko ever since then, still learning to fight everyday. And, at first, when I would’ve had no plans of joining any war and soiling my honor. But something tragic that had happened only two weeks ago forced me to fight to defend that honor. I was just returning to Ryoko after a trip to Canterlot to meet with the princess. As I returned that night, I saw one thing nopony would ever want to see. A great fire roared through the sky over Ryoko. The very town that I had sworn to protect was burning to ashes right before my eyes. I had no idea if the town was evacuated or not. And coming my way was a small fleet of griffins lead by a general much greater in size than any griffin I had ever seen in my life. I had no choice but to fight him for the honor of those who might’ve died, my honor, and the honor of Kouma. He didn’t seem to care when I confronted him. In my attempt to kill him, I got one good slash across his face with my katana before he threw me at a tree in his frustration and knocked me out. When I woke up the next morning, I had seen Ryoko was left as nothing but a pile of ashes. I had no choice but to find Princess Celestia. When I made it to Canterlot, just a few days ago, she told me that Caeli had declared war on Equestria. So, when she asked if I would fight along her side, I enlisted right away. And that is why I am here with all of you right now; to fight to honor of Ryoko, Kouma, and my own.”

“Wait.” Midnight interrupted. “I think I might know the general that you’re talking about. Did you happen to catch his name?”

“No, I didn’t. All I can tell you is that he was very large and muscular with glowing yellow eyes and a beak chipped on the left.”

“Yeah...that’s what I thought...His name is Fortis. Just about a week ago ago he came to Canterlot to declare Caeli’s demands for Equestria, and he killed my father for speaking up and defending the princesses. I joined the war to kill the griffin who broke my family.”

“And we’ll be fighting by your side the whole way.” Ace said. Ace was a tan earth pony. He wore a hat, much like Applejack’s, but grey with a black sash wrapped around the center, and an Ace of Spades playing card tucked into the sash. His left ear was pierced with a golden ring, and he had black leg-bands embedded with gold worn on his front legs. His mane was black and red, and he had a scar along his left eye.

“Thanks. I’ll definitely need the help getting there. So Ace, let’s hear your story next, then.”

“Um...alright...my name is Ace. I’ve lived in Fillydelphia for my entire life. I guess you could say I’m nothing special...just your run of the mill city pony...I’ve spent most of my years researching...anatomy and psychology as...hobbies of mine...

“Oh...so why did you join The Royal Army?” Midnight asked

“Just thought I’d...get away from it all and be helpful to Equestria...” Ace never seemed to be able to make eye contact with anypony in the room the entire time he told his story.

“Oh...well good for you, then...” Midnight said “He’s hiding something, I know it. I don’t know what about it, but I just know there’s more to him than what he’s telling us.”

“So, what about you, then?” Midnight turned to Storm. “What’s your story?”

“My name is Winter Storm. If you can’t tell by my accent, I am from Caeli. I was born in Caeli while my parents were captured slaves. By Caelian law, slaves aren’t aloud to have children, so they had to raise me for five years until I was old enough to work for Caeli. Because of my parents crime, they were executed publicly while I was forced to watch with the rest of the slaves. The griffin in charge of the slaves and who ruled the execution was General Fortis. I hate him more than any griffin I have ever met in my entire life. I suffered back breaking labor for ten years until an underground black operations squad from Equestria snuck in and broke the slaves out. The bright blue sky over the green tree-lined horizon of Equestria that I saw as we crossed the border was the most beautiful sight in my life. I was so happy, I forgot I had nowhere to stay. The military couldn’t take me in, and most of the slaves had a home to go back to. I was forced to live on the streets of Canterlot. I developed a bad drinking habit buying vodka with the bits that I managed to scavenge and steal. That was all until Princess Celestia found me sleeping in an alley way. After I told her my story, she gave me a place to stay in the palace. I’ve been living there ever since; hoping that I would get the chance to seek my revenge. So when Celestia told me we might be going to war with Caeli, I was proud to take her up on her offer. Honestly, Midnight, I wouldn’t mind killing fortis myself. After all, he killed both of my parents and forced me into slave labor for 15 years.”

“As would I.” Thunder added, “He burned down Ryoko. Killing him would be the only thing that could restore my honor.”

“Well, let’s make a deal then. We’ll all go after Fortis, as a team to see who can have the honor of taking his life. If we all get the chance to kill him together, we’ll take it. Alright?”

“Good deal.”

“I agree. It would make this an honorable challenge.”

“So it’s settled. We have a deal then. Here, this is something a friend of mine showed me. It’s called a Pinkie Promise. Let me demonstrate. Cross my heart.” He marked an imaginary X over his heart. “Hope to fly.” He then made a fluttering motion with his front hooves. “Stick a cupcake in my eye.” Finally, he pretended to put a cupcake in his eye. “Got it? Now, do it with me.” He started to do it again, slowly so the others could follow. Questioningly, the others did as asked, and went through all the motions. “Alright then, it’s done.”

Chapter 8

Fort Celestia Military Base, 10:32 A.M., April 17th, 2013

After their greetings, Midnight, Storm, Ace, and Thunderstreak headed off to their first training course. They came upon the room in which they’d all be training and went inside. “UNACCEPTABLE!” They all jumped in shock from the sudden booming voice. Once they regained their composure, they looked over to the far side of the room to see what had to be their new drill sergeant. “Who the hell do you ponies think you are? Why in Celestia’s name are you all here two fucking minutes late?!” He marched up to them, a stern expression on his face. “You!” He pointed at Ace. “Mister doom and gloom! What is your name?!”

“Um...Ace.” He answered questioningly.

“When you answer me you will address me as sir! Do you understand?!”

“Uh, sir, yes sir?”

“I can’t hear you!”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Took you long enough! Now drop and give me 50 as punishment for making me wait!”

“But-”

“Are you back-sassing me boy?!”

“Uh...Sir, no sir!”

“Then do what your told like a good little colt!” Ace, begrudgingly, got into position and started his 50 push-ups. The drill sergeant went on to his next victim. “And you! Stripey!” He yelled to Storm “What is your name?!”

“Sir, Winter Storm, sir!” Storm replied with a smile, knowing he caught on quickly on what to do.

“Wrong! Your new name while in my presence shall be Snowball, got it?!”

“Wh-...b-...S-Sir, yes sir!” Storm answered, a saddened, bewildered look on his face.

“What’s with that face?! You have three seconds to wipe that look off of your filthy mug!” Storm was just too caught off guard with that last statement to obey the sergeant. “One! Two! Three! That’s it, your turn for punishments!” Storm sighed and started to get into push-ups position, just as Ace flopped down onto the ground from his 50 push-ups. “Oh no, you’re not doing push-ups for your punishment. No Snowball, you and your magic horn are going to levitate that boulder over there,” He then gestured over to the opposite side of the room where many rocks lied, a humongous boulder laying in the center. “and keep it levitating for a full minute! If you break your hold of it, you will have to start over! Speaking of which...” He went back over to Ace, still lying exhausted on the floor. “Your nose didn’t fully touch the ground on your twelfth, thirty-second, and last push-up. So! You have to do it all over again! Both of you! Start, now!”

“Sir, yes sir!” Ace and Storm said in unison, then began their punishments. The drill sergeant went back over to Midnight and Thunderstreak. He looked both of them over carefully, then stopped and looked Thunderstreak in the eyes. “And you? What’s your name?!”

“Sir, Thunderstreak sir!” He yelled firmly, looking straight ahead as if he’d done this all before.

“What the hell’s with that accent boy?!”

“I am not from here, my homeland is Kouma. It is-”

“I didn’t ask for your life story!” The drill sergeant interrupted. “And what’s with that sword you got there?! Give it to me!” When Thunderstreak hesitated, the sergeant demanded, “Now, private!” Thunderstreak gave over his katana to the drill sergeant, who then proceeded to throw it across the room. When Thunderstreak tried to go after it, the drill sergeant got in his way and pushed him to the ground. “You can go and get it after our training is done with! And I don’t want to see you bring it in here again! Got it fancy talker?!”

Still looking concerned for his blade, he yelled back, “Sir, yes sir!”

“You will look at me while addressing me and/or the other way around! Is that understood?!”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“*Hmph* I can’t stand your voice...it sickens me. Go fly around for twenty minutes as fast as you can, no letting up! Got it?!”

“Sir, yes sir!” Thunderstreak flew up into the air towards the edge of the room and began to fly along the perimeter, slowly gaining speed until he couldn’t fly any faster. The drill sergeant looked back over to Ace and Storm.

“Your nose, private! It’s gotta touch the ground every fucking time! Start over! Same goes for you, Snowball! That boulder can’t touch the ground whatsoever! Start over! Can’t you fly any faster mister ‘I have a butter knife’? Don’t let up!”

Simultaneously, they all yelled. “Sir, yes sir!”

Finally, he turned around to come face to face with Midnight. “What do we have here? You’re an alicorn? What do we have royalty doing goin’ to war?”

“Told you.” Ace replied gasping on the floor

“Don’t interrupt me, maggot! Just for that I want another 50 out of you! Anyway, it doesn’t matter to me what you are, you’re still the scum of Equestria while I’m in charge of you. And for being late, I want you to join your friend in the sky while at the same time levitatin’ a boulder behind you!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir.”

“Did I just hear a no?! I will not take no for an answer! You will do as I tell you, you got that fancy-boy?!”

“Sir, I’m not trying to disrespect your authority, I’m saying it’s not possible for me to do that.”

“Enough of this! Get out there, get flying, and get levitatin’!”

“But I-”

“I said now! Do you want me to make it 40 minutes?!”

“Alright, I guess I’ll show you, then.” Midnight trotted out the doors he came in. Outside, by the fence were a few large boulders stacked up on top of each other.

“Take your pick. They’re all equally heavy.”

“It really doesn’t matter how heavy they are...”

“When you address me-!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know sir. Just watch.” Midnight interrupted, firing up his horn, getting ready to show the sergeant exactly why he couldn’t follow his orders.

“I will not stand for your insubordination! Now hurry up an-” Right then, Midnight sent a giant burst of fire at the group of boulders. There was an explosion upon impact, followed by thousands of small, flaming rocks falling all around the two of them. The drill sergeant remained silent, carefully avoiding the storm of flaming pebbles. “...and? So you can control fire at will. What of it?!”

“That’s just it, sir. My magic is purely fire based. I can’t use magic for anything else.”

The drill sergeant stared Midnight down. “...hmph. And what good will that be in the battlefield? You just gonna turn up the temperature and hope the griffins will all give up and say ‘It’s too hot to fight.’? Useless...” He started to walk away, stopped, then turned around. “Well then, for your punishment, you’re gonna fly around here for a while, exploding boulder after boulder, and then making sure no pebble hits the ground by hitting them with fire, too. Got it?!”

Midnight hesitated. He hasn’t tried anything like it, but he was sure it wouldn’t be too hard. He then replied, “Sir, yes sir!” Taking off into the air, he aimed at the first boulder, sent a burst of fire at it, and tried to blast every pebble that came down afterwards.

“Again! You missed some chunks over there!” He turned back around and entered the training room again. “And how are you three maggots doing?!” He had the four of them doing these punishments for hours, not letting them rest for a single minute. The sergeant looked over to a clock on the wall. “Alright maggots, it’s break-time.” Midnight, Thunder, Storm, and Ace all fell, exhausted, to the ground and let out a collective sigh. “Not for you, you idiots!” He snapped. “For me! Get back up and keep going at it! I’m going back to my office. Now I’ve got cameras watching each and every one of your moves, so I’ll know if you stopped or if you try anything funny.” He turned and went to the exit. Once he was gone, they all stopped to rest.

“*pant* *pant* Ugh...why the hell...are we doing this again?” Ace asked in between gasps for air.

Thunderstreak spoke up. “Because...because we were late...late by two...two fucking minutes...” He went back to panting heavily on the ground.

“At least...at least you guys...aren’t being called some stupid pet name... I mean seriously...’Snowball’?!...” Storm complained.

Midnight crawled into the room, exhausted. He looked up to find the camera the sergeant was talking about. He saw one in each top corner of the room, and four more, each on one side of the room. “Well...he wasn’t lying about the cameras...there’s eight in here and a few more outside...pretty sure we don’t have long to rest before he gets to his office...” They lied there for a while longer, savoring the time they had left to rest, until they heard a loud thundering voice that seemed to come from nowhere.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU FOUR THINK YOU’RE DOING?! GET UP AND GET BACK TO TRAINING!!!” Midnight and the others jumped yet again from the sudden voice, and went back to their respective training regimens. A few more hours passed by, and one by one, they all reached their limits and fell to the ground, paralyzed with fatigue. Again, the sergeant’s voice blared from nowhere. “Is that really all you pansies can do?!” The four of them couldn’t speak, yet the voice waited for an answer. “...Well?!” He demanded.

Under hard, shallow breaths, they spoke slowly. “Sir...yes...sir...”

“Pathetic... Alright, 10 minute break! After that, back to training!” Relieved, the four of them took some time to catch their breaths. Midnight sat up and lied back on the wall for support. He looked up to the ceiling to try and see where exactly the voice was coming from. A few moments passed by until he finally saw a megaphone hooked up to the high part of the wall.

“So that’s where it’s coming from...” The others looked at him and followed his gaze to the megaphone.

“Don’t think he’d be too happy if we were to destroy that thing along with the cameras, huh?” Ace said, still resting on the ground.

Midnight shook his head. “No...I think he’d have us doing these for a full week without rest if we did that...” They sat there for a while longer, taking in the rest they had left. “Well...I dunno about you guys...but I think I’ve gotten better with my aiming after all that training.” Midnight said boastfully.

“Yeah? Well, I don’t think I’ve ever been faster.” Thunder added, showing pride by expanding his wings.

Storm was the next to speak up. “I bet I could levitate and throw five boulders at once by now!”

“Anyone up for a hoof-wrestle?” Ace asked confidently. They all broke out laughing at each other’s newly found arrogance.

“Well, well, well!” The sergeants voice blared again. They all looked up to the megaphone in panic. “Looks like you maggots are all rested up! Good! Now get back to training and stop giggling like a bunch of fillies!”

Midnight and the others let out a collective sigh. “Well, looks like it’s back to training.” Ace said, tired and defeated.

“Look at it this way,” Thunder spoke up. “After this is over with, we’ll be ten times stronger than we were this morning!” He looked over to Midnight. “What do you say to a little race later?”

Midnight smiled. “Heh, better hope this training will help you keep up with me.” He said with a sly look on his face. He then glanced over to Ace. “Maybe I’ll even take you up on your offer for a hoof-wrestle!”

Ace grew a smile on his face too. “No problem, but first we’ll have to see which is stronger, my muscles or Storm’s magic.” Ace peered over to Storm, who was already grinning with anticipation. “See who can throw a boulder farthest?”

“Sure thing!” Storm answered cheerfully. They all looked at each other, a new glow of confidence and life surrounding them.

“What in Celestia’s name are you maggots doing?! If you’re gonna talk, talk while you train! Now hurry up and get to it! Hup, two! Hup, two!” Midnight, Storm, Ace, and Thunder gave each other one last motivational glance, and went back to training, no longer complaining, but trying even harder. Thunder flew faster than ever before, and with each passing moment, static electricity built up on the surface of the walls he flew passed. It just kept building and building until the electricity of each wall connected to each other and made a solid glowing field of light. Ace alternated from push-ups to a bucking station in the corner of the room. After two sets of fifty push-ups, he went to the bucking station and relentlessly bucked dummies, punching bags, trees, and boulders. With each new round he wouldn’t stop until whatever he was bucking was completely destroyed. Storm was levitating three boulders now, and while he was doing that, he made them spin around him. Eventually he added more boulders, and ended up with ten floating all around him. Midnight was flying outside, sending down multiple bursts of flame at the boulders below. As soon as his fire blasts hit the boulders and made them explode, he soared down into the middle of the destruction. He got into position in the center of the storm of falling rocks and sent out a shock wave of flame, destroying every last pebble with a fiery vengeance. They continued to do this for hours, not having another rest until the day was over. The drill sergeant came into the room to announce the day’s end. “Alright maggots, training session for today is over. Head back to your room and rest up. You’ll need it for tomorrow’s training.”

“Oh thank sweet Celestia!” Midnight gasped. The four of them collapsed to the ground. After a few moments of catching their breaths, they took a look at their handiwork. The parts of the wall on which Thunder had been flying by were completely scorched, and was still sending off small jolts of static here and there. The bucking station that Ace had been training at was completely totalled. The dummies were ripped to shreds, the punching bags were across the room, the trees were broken in half, and the boulders were nothing but a pile of rocks now. Storm smiled at his artwork. He had lifted and smashed boulder after boulder into the wall to spell out his name ‘STORM’. Midnight had successfully obliterated any trace of rocks outside, and the ground and outside wall of the building were barren and burned to a deep and searing black. Once they had regained their composure, and after Thunderstreak collected his katana, they headed out of the room and back to their living quarters.

“So, what’re we supposed to do now?” Ace asked.

“I think they’re giving us another half-hour of rest if I remember right, then we’re being shown some secret military tech.” Midnight said, “I have to say, I’m fairly interested to see what they mean.”

“Wait, what do you mean secret military tech?”

“I’m not sure what they mean. I guess we’ll just hafta wait and see.” Midnight said.

“Hey,” Thunder said, “have any of you wondered if there’s any reason we were chosen to be in the same cabin?”

“What do you mean?” Ace asked, “I thought they were just selected randomly.”

“That’s what I thought. Then I realized we have something unusual in common. Three of us were personally asked by Princess Celestia to fight in the war.”

“What about Ace then?” Midnight argued, “ Princess Celestia never asked him.”

“What? Yeah, Princess Celestia asked me.”

“Wait, “I thought you said you joined the war to support Equestria.”

“I did. Princess Celestia asked me to, and I felt obligated to help.”

“Okay then.” Midnight replied, “So how do you know the princess, and why did she ask you to fight?”

“I worked for Celestia a few years back as a doctor in the palace. Because of my medical knowledge, Celestia wanted me to help out on the battlefield. Everypony that enrolls is required to go to basic, then you go onto training for your specific job. So I’m going to be trained as a medic.”

“Really?” Midnight said, “I wonder what I’ll be trained as.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that’ll be for you to decide.”

*Attention everypony* A voice came up on the intercom outside *Training will begin again in 5 minutes. Please meet outside at the Area 34 gates*

“Shit, we better get going to that, shouldn’t we?”

“Yeah, I don’t want us getting our asses chewed out again.” The four darted out of their door and across the dirt trail to the large steel gates lined with barbed-wire. On the other side of the gate was a large field with hundreds of targets set up with stations varying in distance from each, and a large steel building with one door and no windows with a large “34” painted on the top. Hundreds of ponies gathered around the gates, anticipating what they were to find in the mysterious Area 34 on the other side.

“What in the name of Celestia do you think is in there?” Thunder asked

“I have no clue.” Ace replied, “but I hear there’s much more to that one building than we see. I hear there’s a gigantic area underground with multiple floors spread across the entire base filled with fleets of secret military vehicles just waiting for a war to break through.”

A light on the gate lit red, a buzzer went off, and the steel doors slid to the sides opening up. *Please proceed in an orderly fashion through the gate. You will be organized into your new squads, and then brought inside for a basic presentation* The crowd funneled through the entrance in the gate. In front of them stood at least 20 ponies dressed in army green uniforms with sergeant pins on the front of their hats. One brown stallion with dark green tinted sunglasses and a short trimmed tail and mane stepped forward. “Ace, Midnight, Storm, and Thunderstreak!” His voice boomed

The four stepped into position in perfect sync, “Sir yes sir!”

“You’re the four Celestia asked to fight, am I right?”

“Sir yes sir!” They responded in sync.

“Come with me...” He trotted off to the side, the four ponies following close behind. He stopped just a few feet away from the training stations outside. “Well then...” He quickly bolted around. “It’s good to meet all of you! I’m your new squad leader, Sergeant Mahoff! When I was told I was gonna be your squad leader, I was so stoked to hear I’d be in charge of such important ponies! We are gonna kick griffin ass out there! Ooh rah! But of course, that’s after you learn what you’re doing out there. We’ve only got a month to teach you, so we might as well get started A.S.A.P.!”

“Sir yes sir!”

“Alright, you don’t need to say that after everything I say. Now, let’s get going to your presentation.” The four walked behind their new leader, to the crowd who had just finished dividing into their new squads.

“Alright everypony, you have a lot to learn in the next month.” One pony said from a stand. “We’ll be taking you inside so you can learn the basics for today. Follow me.” The soldiers all followed behind their squad leaders into the large steel security door that slid open. Stepping through, the crowd saw more than they had ever expected. Machines, vehicles, weapons that none of them had ever seen spread across the enormous room as far as the eye could see. “As you can tell, there is a lot for us to go over. Obviously, everypony won’t be learning everything, but everypony will need to learn the basics. We we’ll be starting that today. Come with me to our first station just to our left.” To their left was a station with a table lined with hoof-held weapons that looked similar to the ones in the hands of the griffins in Canterlot. Just next to that was a line of three stations with targets at the end of them. “These here are the weapons you’ll all be carrying around with you on the battlefield. They’re called ‘firearms’ or ‘guns.’ How they work is somewhat like a bow, but instead of shooting arrows, they shoot these.” He held up a small yellow cylindrical piece of metal with one end pointed. “It’s called a ‘bullet.’ You take them and put them in these.” In his other hoof, he held up a small thin box with one bullet sticking out the top. “This is called a ‘magazine’ or ‘mag’ for short. When loaded with bullets, you put them into one of these.” setting the bullet down, he picked up one of the weapons off of the table. “This would be your gun. As you can see, there is more than one type of gun. Different guns have different mags and different bullet sizes. This is your standard M-16A1 assault rifle. When loaded, I will have Sergeant Wampole here demonstrate what it can do.” The pony standing by took the gun over to the first station and set it on the table. “I recommend you cover your ears, because these things get loud when fired.” The crowd all covered their ears and the front of the gun burst with a flash of light with bullet after bullet bolting out of the gun and into the target. The bullets stopped and smoke poured through the front. “As you can see, a gun is much like a deadlier, faster, and more accurate version of a bow. Every gun has something called a ‘trigger.’ Guns vary in something called ‘rate of fire’ which affects how pulling the trigger will shoot the bullets. Like a lot of guns you will see, this M16 is ‘full-auto’, meaning that as long as you’re holding the trigger, bullets will keep firing until the mag runs out. ‘Semi-auto’ where pulling the trigger fires off one bullet making you need to pull the trigger to fire again. ‘3-round-burst’, similar to semi-auto, fires 3 bullets per trigger pull. Some guns, such as shotguns and sniper rifles, require a bolt or pump to be pulled to fire again. Next, we have ‘iron sights.’ Those would be these pieces on the top of the gun that you line up while looking down them to aim at your target. Some guns will have special sights like this red dot sight where you line up your target with the red dot. Sniper rifles all have scopes on them like this one.” He picked up a new gun off of the table. “This is an L96A1. It has a bolt right here that you need to pull back, and a scope on top. A scope acts like a weaker telescope that lets you see your targets from farther away, therefor letting you kill from farther away.” This caught Midnight’s attention quickly. Killing from a distance sounded good to him. “Now, do we have any questions so far?” Hooves across the crowd rose to the air. “Hmm... You up front. The alicorn boy.” Talk began stirring around the room as soon as the word ‘alicorn’ came up.

“I’d like to know when we can start practice. I’d like to try out using a sniper rifle ASAP.”

“Well, I can see we’re eager to start. I don’t have much left to say, but it’s nothing that your squad leaders can’t tell you if you need to know it. Anypony object to training now?” Everypony stayed silent. “Alright then. Come on everypony. Let’s get you to your first training day.”

Chapter 9

Fort Celestia Military Base, 8:25 A.M., May 17th, 2013

And so, their training began. Each team got their squad title, so, being as they were asked directly from the princess herself, Midnight’s team got the title “Alpha”. Hours turned into days, and days into weeks, until finally, the end of the month arrived, and their training was over. It was their final morning in the academy, and Midnight, Thunderstreak, Ace, Storm, and even Sergeant Mahoff were laying back and enjoying their final moments of peace before the war between the ponies and griffins began. Sergeant Mahoff took advantage of this free time to actually get to know his trainees a little better before they all parted ways. “So guys, how exactly did you each get enlisted in the army? I know Celestia asked you all personally, but how’d it all start? Why did she ask and why’d you say yes?”

One by one they each told their stories of pain, sorrow, and the need for vengeance. Thunder and his burning city, Storm and his slavery, Midnight and his father. While Ace was still a little shifty when it came to his back-story. Once again, Midnight was concerned about this, but decided to leave it in the back of his mind for now. A moment of silence passed, letting the information sink in with Mahoff, when Midnight spoke up. “Well, how about you, sir? How did you join the army?”

At that, Sergeant Mahoff snapped his attention back to reality. “Oh, me? Well, I guess it all started with my father. He helped with the making of this secret military. When I was nearly grown up, he said, ‘Son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could? Just carry this gun, and you’ll even get paid.’ I said, ‘That sounds pretty good.’ So I started my training, began rising up in ranks until I became a sergeant, and the rest is history.”

Above the Cinereo Sea, 6:30 P.M., May 17th, 2013

The Cinereo Sea, thousands of feet below the UH-1 Huey Midnight and Alpha Team sat in, glowed orange as the glow of the sun disappeared beyond the endless horizon. Midnight sat in the open door on the south side of chopper, watching as hundreds of Hueys glided through the sky, guarding the transports in the sea below them. He sat next to Thunder, Ace was sitting in the back, Storm was manning the machine gun in the other door, and Mahoff sat in the passenger seat up front. Equestria had disappeared behind the horizon behind them, and nothing but open waters appeared in front of them. Midnight wore a dark-green ghillie suit with his M40 sniper rifle strapped to his back, and an M1911 in a holster. Thunder wore a black ski mask covering everything but his ears and his eyes, a full black suit, a suppressed MP5 strapped to his side, two suppressed M1911s and his sheathed katana. Storm wore a green flak jacket, spit-shined black leather boots,a HK21 sitting next to him, and a shotgun strapped to his back.. Ace had a camo suit with a red cross on his shoulder and helmet, and carried a med kit with a defib attached to the side, a Spectre M4 in hoof, and an M1911 in a holster on his side. Mahoff, sitting up front, wore a dark green steel helmet, a full camo suit with warpaint, an M16a1 military grade by his side, and an M72 standing up on the back side of his chair.

Their mission: Take the city of Aurum on the shoreline of the Cinereo Sea. Caeli’s first advance into Equestria had been planned to set sail at 1900 hours. The goal was to stop them before they start. The sky-scraping port city of Aurum began making its way over the horizon, and just before that was the first fleet of Caelian warships.

*Target in sight. All naval personnel are free to engage on my command. All aerial personnel stand by until further orders are given.*

“Midnight, Storm, close your doors until given the order to open fire.” Midnight, Thunder, and Storm stepped inside and slid the two side doors shut, and both locks clicked. From the windows they could see the Equestrian fleet pulling ahead and closing in on the Caelian fleets heading their way. Bullets, missiles, rockets, all flying back and forth between the two lines of ships. The Equestrian fleet seemed to be holding out a little stronger then the Caelian, even without air support. The helicopters started their ways over the Equestrian fleet towards the Caelian fleet. “Storm, when the green light flashes, you’re free to open fire.” a red light started flashing on and off.

*Opening door* The lock on Storm’s door clicked open *Get ready* Storm slid the door open and picked up the gatling hanging outside *Light ‘em up!* Bullets roared from the front of the gun, tearing through the sky and the ships below them.

“Thunder!” Mahoff shouted. “Reload him whenever he needs it!”

“Sir yes sir!” The hueys passed the first fleet leaving a huge dent, but some ships still stood afloat.

“I’m sure they’ll have reinforcements in Aurum. Anypony who can fly is being sent in to hold them back.” The door by Midnight clicked open. “That means Midnight and Thunder. Ace, take over on reloading duty. We’re going back for another round.” Midnight threw the door open and the two flew out the door towards the golden city of Aurum. Hundreds of pegasi sailed through the sky closing in on the port. Hundreds of bullets soared passed from the Caelian streets below. Pegasi across the sky dodged bullet after bullet flying towards them, some pegasi not dodging all and being taken down in the sky. Midnight and Thunder stayed close together as they found a tower just on the shoreline with two Caelian soldiers on the rooftop. Both Midnight and Thunder pulled out their knives closing in on the tower.

“Get ready!” Thunder shouted as they both put their hind legs forward. The griffins below began reloading their weapons as the two came down on top of them striking their knives through the griffins’ chests. “I’m going down to clear out the building. Then I’m getting behind their lines. I’m assuming you’ll find a good sniper spot. I’ll see you on the other side, my friend.” He quietly snuck his way down the stairs, leaving Midnight on the rooftop. Midnight walked up to the ledge, folded out the bipod, and aimed down his scope.

Down the city streets came a new fleet of Caelian soldiers. “Alright, first shot. Let’s make this count.” Taking aim down his sights, picking his target, and calculating for wind, Midnight pulled the trigger back. The rifle kicked back, the bullet soared, and through the scope, Midnight saw his first target fly into the wall of the building next to him. Midnight’s spine tingled in a new sensation. No...not new. There was a fleeting memory of this sensation tickling the confines of his mind. Midnight flashbacked to the time when he was controlled by Nightmare Moon. The time that he let her talk him into killing those who hurt him. He saw himself burn the three pegasi in Cloudsdale. He saw himself, not so willingly this time, stab Prince Blueblood with his horn. Then, he remembered that lonely griffin walking through the forest. He remembered her initial reaction to seeing him again. He remembered how that made his past hatred for her resurface. He remembered hailing flames down onto her, burning her alive. He remembered all of this in that moment after shooting that first Caelian soldier.

He held onto that feeling, and relished it. Suddenly, he was back on the battlefield, still looking down his scope to his first kill. Midnight turned and targeted another soldier. He fired, but the griffin moved unexpectedly, and the shot missed. The bullet landed close to the soldier so he jumped back. Looking up, the soldier spotted Midnight and started firing in panic. Midnight backed away and dodged a few of the bullets while one grazed his right foreleg. A searing pain spread throughout his leg but quickly died down to a slight throbbing. “First scar of war, I guess.” Midnight grunted through clenched teeth. Midnight decided to move positions on the building to better combat that Caelian soldier that nearly shot him. He looked over the edge slowly, searching for the griffin soldier. After a bit of looking, he found him still looking up at the part of the building where he first saw Midnight. Midnight slowly got him into his line of sight, aimed, and fired, quickly pulling back in case he had missed again. He relocated again and peered over the building’s edge. The griffin laid dead on the ground, a small pool of blood forming around him. “Alright, two down...” Midnight looked out over the city. Watching fleets of griffins march through the city, ponies and griffins flying through the air attacking each other, explosions and fire erupting everywhere, he sighed. “...an entire country to go.”

Midnight decided to make it a routine from there on to relocate and scout after each fire. After sniping about 20 or so griffin soldiers, Midnight made sure the perimeter of the building was secure, put away his bipod, and slung the rifle onto his back. “Better go see how Thunder’s doing.” He headed to the door that led to the top floor of the building, right before the roof. Opening the door, Midnight heard a loud explosion, and felt the building shake a little. It died down after a while, and Midnight waited for another one. When it didn’t come, he went down the corridor that led to the top floor below. He slowly opened the door, making sure there was no griffins in sight, then stepped all the way out into the hallway. “Guess Thunder did a good job.” Midnight decided to go back to the roof and find a different sniping location. As we started up the stairs, another, even bigger explosion sounded. Startled, Midnight stood motionless, once again waiting for another one. This time though, it did come. And another. More and more each getting louder and louder until they all melded together into one loud roaring sound. Midnight quickly ran up to the roof. When he reached the top, he felt a tremendous shaking, followed impossibly by an even louder explosion coming from right behind him. Midnight looked back to the bottom of the corridor, only to see the door at the end shattering to pieces with a wave of fire and ash following it, racing of the stairwell. Midnight pushed his legs with all his might, emerged from the exit of the corridor, spread his wings, and soared to the nearest building for cover. He may have been fireproof, but he’d still rather not get caught up in an explosion filled with potentially deadly debris and collapse along with the building. As he watched the building fall, he thought of Thunderstreak. “Is he alright?” He thought. “Was he caught in the explosion?” Midnight looked to the site of the destroyed building, smoke obscuring his vision, hoping his friend wasn’t dead.

“Hey there.” A voice said behind Midnight. Instinctively, Midnight spun around and pulled out his sniper in an instant, already looking down the scope to his next target. “Whoa! Whoa! Midnight stop! It’s me, don’t shoot!” The smoke still hadn’t cleared from the explosion. Midnight couldn’t see the one who was talking, but friend or foe, he held his aim and readied himself to fire. Slowly, the one who spoke walked closer to Midnight so they could see each other better. Through the smoke, Midnight made out what appeared to be a black and yellow striped mane and a sword. It was Thunderstreak. “What did you think I was? A griffin?” The smoke cleared enough so that they could see each other. Thunderstreak was giving a nervous grin, still looking at Midnight’s gun.

Midnight lowered his sniper and relaxed, filled with relief that his friend was alive and well. “Thunder, I was scared you got trapped in that explosion down there.” He gestured to the pile of rubble that was once a building.

Thunder smirked. “Actually, my friend, I caused that explosion.” He said proudly. Seeing the confused look on Midnight’s face, he explained. “While I was clearing the building I found some explosives in a weapon’s room. Decided to put it to good use and blew the place up.”

“Don’t you think you could’ve given me a heads up?” Midnight asked, mildly annoyed.

“Trust me, I was going to. Planned on doing it together while both of us were safe, but I had some unexpected guests show up. I had to get away from them and send them down with the building. I worried for you as well, but I know you. I knew you wouldn’t let yourself be caught in an explosion. I knew you would be safe.” Thunder explained with an apologetic smile.

Midnight gave him a strict look, then smiled and snickered. “Well I guess I can’t blame you for trusting in my amazing skills.” He gloated, a bit too obvious that he didn’t mean to really show off. He then patted Thunder on the back. “Well, I’m glad you made it out safe, Thunder.” They shared a glance of pride and accomplishment, then Midnight pointed out that the building they were on now was similar to the previous one. Same thing for nearly all of the surrounding buildings. “Think we could do it again?”

Thunderstreak grinned. “Not a problem. Let’s see who can kill the most griffins by the time we bring this building down.”

“Now you’re talkin’!” Midnight exclaimed. Midnight set up his bipod and sniper once again, shooting many Caelian soldiers without fail while Thunderstreak traveled through the building, clearing it of any griffins. Once Midnight heard the explosions start, he knew the shaking of the building would throw off his aim, so he went to the next building. Thunder flew up as the building collapsed and they each told how many they killed. They repeated this process for hours while the rest of the city was being slowly overrun by the Equestrian forces. When no major building was left, and that entire section of the city was griffin-free, they tallied up their score.

“My 173 against your 158, I won!” Thunderstreak cheered.

Midnight sneered at him playfully. “Yeah well that’s just because the buildings kept falling onto griffins I was about to get.”

“Well then, what say we keep going with the next city?”

“You’re on!” Midnight agreed, they shook hooves, and on that note, the city of Aurum had been successfully taken by the Equestrian forces.

“Don’t hold your head too high just yet, boys.” It was Mahoff along with Storm and Ace both at his side. “I want you to take a good look at the city behind you.” The city, once a beautiful gold now burns red in fires of the fallen buildings and broken roads. Ships at the port were capsized and burning. The fleet of hueys soared through the sky. “Today was a great victory. I want you to remember that, but there were a lot of good men who lost their lives today, and I want you to never forget them.”

Chapter 10

Siluam Forest, 4:37 A.M., May 18th, 2013

Alpha Squad had been positioned outside of Siluam. The mission: Infiltrate the Caelian communications center. Within the communications center contained passcodes to access the Caelian database. Retrieving the passcodes would allow Equestria to know Caelian plans just as they make them.

Midnight lied on the grassy hilltop with a perfect sight of the west gate and of the communications tower. He was to keep watch just in case things didn’t go as planned. Ace, Storm, and Mahoff had found their places to take watch out of sight. Thunder was perched up on the hilltop by Midnight. This mission was a mission for Thunder. He was the designated stealth operative on the team. The mission was made for him.

The morning was dark as the sun barely peered over the tree lined horizon. The town was still asleep. Thunder spent the last three hours on a high hilltop, mapping out each of the patrol officer’s paths across Siluam. His eyes shifted back and forth over the streets like a hawk. Then, without warning, he took off down the hill and pinned up against a wall of the first building outside Siluam. He gracefully snuck through the streets behind guard after guard. He came to the first door of the central tower to find it to be locked by a key. Down the dimly lit street came an armed guard, just passing the shadows that Thunder had been hiding in. With the feather on the edge of his wing, he found the keychain on the griffin’s belt, slipped it off, found the key to the door, and slipped the key back unnoticed.

Inside he found a small labyrinth of halls. He had no idea where he was going. Nonetheless, he slipped down the halls past guard after guard, and camera after camera, staying out of all sight. He knew being seen would compromise the entire mission, no doubt.

Just down the hall, was the control center he had been looking for. Carefully slipping down the corridor, he could see the room was occupied by three Caelian guards. He sat in the shadows for a minute assessing his options on how to enter the room with minimal detection. After a few minutes he devised a plan. If he could create a distraction, maybe just maybe it could buy him the time he needed to acquire the intel. Maybe if he could trip some sensors he could get the guards’ attention. But he also knew the risks of attempting something as dangerous as that. If he slipped up it not only would it mean his demise, but it would result in the mission’s failure.

Down the hall, he found an entrance to the air ducts. “Maybe I could make a distraction here.” He thought. “But how?” He took a moment to think, looking at the rusted air ducts. Then it came to him. He quietly worked his way into the ducts, making his way up and making as little noise as possible. After working his way up, he pulled a flash grenade off of his belt, pulled a loose string from his suit, and tied it to the pin. “Now, I need a weight.” He thought. He saw a rat sitting in a corner of the vent. “Perfect.” Tying the other end of the string to the rat, he set them both down and began making his way to the control room, knowing his bomb he just made could go off any second.

Quicker than thunder had hoped, the rat began running and the flash grenade bounced around behind it. The pin was quick to come out. The bang went off and both the rat and the grenade frantically bounced around in the ducts behind him. He could hear the guards talking below him.

“Jnep pni zymg jel pnep?!”

“O Tur’p gruj. Rupnork nebbirit ur lmiir.”

“Muci ur auy pju. Ji riit pu mnimg pnol uyp.” The three guards ran from the room, slamming the door behind them. Thunder jumped out of the duct, landed in the control room,

locked the door, and made his way to the computers.

“All right. I’m in.”

“Good. They have to keep the passcode somewhere. Find it and get out of there.”

“Roger. Order acknowledged. Thunder Out.” He scrounged across the tables through papers and machinery. Under a small radio, he found a card with a 16-digit code on the back. “I think I found it.”

“Roger package retrieval confirmed. Now try to make your way out of there.”

“Hold on. I’m gonna try and see if I can get any useful information from here.”

“I said get out of there. That’s an order.”

“Sir, if I can get any information on advancement plans, it can put us ahead of schedule by about a week.”

“And if you get caught, we’ll be put behind even farther. It’s not worth getting caught. Get out of there now!”

The guards stopped down the hall, “Pnihi’l rupnork nihi.”

“Ceadi op jel fylp luci hepl.”

“O’c bhippi lyhi hepl tur’p cegiruolil sogi pnep.”

“Aien? Jnep isli juyst op di kiroil?”

“Ji ehi ep jeh. Op muyst’wi diir e lba.”

“Ocbullodsi. Uyh limyhopa uo pnol bsemi ol liicsill. Rup bepnipom soppsi bura muyst ceji op pnhuykn.”

“Jnepiwi. Sip’l fylp niet demg pu pni murphus huuc.”

“I said get out of there! Now!” Mahoff shouted through his headset.

“All right. I’m just erasing any footage of me being in the building.”

“You’ve wasted enough time. They won’t look for the footage if they don’t know you were there.”

The guards came up to the door to find it locked. “Jnu sumgit pni tuuh ur pni jea uyp?” The guard pulled his key off of his belt.

“All right. I’m done here. Heading out.”

“Rup ci.”

“O totr’p.” The guard opened the door to see thunder just beginning to make his way into the duct above. “Un. O zymgork pust auy pju!”

“Shit.” Thunder knew the guards had spotted him. Releasing his grip in the duct, he fell down to see one guard going for an alarm on the wall and the other two pulling their rifles. He quickly pulled his smg from his side taking each guard down in a row from the one heading for the alarm to the other two and landing down back in the room. “That was way too close.”

“Thunder! What the - happened?!”

“The three guards came into the room just as I was making my way back into the ducts. The three were neutralized and prevented from setting off the alarm.”

“Damn it! This is what happens when you don’t follow through on orders. There’s no time to argue or hide the bodies. You need to make it out of there while preventing any guard from realizing you were there. Permission to kill only if needed.”

“Roger. Over and out.”

Thunder made his way back to the air duct. He then jumped up into the vent and reinstalled the grate and began to advance towards the exit. He stopped, hearing muffled sounds coming from the room he had just been in. he could hear yelling and then his worst nightmare came to life. His cover had been blown and the scouts triggered the alarm.

“Orphytih esihp. Ess eweosebsi nertl hibuhp pu pni murphis huuc ep urmi.”

“Oh shit! I gotta move now!”

Thunders pace quickened as he tried to crawl as fast as possible through the maze of ducts. At that point in time he didn't care where he was going so long as the voices grew quieter and quieter. Soon they couldn't be heard anymore so he stopped to catch his breath. As he panted and waited he failed to notice he was sitting on a grate till he fell through it and hit the floor and his head. Thunder groaned and lay dazed and stunned.

A ways away on the hill, Midnight laid in wait. His ears twitched at a new noise. He turned slightly and listened to the sound. His eyes then widened realizing what the sound was. “Shit...”

As Thunder regained his awareness, he found himself in a supply closet. He heard voices just outside the door. “Liehmn pni irpohi dyostork! Pnihi'l lucipnork nihi, ert ji tu rup hilp yrpos ji zort noc!” Thunder didn’t have time to react. The door in front of him opened slowly and a single soldier stood in front of him. “Irica nulposi zuy-” Thunder pulled out his smg, killing the soldier, hoping he was quick enough that the soldier didn’t say too much. That hope didn’t go far though.

The siren sounded from the tower above. “That’s our signal!” Mahoff yelled out. “Go! Go! Go!” Mahoff, Storm, and Ace stormed off into the town while Midnight stayed perched on the hill. “Kill every griffin in uniform you see! No one gets out alive!” Bullets stormed back and forth through the air. The three members of Alpha Squad made their way through the streets. All three members were zigzagging, ducking, rolling, and finding multiple cover points to avoid being hit. “Alpha 1 reporting! The mission has been compromised. I repeat, the mission has been compromised! Requesting immediate backup to secure Siluam!”

“Roger, Alpha 1. Reinforcements have been sent to your AO. ETA 20 minutes. Hold position. Help is on the way.”

“Roger.” He clicked his channel back to his squad. “Alpha, reinforcements arriving at AO ETA 20. Secure the perimeter and hold position till further orders have been issued. Thunder, Ace take northgate. Storm, eastgate. I got southgate. Midnight, secure westgate.”

“Roger that, Alpha 1. West side gate is secure.”

“East side gate secure.”

“North secure by both of us.”

“South secure. Hold your positions.”

“Alpha 1 to Cobra 1 requesting firing support. Focus all fire on the main street. If it moves and it’s not a friendly and it’s in uniform... kill it.”

“Cobra 1 to Alpha 1 attack orders received. Moving to engage targeted area.”

In the distance a speck approached the ongoing battle. The enemy paid no attention to it thinking it was a bird. It grew bigger and bigger till it was above the battlefield.

“Kyrlnob, pegi muwih!”

Griffins scattered as molten steel rained from above blanketing the street below with

holes. A few feet away a small hissing sound was heard. Soon the air became rank with the smell of rotten eggs. Mahoff smelled it before any of his squad did and a wave of fear swept over him

“Cobra 1, hold your fire! Hold your fucking fi...”

It was too late. By the time he had gotten to “fire” bullets hit the pipes under the street and ignited the fumes. The street itself rose in the air as the explosion erupted underground. The raised street then imploded and caused a huge crater to appear. Mahoff listened and waited, for any signs of the enemy. The gunfire had stopped but had they died? Or did the retreat? The answer wouldn’t be known till the smoke had risen.

The smoke faded and it was clear this battle wasn’t over yet. Gunfire continued to rain through the streets. The fight raged on for almost an hour. Things picked up after more reinforcements showed. Seen enough, the bullet rain slowed down. “Alpha 1 to Alpha squad, move up and secure the town.” The five moved carefully through the streets as the squads behind them held the perimeter. After a thorough search, they were sure the town was secured.

“Alpha 1, south cleared.”

“Alpha 2, west clear.”

“Alpha 3 and 4, north secure.”

“Alpha 5, east secure.”

“Roger, Alpha gather at west side of the com. tower.” The group gathered up by the tower. The whole squad could see it on Mahoff’s face that he was NOT happy. Thunder looked down at the ground away from Mahoff.”

“Sir, I-” Before he could say any more, Mahoff spun around kicking Thunder in the face and knocking him to the ground.

“What in the name of Celestia do you think you were doing?! If you would’ve listened and got outta there when you should’ve, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“I know. I have failed you and I have failed the squad. Any form of punishment that you see fit, I will accept.”

“*sigh* We ain’t got time for punishment. Come on, get up. We’ve got a job to do.” He clicked his headset on. “Alpha 1, reporting. Siluam is completely secure. The entire enemy force has been eliminated. After objective failure, we need a new game plan.”

“Roger, Alpha 1. What are your thoughts?”

“Well, it’s obvious we can’t just leave Siluam yet. If the com. tower were empty, Caeli would notice and take immediate action.”

“What do you propose?”

“We take as many Caelian speaking soldiers of ours that are here and have ‘em play out the basic actions so Caeli thinks nothing happens.”

“Roger. While you’re there, we want you to be feeding all of your information to us.”

“Roger that, Overlord. Alpha 1, over and out.” He turned back to his squad. “How many of you know Caelian?” Midnight and Storm raised their hooves. “Right, you heard what I said. Each of you take positions in the com center as Caelian guards. The rest of us are gonna keep watch.”

“Roger.” The whole squad replied.

“I’d get yourselves used to this place. We might just be here for a long while.”

Chapter 11

Siluam, 2:33 P.M., June 7th, 2013

Alpha had been positioned in Siluam for almost three weeks, and everyone had grown accustomed to their new system. Luckily for those assigned to Caelian communications, they had a short break. They had kept communications with Equestria for quite a while and had given their allies a great amount of information. To keep suspicions down, Equestria had begun jamming communications of all of the locations. No decoy communications would be needed for a while.

The squad took their time to gather in the break room they liberated. A little group and r&r. The group was very chatty. To them, it had felt just like time after training back home. They all told stories of home and all of the great times in their past. Ace had taken notice of Midnight, who hadn’t said much of anything. “Hey, Flare. Something wrong?”

Midnight leaned back in his chair lazily. “O pnorg...O’wi diir pesgork...iruykn zuh ruj...”

“Wanna say that in a language we can all understand?”

“He said that he thinks he’s been talking enough for now.” Storm said

“Right. That makes sense. Must be tough, talking to the enemy like you’re their friend.”

“Auy newi ru otie.” Midnight hopped out of his chair lazily. “*sigh* O’c kurre ku pu pni pub uz pni pujih.” He stepped out of the room.

“He what?”

“He’s going to the top of the tower.”

Midnight sat up in the metal walkway that circled the tower, staring up to the clouds, letting his body rest and his mind wander. The thoughts of what had passed and where he wished he could be. “We’ve been gone for almost 2 months now.” Midnight thought. “I wonder how everyone’s doing.” His thoughts trailed to the end of his orientation. After orientation, each soldier had 1 hour to spend with family and friends. After that, they leave their friends and families to sleep in the armory and are shipped off to basic the next morning.

Midnight was saying his final goodbyes to his friends, mother, and sister. “So this is really it, huh?” Rainbow Dash was kicking the dirt around on the ground.

“Yeah, but don’t you worry. I’ll come home. I promise it.” Twilight and Starbuck were with them too. “You two are great together. You swear on your life that you’ll keep her safe for me?”

“I swear it, sir.”

Midnight smiled. “Good. That’s what I like to hear.” He turned to his friends. “I know you ladies will be fine without me for a while, right?”

“I’m sure we’ll all be fine and all.” Fluttershy said, “We’ll still all miss you soo much while you’re gone.”

“No please don’t go and tear up your pretty face out there.” Rarity said.

“But while you’re there, still make sure to kick some griffin tail fer all of us, yah hear?” Applejack said.

“And when you come back, we’ll be sure to throw you a BIG party!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Thank you. All of you. It’s nice to see you all care.” His mother was there too. “And Mom, I’m sorry. I just came back home to family, and I’m already leaving.”

“It’s okay, sweetie. Just promise me you’ll come home alive, all right?”

“I promise it. You’re not the only one who’ll be waiting for me.” Through the mist in her eyes, she cracked a small smile. Midnight brought his hooves around her, and she did the same; sharing that moment with family that they both knew may have been the last. Both felt a tear of the other resting on their back. After a moment, the two pulled away, clearing their eyes. “This has been great. I wish I didn’t have to send you all off like this, but could I get a few minutes with Rainbow Dash alone please?”

“Sure thing, Midnight.” Twilight said. Before they each left, they each got their own friend/family goodbye hug, and each stepped out the door. After that, Rainbow Dash was the only one left.

“I’m sorry I have to do this. I don’t want to have to leave you like this again.”

“I’ll be fine. Just promise me two things.”

“And what would those be?”

“Come back to me alive, and with a bunch of great war stories to tell us all.”

Midnight smiled. “Then I’ll hold both of those promises. I’ll come back with both.”

“Good. I’ll be holding you to that. Can I get one last kiss?”

“You know you can.” The two brought their lips together for one long, final sentimental time together. The two pulled away with a few tears in their eyes. “I’ll be home in no time. I promise.”

“I know you will. I just don’t want to see you leaving. But, I guess I have no choice, so I guess this is goodbye.”

“Yeah, it is...goodbye. I love you.”

“I love you too.” She turned around and walked out the door as they both knew how long they would be apart.

Midnight sat up in the tower, holding his rifle and stroking the side where the letters “RBD” were carved in. “I’ve been here for awhile, now. But who knows how long I’ll still be?” As Midnight sat in the tower, the rest of the squad sat in the break room, chatting away.

“So right then and there,” Mahoff was telling one of his exaggerated stories. “you could bet I had no idea how I was gonna be getting out of there, but you’d be bettin’ wrong. Just as that 40 foot buffalo came chargin’ at me and the town, BOOM! One hoof in the face sent the thing runnin’ for his mommy!” The group chuckled in enjoyment from the story, even though they knew how much of a lie it was.

“That’s great, Mahoff.” Ace said. “Hey, Storm. We haven’t heard many stories from you today. Not much to tell?”

“Well, I didn’t have much of an exciting childhood. And my life after that still wasn’t a happy one.”

“Oh, right... Well, would you wanna tell us what it was like to be a Caelian prisoner?”

“I wanna say that it is what you would expect from a prison...but that would be FAR from the truth. The things they did in those prison camps were unspeakably horrible. Men, who seemed fit enough were put to hours of grueling work, but they got it easiest. Women were used and tossed like their own personal sex toys. And lastly, the children, where I was...the children were used for experimenting, mental and physical torture. I’m still unsure that I am still mentally stable. And there was one colt behind all of our testing, a scientist who came in from the foreign country of Germaney as an associate of Fortis. His name is Fohlen. He’s the bane of my existence as he was the one who made me and every other kid suffer. Many didn’t make it out alive. The place was pure torture and that’s all you need to know.”

The squad stared speechless. “Well, I um...” Ace stumbled over what to say. “I guess we’re sorry we asked.”

“Don’t worry about it, comrade. I’ve fine with telling my story.”

“So, uh...Thunder. You got any stories you wanna share?”

Thunder looked down to bring back the memories he had tried to hold onto while repressing at the same time.. “My story I will share is a story from home, a story I hold close to my heart. As you may know, I am a prince and royalty has its duties. And that is all it was for me all the time. ‘Do this’ and ‘Do that’ everyday. I needed something to help get me away from all that. And I just so happened to find her. She was... a peasant girl. As you may guess, my family and my country’s rules did not like this at all. Why should such royalty be with a filthy peasant? But none of that mattered to me. She was too perfect for me to just leave her. We had to meet in secrecy, but she was completely worth it. She went by the name of Lilith. I loved her like no pony had ever seen, and she did back. She was humble too. She didn’t ask for much more than my company. No need for any royal treatment or catering. I wanted to leave all of my duties for her. But now I have duties here. And for what? To end war? War will never end, and it will never change. Someone’s quest for power will always get before what’s important and brainwashes everyone into thinking the greedy will lead them to glory.”

“Wow, that’s really deep.” Mahoff replied. “If yer so against war, why have I seen you fightin’ so hard and killin’ so much?”

“I fight because I’m given no other choice. Royal obligations force em to be here. I wish to make it through these ‘obligations’ and make it back home. There’s only one face I wish to see.”

“I wish I could say that much about somepony. I don’t have anyone I care to go home to. Our military is my family now.”

“What happened to your family?” Thunder asked

“Nothing happened to my family. They’re still alive, I think. I just don’t wanna be goin’ home to see them anytime.”

“What’s so bad about your family?”

“Let’s say my mother is a filthy drunken idiot, my stepfather is an angry cripple who hates everyone he talks to, and my real dad is either in jail or dead.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I asked.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I really don’t care anymore. Anyway. Ace, you got any stories to share with all of us?”

“None that come to mind.”

“Really? Nothin’?”

“Yes. Nothing.”

“Where’d you grow up?”

“In a small town in Germaney.”

“Yer from out of country?”

“Ja. I was a scientist/doctor from Germaney who was specially requested to help with some studies in Equestria.”

“Really? What did you do to make you so great?”

“I worked for a company known as Black Mare industries. I was up in the ranks for working with them for long enough.”

“Wow. That’s pretty cool. Can yah share some of the stuff yah worked on as a scientist and such?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. That’s still confidential information.”

“Ah well, yah can’t blame me fer tryin’. You’ve shown me you know how to handle a gun and handle it well. That’s good enough fer me.”

“Thank you, sir.”

During the group story time, Midnight had stayed up on the tower. It had been peaceful for the most part until something had caught his attention. In the distance, a Caelian truck was making its way to Siluam. The vehicle was clearly armored and Midnight was pretty sure the windows were bulletproof. If the truck were to make any contact to Caeli, their tower would be cut off from communications. Midnight quickly uses his headset to contact the rest of the squad. “Alpha, we have a problem outside. Enemy forces moving in on Siluam.”

“What?!” Mahoff hopped out of his chair and reached for his M16. “We’ll be out in a minute! Stay up there and stay hidden!”

“Roger that.”

The rest of the squad had then worked their way outside into the town. They all took positions where they could watch the oncoming truck and avoid being noticed. The truck stopped just before the com. tower. Two griffins stepped out of the truck. One was talking over headset. “Pni pujih ebbiehl pu di ederturit. Ellycork murpus pujih ol nist da iricoil.”

Storm was the only one close enough who could understand them. “They know we’re here. Take them out.” Mahoff drew his M16 and quickly tagged down both griffins. All five members of the squad moved in on the truck for a quick search. The situation appeared to be safe.

“So now what?”

“We verify our next plan of action.” He clicked his headset. “Overlord, this is Alpha 1. Our situation has been compromised. We’re confident that some form of Caelian force is on its way here.”

“Roger, Alpha 1. We’ll be tracking your AO now. Get to a safe distance from Siluam and we’ll pick you up at extraction.”

“Roger. Moving now. Alpha out.”

Chapter 12

Ebria, 6:43 P.M., June 8th, 2013

In the time that Alpha was in Siluam, Equestrian forces had pushed Caeli farther back in. In their first month of training, Equestria didn’t have much of a game plan, just to hold forces back. The plan had only been slightly more refined. If they could take over Castrum and hope for surrender.

Alpha had been escorted to the city of Ebria on a mission to take a hostage. One griffin, a right hand man to Fortis, is who they planned to use to get inside of Castrum. Equestria had been planning on Caeli not knowing they were coming, and they had been right. The city was calm, but they wanted to keep the operation secure so the squad was given a set of OH-58A escort helicopters: Rosea, Pomum, Iris, Volitant, Rarus, and Scintillae. The helicopters circled above securing the area.

Alpha moved carefully through the streets below. The city was desolate while Alpha walked the streets. It was usually known the be the center of festivities and tradition in Caeli. The citizens had seemed to be hiding from all of the Equestrian soldiers outside. It couldn’t have been their concern at the time though. They had a man to find.

“Alpha 1 here, checking in. Alpha squad is set. Escort unit report.”

“Echo 1, Pomum here. Ready to go.”

“Echo 2, Volitant. Ready.”

“Echo 3! Rosea here! Ready to rock!”

“Echo 4, Iris. We’re good here.”

“Echo 5, Rarus. Everything looks good.”

“Echo 6, Scintillae. Everything is in order.”

“Roger. Overlord, this is Alpha 1. Echo and Alpha ready to begin search.”

“Alpha 1 roger. We don’t know if our target knows why we’re here but assume that they do. We’ll track the target’s location and have it on Rosea’s radar and have them be your guide. Follow Rosea through the streets.”

“Roger that.” One of the helicopters stopped overhead above Alpha. “Yeah, I got visual contact on you, Rosea. Ready when you are.”

“Understood, Alpha! Ready to go! Tracking now!” Rosea began flying into the city as Alpha followed close behind.

“How far in is he hiding?”

“He’s about 400 meters south, sir! We’ll be there as soon as possible!”

“Understood.”

“Don’t you think this city is a little too quiet?” Midnight asked.

“Well, the citizens are hiding from us and the Caeli military didn’t know we were gonna be here.”

“So if the Caelians didn’t know we were here, don’t you think the helicopters would make us noticeable?”

“They do, but we have the Kiowas just incase we are attacked. If we are attacked, we have no idea how large the attack would be, and we want to make sure this operation goes right this time.”

“Right. Whatever you say.”

Alpha trotted through the city streets. At about 200 meters, they followed Rosea down a narrow street. The city stayed as quiet as it had. Then, before anyone could react, two rockets soared and hit Rosea in the tail. The tail tore off and both tail and body crashed into the building walls both sides of the street and crashed down just in front of Alpha squad.

The squad darted down the road down where they had hoped had been the right way. “Rosea’s down! I repeat, Rosea is down! Requesting a new transport!”

“Request denied, sir.” Iris said. “It’s too hot up here. We could use a little help.”

“Right! Midnight, get on Iris’ minigun! The rest of us will hoof it farther into Ebria!”

The squad made it into an open town square. Iris lowered down just by them and Midnight took the side gunner seat. Midnight was hoisted above the city to see a fleet of Mi-24 Hinds. Midnight could waste no time. He began open fire on the distant attack helicopters.

“I’d hold on tight to that minigun!” Iris said. “This is gonna be a bumpy ride!” Iris was a very agile pilot, successfully dodging bullet after rocket while still allowing Midnight to get his shots off. The skies stayed hot for a while with bullets and rockets flying from each side of the battle. It wasn’t too long until Iris became arrogant. A missile hit Iris on the side just above Midnight and taking out one of the blades “Hold on! I’m trying to hold it!” The helicopter had lost control. Midnight knew they would hit something. He didn’t wait to grab the earth pony, Iris, sitting in the pilot seat and fly them both out of the helicopter. They landed together on top of a nearby building as the helicopter spun out, hitting a building next to them. The helicopter that shot them down soared over them shooting down. The two ducked out of the way and they were only hit by a little bit of shrapnel. Midnight pulled out his rifle. As the helicopter turned back around, Midnight took a shot and hit the pilot.

“Are you all right?” Midnight asked

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Find the target.”

Overlord came on over headset. “Alpha, we have a back up F-15 team heading to your AO.”

Within a few seconds, a single F-15 bolted over Ebria taking a Hind E out. Just after, a set of seven other jets soared by with it. The Caelian squad was quickly picked off. “Alpha, this is Foxtrot 1. We’ll scout the area for you.” The team soared off and spread out across the forests around the city.

Pomum flew over the city, over Midnight and the rest of Alpha. “There’s no time to waste. I’ll be your new guide.” Midnight flew over the city and caught up to the rest of the squad on the ground. “He’s over here!” Pomum hovered over a building that was down a narrow road.

They gathered on the only door. Mahoff kicked in the door. “Go! Go! Go! Find him and take him to Volitant!” Mahoff yelled out his commands. Malum wasn’t the only griffin in the house. In a corner of the kitchen was a mother holding two of her kids in her arms. The kids cried as they held tightly onto their mother. Midnight was the one to find Malum in a corner upstairs. He was armed with a single handgun. Right when Midnight came around the corner, Malum’s gun went off. Midnight pulled his M1911 from his side, rolled around the corner, shooting Malum in the leg. Malum fell down from the pain as he dropped his gun.

“Target has been disarmed. Ready for extraction.” Midnight and Ace drug Malum down the stairs and out the door. As they stepped past the kitchen, they could hear one of the kids screaming.

“Ru! Dhieg tetta demg!” They could hear the tears in the child’s voice. “Dhieg noc demg!” Midnight understood him. He was crying for them to not take their dad away.

But no matter what the child said, they had a job. They took him away, with a bag over his face, from his family and his friends. Volitant sat just outside on the main road of the city. Malum was thrown in the back where Ace, Thunder and Mahoff held him. Midnight got into the co pilot chair and Storm got on the minigun. Volitant flew away from the city as fast as she could. “The package is secure, Overlord. Heading out now.”

Location classified, time classified, 2013

The room was dark. The only area that could be seen was the area under the light that showed the chair Malum was tired to. Mahoff took the bag off of his head.

“Don’t worry. “Mahoff said. “We removed your tracker on the way, so no one’s gonna find you here.

Malum gave them all a dark and hateful glare. “Sip ci ku auy iwos mhyis buroil.”

“I know you speak English.” Storm said. “Make things easier for yourself and speak in a language everyone here understands.”

“Why should I cooperate with any of you?”

“Trust me.” Mahoff replied. “It’ll be easier for you in the end.”

“That’s a lie. I know you’re just going to kill me in the end.”

“I know. We will kill you. But cooperate and we won’t kill you slowly.”

“I don’t need to tell you anything.”

“Fine. If that’s how you wanna be. Storm. Would you mind?”

“With pleasure.” Storm faced away from Malum, lifted his hind legs, and bucked Malum in the beak.

“Gah! Auy cupnih zymgih!”

“Gonna cooperate?”

“Not on your life!” Storm kicked him again.

“Talk!”

“Never!” Storm repeated. A piece of Malum’s beak chipped off.

“Gyah! Ugea! Ugea! I’ll talk!”

“Good. That’s what we like to hear. Let’s start with a simple one. What purpose do you serve in the war?”

“You know that already.”

“ I know I do, but I wanna hear it from you.”

“I’m right hand to Fortis.”

“I’m guessing Fortis has some strong relation to Gryphem. Am I right?”

“He does.”

“Then does that give you a strong connection to Gryphem?” Malum hesitated to respond. Storm once again kicked him to keep him talking. “Does it?!”

“Yes! Yes! It does!”

“Then let me ask you this! Why did Gryphem start the war?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“From what I have learned, this war had started because Caeli needed land for the growing population, but from what I’ve seen, there’s been a lot of land for the country. Most towns and cities are spread far apart. So why did he really start the war?”

“Heh. You know so little, pony. Gryphem isn’t the one responsible for starting the war.”

“What do you mean? He had to be the one to authorize it. He’s the king.”

“It is true, he might have signed off on it, but Fortis convinced him Gryphem thinks he needs land because that’s what Fortis told him. Gryphem never leaves Castrum, so he doesn’t know.”

“Okay, then if not land then why? What issues does Fortis have with Equestria? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m not completely sure, but I know part of it has to do with Equestria freeing his slaves. I also think it has something to do with his daughter. She went to Equestria years ago to go to flight school and never came back. I think he blames Equestria for it.”

It took a moment for it to click, but Midnight knew who he was talking about. “Gilda.”

They all turned towards him. “What?” Mahoff asked.

“It’s a long story that we really don’t have time for, but I am very very certain that Fortis’ daughter is dead.”

“Heh. Figures. That’s probably why she never came back. Fortis probably guessed that. Probably why he’s so angry all of the time.”

“All right, Malum. I have one more question for you. Where is Fortis now?”

“Why would I tell you that?” Storm lifted his back hooves up. “You can kick me all you want. You won’t make me tell you where my leader is stationed.”

“All right. Have it that way. Alpha, masks on.” They all put on gas masks as Mahoff pulled a can off of his belt. “Know what this is?”

“I can guess that it’s some chemical weapon. You should know that’s illegal to use in warfare worldwide.”

“Oh, I know. I just brought it in case there was something I really needed to know. You know, if there was no other way to make you break.”

“I won’t talk. Pull the pin. Try me.” Mahoff certainly wasn’t bluffing. He pulled the pin and dropped the can as the toxins poured out the end.

“You’ll change your mind any minute. This won’t kill you, but you’ll wanna be dead when the effects take place.” And those effects didn’t take long to happen. Malum’s yellow eyes glazed red as he started kicking in his chair and screaming in pain. His chair fell to the ground as his head rang in agony and pain. “Tell us where he is and we’ll kill you now.”

“H-he’s in his m-mansion! It’s a h-high security location 50 miles south of Castrum!”

“Great. Much obliged. Storm, you can kill him now.” Storm pulled out his sidearm and popped the entire clip into Malum’s head. “Right. Let’s get going. If we kill Fortis, we can try and convince Gryphem to end the war. I think we’re bringing this war of ours to a nice and happy end.”

Chapter 13

Fortis’ Mansion, 1:03 A.M., June 10th, 2013

As Alpha sat about one mile away from Fortis’ mansion, they could see one thing. Malum was right. The place was very high security. The security was much stronger and larger than that of Siluam. There was no way Alpha would be able to handle it by themselves. They were joined that night by a special black operations team, Team 63, who specialized in situations like this. They were lead by a mare named Black Star, who was giving a preoperative prep speech.

“Right. As you may all know, we’re on a very important mission tonight. This is one of the most important operations of this entire war for say we’re successful. As you can see by this map of the mansion, every single entrance is heavily guarded. There’s virtually no way any normal pony could make it past. But we’re no group of normal ponies. We’re specially skilled and specially equipped. As you may see, you were given different suits for this operation based on what type of pony you are. All pegasi are dressed in complete black so we can blend in with the sky. Luckily, the sky is nice and cloudy tonight. They won’t see us above. Every unicorn is given outfit to blend in with the interiors. Since I know not all of you know teleportation spells, you will be combining magic to all be teleported inside as a group. The pegasi team and the unicorn team will clear off the roof as a team so they can both enter from above. The earth ponies are dressed to blend in with the forest around us. That is the only way we will be able to get you close enough. You will need to work together as a team to find a way passed the guards once we are close enough to map their movements. When the roof is secured, Midnight will help your team enter from the south gate while taking a sniper position from the top. And since we have special case Midnight Flare here, we feel it would be easier for him to just fly with the pegasus. His fur is already dark. Midnight and I will be heading to the roof to monitor the skylights as Midnight and I are both snipers. The mission is to find Fortis, kill him, and make sure we all get out alive. As you can see, all of your weapons have been suppressed. I don’t want you taking those suppressors off. We want every single one of us here to be getting out alive.Are there any questions?” Nopony had anything to say. “Right. We’ll take a few minutes to get ourselves mentally prepared, and then we’ll move out.”

The small crowd broke and most ponies made their ways to their groups. Alpha came together to talk about the mission. “The security on this place is insane.” Midnight said.

“Yeah.” Storm replied. “I’ve had some thoughts about that. If this mission doesn’t come out as successful and some of us end up dead or worse, those who are left need to promise one thing. We made a promise back at basic that we would kill Fortis no matter what, and I plan on all of us holding on to that promise.”

“I agree.” Midnight said. “I think I want him dead as much as the rest of you. I think you have all of us in on that.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I’m ready to go when everypony else is.”

“Right!” The rest shouted together.

“All right, is everypony ready to move out? “ Start asked.

“Ready, ma’am!”

“Good. Then there’s no time to waste. We have a war to end.” The pegasi took to the black night sky in a bird like V formation. The unicorns and earth ponies moved together to get closer to the mansion. That night, unlike Siluam, they had been authorized to kill when needed as long as they could cover it up and not be spotted. When they came to the mansion, they could see that Star was very right. The security was much tighter than that of Siluam. That being said, it wasn’t going to be easy for any of them to search the place.

The perimeter had searchlights circling the skies. Stone gates circled the mansion. The place almost didn’t appear to be a mansion. It looked like a maximum security prison. Fortis certainly didn’t want any unwanted guests there.

The pegasi team maneuvered the searchlights to make it to the rooftop. The rooftop was very secure. There was just as many griffins as pegasi and unicorns on the teams combined. They needed to clear all of them off at the same time. They each picked a target and prepared to strike. “Ready...GO!” Star whispered and commanded. The pegasi dived from the sky, landing on their targets and driving a knife into the target’s neck. The unicorn team all teleported in on their targets as they drove their knives into their targets. “Rooftop clear. Midnight, take your sniper point on the south of the roof. Earth ponies, Midnight will guide you in. Everypony else, find a way inside and search the premise.”

Midnight set up his rifle to look over the southern entrance. He slowly picked off his targets making sure that another griffin wouldn’t see his targets going down. He guided the team until they made it into the building where he could no longer see them. Midnight and Star then both took positions overlooking skylights.

Thunder, Storm, Mahoff, Ace, and the rest of the team inside shuffled through the halls. After closer analysis, they were pretty sure that the place was a prison camp before. There was a room that appeared to be a cafeteria. A wing had a series of prison cells. There was really no getting around it. Storm had felt something from the place. Something like he had known the place. Like he had been there before.

Storm scurried down a hall just past the cells until ahead of him he saw there was another pony walking the other way. It wasn’t anyone he recognized and he knew it wasn’t one of the other team members from 63. “Star, this is Alpha 5. I’ve come acrossed an unknown pony not on our team. The guards seem fine with the fact that he’s walking around.”

“Any unknowns are hostile. Take him out.”

“Roger.” Storm followed the unknown until he felt he wouldn’t be spotted killing him. They came to an open multi floor cell room and then it hit him. Storm knew who he was. The coat, the old wrinkly face. The fading gray mane. It was Fohlen. It was the scientist who had tortured him while he was a prisoner for Fortis. He then recognized where he was. This wasn’t Fortis’ mansion. This is where he was held as a kid. Storm couldn’t contain himself. All of the painful memories of agony in his childhood surged through him. He couldn’t help it. In all his rage, he charged at Fohlen screaming and tackling him to the ground. In his rolling, he tried to keep Fohlen down, but failed and rolled off of him. “You!” Storm pulled his gun out and pointed it at him. “You’re the suffering of my existence. Fohlen.”

He didn’t appear to be worried that a gun was pointed at him. “Well, it vas about time Equestria found their way here. I’m pretty sure you’re here for Fortis. Well, I’d keep looking if I vas you. I don’t know where he is.” Then it hit him. “Wait a minute. I know you...Storm...you don’t know what we did to you.”

“Shut up! I know very well the horrible things you’ve done!”

“Well, soldier boy, what are you going to do about it?”

Just as he was about to speak, he could hear the sounds of rifles being loaded and ready behind him. “Zhiiri Equestrier!” There were five guards behind him all pointing their weapon at him. “Thub auyh jiebur!”

Midnight heard the griffins yelling from a room under a skylight just a bit away from him. Both him and Star bolted to the window to see what was going on. “They’re gonna kill him.” Midnight said. “We have to do something.”

“We can’t just rush into this. If we make one wrong move, they’ll shoot him on the spot.”

“ - it! I’m not just gonna sit here and watch him die!”

“Hold on. I’m trying my hardest.” She put her hoof to her headset. “63 this is Star. A member of Alpha is compromised in the north cell area. We require assistance ASAP.”

“Roger that. There’s a few of us close to that. We’re heading there now.”

“You think they’ll make it on time?”

“We’ll have to wait and see.”

“I vouldn’t make any hasty movements. Drop your veapon and ve’ll let you live.”

Storm couldn’t move. None of the griffins were going to drop their guard for a second. Storm couldn’t hold himself. Something inside him felt like he was being pushed over the edge. “Grrrrrrraaaaaahh! My name is Snezhnaya Buyra, and I will have my revenge!” He lifted his weapon, pointed it at Fohlen’s head, and pulled the trigger. As he riddled Fohlen’s skull with bullets, the guards around him all opened fire. The floor pooled with blood as the two fell to the ground.

“Damn it!” Midnight cried out. As tears shed from his eyes. For the first time while in Caeli, Midnight’s horn had lit up in a swirling fire. He pointed it down at the window and let it all go. The spiral of flames shattered through the window and burst into a ball of fire setting everything ablaze in the room below them.

“Damn it, Midnight! Get your shit together! I see that you’re angry, but we gotta find Fortis before they find us. Got it?”

Before Midnight could even take his time to calm down in anyway, they had found their fate very similar to that of Storm’s. They heard the sounds of multiple guns cocking and loading behind them.

“Drop your weapons and turn around.” The two did as they were told. They turned around to see about ten guards all pointing rifles at them. Another griffin stood with them. A tall, war scarred cold hearted griffin. Fortis.

“It seems as if Equestria doesn’t wish to learn. Guards, gather all of the captives together.”

“Ail, loh!”

Soon enough, all members alive of Alpha and 63 were tied with their hooves behind their backs on the ground with rifles to their heads all in a line. “Well, well, well. What can I say about this? I almost find this laughable. You almost won. You could’ve came out on top. You could’ve come closer to ending this war. But you didn’t. You didn’t win. I did. No one beats me. I don’t know if I should be impressed, flattered, or just disappointed that you had such a large group come here just for me. I’m just not sure. What do you think, little pony?” He looked down degradingly at Midnight.”

“O zymgit auyh jnuhi cupnih, auy lur uz e dopmn.”

“Why you ungrateful little shit!” He waved his claws, tearing Midnight in the face and knocking him to the ground. “Lock them up! All of them! You know what to do.” Fortis turned his back and walked away.

“El auy jopn, loh.”

Chapter 14

Caelian Prison Camp, Time and date unknown

The cells were dark, they could tell by the smell had never been cleaned. Even though Alpha and 63 were captured in a prison, they weren’t kept there. Caeli didn’t want the enemy to be held in the home of their military leader. Each member of Alpha was kept in their own cell. Star was the only one left of her team still in the cells. And even though none of them knew exactly what happened to Star’s soldiers, they were all pretty sure they knew.

“They’re dead. They’re dead. They’re all dead.” Star muttered in the corner of her cell. “They’re all dead, and it’s all my fault.”

“Pull yourself together.” Mahoff said from his cell. “One of my best is dead, but I can’t sit here and take blame. It’s all of our fault for being here, but we can’t get out of this by mourning.”

“Hey! Shut up, prisoners! I know what you’re saying! O lboss riit pu zymg auy, bura kohs.”

“Oz auy kurre di bhuzeri, lea op pu lucidupa jnu yrtihlpert auy.” Midnight sat in the corner of his cell, blank and bloody face. “O joss zymg auyh lolpih ert cupnih.”

“I wouldn’t smart off if I were you. One more remark and we’ll be taking you out first tomorrow.” The guard scowled at Midnight then walked out of the room.

“*sigh* what a - mess this is?” Mahoff sat up in his cell. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t plan on staying here.”

“Right.” Midnight responded, “We can’t die in prison. Storm wouldn’t want that. And I know I’m not the only one here who has somepony to go home to. I think I’ve got an idea. When I make a move, follow my lead.”

“Are you sure we should make a move?” Thunder asked, “What if a rescue team is sent? We’ll have a better chance of making it out. We are Equestria’s lead military squad. They probably have somepony out looking for us.”

“There’s no time. They probably don’t know where we are anyway.”

“Right...understood.”

“We’ll sneak out when they sleep, and sail off in the night. Sounds simple enough. It’s always darkest just before the dawn. I know we’ll make it out.”

“Hey, Ace. You all right?” Ace was sitting in the back of his cell, balled up, shaking and muttering to himself. None of them could make out his words, but they could make out a disturbing laugh in his words. “Ace! Snap out of it!” Mahoff shouted.

“What do you want from me?! I’m fine! Stop bugging me!”

“You’re obviously not fine. Do you understand our operation?”

“The what?”

“That’s what I thought. Just follow Midnight’s lead when he makes a move.”

“Hey! Jnep pni zymg tot O lea?” The guard stepped back in, “What did I say about talking?!”

“Hey!” Midnight stepped right up to the bars of his cell, “Lnyp yb. Jnir ji kip uyp us nihi, O’ss goss auyh zecosa ert zymg auyh jozi.”

“Ess hoknp, kip auyh ell uyp nihi!” The guard unlocked Midnight’s cell. As he stepped in, Midnight slipped behind him, grabbed his knife, kicked the guard to the ground and stabbed him in the neck. After he knew the guard was dead, he grabbed the guard’s keys and handgun and let everypony else out.

Midnight went over to the dead guard and hid the body in the shadows where he couldn’t be easily seen. He then locked cell doors to make their detection and escape less known. Midnight did one more check before deciding it was convincing enough that no one had been in or out.

“So much for slipping out in the middle of the night. Oh well. Let’s stick together and stay to the shadows. Kill only when absolutely necessary. We don't need to attract attention to ourselves or make our presence known. Now, let’s move out.”

Midnight looked down the halls confused and lost. He tried to remember the way but since he had been blindfolded that was a lost cause. So he tried the next best thing. He tried remembering smell. Though the whole prison smelled like mold, mildew, and griffin stench. But still, that did...nothing... The only thing they could do now is wing it.

“Right. Does anypony know the way out?” Midnight asked. No one gave a reassuring answer. “That’s what I thought. Then I guess we’re winging it.”

The first thing they had planned to do was to find their weapons. And seeing as how they had no idea where they were looking, the task was not going to be easy. Moving through the prison wasn’t easy, especially since they knew it was only a matter of time before the guards realized they were gone.

The group all scurried from hall to hall all together with Midnight taking lead. At times, it seemed that they had come back to places they had already been. There had been many times where they had just barely made it past the guard’s sight. After about a half an hour, they came past a door they had been past a time or another. Something caught Thunder’s eye. It lead to an armory. “Hey wait. I think I found something.” Thunder whispered. The group turned to him, “I think this an armory. Maybe our things are here.”

“Awesome, Thunder.” Midnight whispered back, “Let’s have a look.” As they checked their surroundings for guards, they had only spotted two down the hall standing in front of what looked like a safe. “That’s probably it.”

“Give me a minute. I’ve got this.” Thunder grabbed the pistol and knife from Midnight and crept up to the guards. As he got behind one, he plunged the knife into the guard’s neck, put the gun to the other guards head, pulled the trigger, and moved his hoof to cover the first guard’s beak. The two guards dropped to the ground and Thunder took the keys from one. Midnight and the rest of the group came down the hall. As Thunder went to unlock the door, he realized it was a combination. “Great. This might take a bit. Watch my back.” He put his ear to the safe and pushed the knob on the door back and forth listening to the gears turn. After about a minute or two, he heard a *click* and the door was unlocked.

When they opened the door, they saw not only their gear, but plenty of other Caelian weapons. “Last one in, lock the door behind us, “Mahoff said, “We have a bit of stocking up to do. But nopony take their time.” Each of them first put on their uniform that had been taken from them. In an effort to waste no time, as Midnight tied his boots on, he pulled on his bootstraps so hard that they broke.

After that, they each grabbed each of their own weapons and equipment. As Midnight grabbed his rifle, he took a moment to stroke the initials he carved into the rifle and carried on. Each of them also grabbed an extra AK-74 and Tokarev pistol. Everypony took extra ammunition. They all knew they were gonna have a wall of hell to get through to get out. Mahoff opened the doors in the back of the armory.

“Sweet Celestia.” Behind the door was a set of four riot shields and a full juggernaut armor set. From outside the reinforced safe, they could hear the sirens outside beginning to ring. “It’s a good thing we found these. All of you, take these. The suit is mine, baby.”

Someone was banging on the safe door, “Nia! Ji gruj auy’hi or pnihi! Ubir pni tuuh!”

“We’ve got some guests.” Star said

“They probably found the bodies we left outside the door.” Midnight replied.

“No time to worry about that.” Mahoff was completely standing up and suited in the armor. “Get some charges on that door. We might be able to take a few guards out that way.”

“Got it!” Thunder and Ace found a set of charges on a shelf, ran up, and planted them on the door. “Shields up!” Everyone hid behind their riot shields as Ace pulled the switch. The door flew off knocking about five guards to the ground and crushing them. Out of the smoke of the charges, came Mahoff fully suited with the rest in a riot shield row behind him with Midnight and Star to his left and Thunder and Ace to his right.

The five moved down the halls staying in formation. Mahoff carried his M16 in one hoof and his extra AK-74 in the other. “Don’t break positions!” Mahoff shouted, “Hook a left up here, Ace and Thunder, watch our six when we turn!”

“Roger!” They both shouted. As the five pushed to the end of the hall, Ace and Thunder moved behind Mahoff as Midnight and Star moved in front. The group moved steadily towards a door at the end of the hall that they believed lead to the front courtyard. Guard after guard stormed down the hall at their moving fort, all being blown down and riddled with bullets. Eventually, the five finally made it to the door. As they crept up on the door, they could hear a beeping sound coming from the other side

“Move back, move back, move back!” Mahoff shouted. The group stayed in formation as they stepped away, but not soon after, the charges on the other side set off sending the steel doors flying at Midnight and Star. The doors both slammed into their shields, almost taking them to the ground. But they didn’t have time to waste. They kept pushing on through the fire storm from all around. Out the doors, as they had hoped, was the courtyard out front. The outside was wrapped up by high stone walls, towers, and two massive steel doors raised up to the same height of the walls around, all lined with guards. “Squad! Form a circle of your shields!” Mahoff stepped out of the cover and the four surrounded themselves in their makeshift barrier.

As they moved forward, the front doors rolled open slowly. A large barrel peaked out of the opening doors first, and soon, they could see the rest of it. “Tank!” Mahoff cried, “Cover yourselves!” As fast as his armored body could run, he moved towards the beast guarding the gates. A gunner sat on the turret on the top. Mahoff took him out first. In all of his ability, Mahoff swerved through the cannon fire and bullets, used all of his strength to climb on top, and emptied any Caelian from the tank.

A few seconds after the last griffin was thrown out of the tank, shots flew from the barrel hitting the tops of the walls, taking griffin after griffin out. As Mahoff removed the wall guards, Alpha and Star moved to the tank and each stepped in, one by one.

“All right, Mahoff!” Midnight cheered, “We’ve made it out. You think it’s safe to breath?”

“It doesn’t look that way to me, Midnight. Get out there and get on that gun. Star, steer us out of her. I’ll stay on the cannon.” And like that, they were out of the prison. It wasn’t long until they realized they were only out of the frying pan and into the fire. Another fleet of Caelian military came from the woods as the tank rolled on the dirt forest path. Midnight climbed up on the gun and set his targets on the birds in the sky. A set of three helicopters came from over the prison along with a fighter jet team. Bullets rained back and forth from sky to tank, and they managed to take out some of the air vehicles. Firing from the cannon took out many of the ground troops, but it still wasn’t enough. Missiles from above took a toll on them. Their robbed tank caught fire and the tracks gave out. Alpha was given no choice. They had to abandon their transport.

“There’s no way we’ll make it out!” Thunder cried, “There’s too many to fight off!”

“I’m not gonna give up like that, boy!” Mahoff replied, “We’ve made it this far out of the prison, we’re not going back.” Mahoff stopped in his tracks. “If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die fighting for a cause. All of you, get out now. I can hold them.”

“Mahoff, you can’t do tha-”

“I said go! Now!” Off of his back he pulled off a weapon none of them had noticed. It was an lmg, and not just any. It was Storm’s.

“R-right.” The four left Mahoff behind just as he requested.

“Bring it on, you maggot sacks!” They heard Mahoff cry in the distance, “Give me everything you’ve got!”

The four ran for their lives down the dirt road until there was no longer road to follow. When the roads disappeared, they followed the river down until they found themselves in a swamp. They all knew what was the best plan of action as they quickly submerged into the dark, gloomy, muddy water, went all the way under so they would have mud on their heads to help blend in when they came back up.

Only the two helicopters left and a few fighter jets showed. Mahoff was doing a decent job of holding the soldiers back, as far as they could tell. The helicopters searched the woods around them; slowly until they passed just over the swamp they were in. For a second, it seemed that one helicopter stopped just above them, but a second later, it flew off and kept on its way.

The minute of silence the group felt seemed like a sigh of relief, and at the same time, a mourning remembrance. They all looked at each other, worryingly. “You think he’s dead?” Star asked.

“I don’t know,” Midnight responded, “We can’t place any bets on whether or not he’s alive. We just need to realize he left himself behind so we can fulfill our duty. I think it’s time to raise the stakes on the bet we made. Fortis is now our target more than ever. Does anypony have a plan?”

“I think I do,” Star said, “Their back up showed up really quickly. There has to be some sort of base camp nearby. If we can get our hooves on a helicopter of our own, I can get us close to Castrum. I’ve got a feeling Fortis made his way there.”

“Sounds like the best plan we’ve got at the moment. Which way do you think we should be heading?”

“If my calculations are correct, we should be heading north-west about 2-4 kilometers.”

“Right. No good sitting in this swamp any longer. Let’s get moving.”

Chapter 15

Caelian Military Base, Time and date unknown

The group sat outside of the gates to the military base they had been looking for. The only objective here was to find a helicopter and get out. After that, they would go to Castrum to find and kill the griffin behind the war. Fortis.

The sun was just setting over the western tree line. Soon enough, they would have the shroud of darkness to

“All right. Anypony have a plan?” Midnight asked.

Ace almost seemed to be snapped back to reality while at the same time completely out of it. A dark grin crossed his face. “Thunder, you see those two guards at the front gate?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Take this.” He threw a dagger to him and twirled another one in hoof. “You get the one on the left, I’ve got right.”

“Uh, got it.” The two moved quickly and came up next to the griffins at the same time and both plunged their blades into the guards’ necks.

The group could all see something with Ace was off. “Hey, Ace.” Midnight asked, “How’re you holding up?”

“Endlich fühle ich mich lebendig, Midnight. I feel like I could kill six million griffins!” The grin grew from ear to ear.

“How well do you think you’ll be able to handle getting us our chopper?”

“Haha. You want a chopper? I’ll get a chopper. Gib mir nur eine Sekunde.” With that, he was off, in the camp faster than they had seen him ever go. He surprisingly avoided the sights of all of the guards. A knife through the throat was all it took and he was onto the next guard in a flash. He cleared a small path for the rest to catch up to him. “Vell? Vhat do you think?”

“I’m amazed but I have a lot of questions.”

“You vant to know vhat’s wrong, don’t you? Vi are vhat you vould clinically call...schizophrenic.” He snapped into another tone of voice, “No! Don’t tell them that! Täuschen!” And back again. “I’ll tell them vhat I vant. Sag mir nicht, was zu tun ist. Remember that vi told you vi was a medic before?”

“Uh...yeah?”

“Vell, not really. Vi are vell versed in ze medical field, but not in a way you would guess. Many of the procedures we took vould fall under ze category of...taboo. Genetic engineering, using science to bring back the dead to make a sort of super soldier, you know, that sort of thing.”

“Wait...what?”

“Ja. Vi weren’t very happy with ourselves so we came to fight for Equestria for a change of venue. Vi guess it’s harder than vi thought to hold back a part of yourself, no matter how hard vi try.”

“I think,” Thunder said, “I can understand that. It’s hard to hide a part of your identity, especially from those close to you.” There was a long pause. “If I don’t make it out of this country alive...and one of you does...can one of you please...go to her for me...I want somepony close to me to give her the news. She lives in a town called Gero. Are you all...okay with that?”

Everyone nodded. “I’ll agree to that,” Midnight responded, “As long as you agree to do the same for me. She lives in the town of Ponyville. If she’s not there, she’s most likely in Cloudsdale or on some crazy adventure with her friends...*sigh*...I miss home.”

“We’ll make it back, Midnight.” Star responded. “I promise you.”

The small group had a break in the sorrow. It was something they had needed; just that little push to keep them going through it all. They knew they had the security in each other's company. “Now. Who’s ready to grab a helicopter ride out of here?”

“Right.”

With that, Thunder and Ace were both off. Above the camp but still carefully invisible. They picked off guard after guard and hid them in the shadows. Midnight and Star began to search the grounds for their ride out. To their luck, it was there; a courtyard of gunships, lined up and ready to take off. They picked out an Mi-8TVK up in the second front row. They had yet to wait, though. They had no idea where Thunder and Ace were.

“When they show up, I’ll fly and you take the gun.” Star commanded.

“Roger. But where are Ace and Thunder? We can’t just leave them behind.”

“Don’t worry. They are trained killers. They will be fine.” Star reassured Midnight.

“That’s true. I suppose they can take care of themselves” Midnight said in agreement.

Midnight looked around to make sure the area was clear before moving. He moved slowly and quietly as not to attract any unwanted attention. Star followed closely behind him.

Thunder and Ace were about on the other side of the base. By now, they had removed a good amount of the guards from the picture. They had hoped the other two had found their escape route by now. “Midnight. Status.” Thunder questioned

“Waiting for you for extract on east side of base.”

“Roger. Ace, let’s go.” And like that. The two were on their way.

“Awesome.” Midnight declared, “Things might actually be going our way.” And with that, a siren went off overhead. “Well...shit.”

“We gotta get to one of the helicopters.” Star said

“What?! We can’t leave Thunder and Ace!”

“I know, we’ll grab them. Don’t worry. We just gotta get our ride secured.”

“Right. Let’s go.” The two trotted across the field over to their choice of Mi-8. They ran across the open field as the searchlights were barely visible in the setting sun to follow them. Reluctantly, they made it to their ship without any bullet wounds. After a short hotwiring from Star, the two were in the air. Midnight hopped to his gunner seat and began to tear up the other airships below. He wasn’t gonna let them be followed out of the base.

“All right, I think we’ve done enough damage. Let’s grab Ace and Thunder.”

“Got it.” Thunder and Ace were further into the base, tearing down as many Caelians as they could, and there were a lot of them; way more than they had anticipated. It was near impossible for them to stay in one place from the fire below.

“Ace. Thunder,” Midnight called out, “It’s too hot here. We’ll find a new EZ. Just get out of there.”

“No can do, Midnight.” Thunder replied, “We can’t let them follow you.”

“What?! No! We’re not losing two more of our squad!”

“Midnight.” Ace replied, “Wir wissen, was wir tun. We’ll be fine. Just get to Castrum.”

“I can’t stay here! We need to leave now!”

“No! We’re not leaving them!”

“They said to leave, and we need to leave! We’re going!” Star took off, leaving the Caelian base, Thunder, and Ace behind.”

“No!” Midnight frantically jumped on the guns and started shooting back at the base behind them. Hoping it would do something. “Go back! Go back! Ace! Thunder! Do you copy?! Ace?! Thunder?!” No response. Midnight’s heart sank. He sat down in the back of the helicopter. Tears rolled down from his eyes as he covered his head, rocking in place.

Forests south of Castrum, time and date unknown

There was almost no conversation passed during the flight. It appeared to Star that Midnight wasn’t happy with her decision of leaving, and didn’t want to talk. Regardless, she felt as if she had to try. “Midnight, I...I’m sorry.”

“I know. I wanna be angry, but I can’t. It wasn’t your fault that we lost them.”

“So tell me. Do you still wanna do this?”

“You mean take out Fortis?”

“Yeah, that’s what I mean.”

“I should let you know now, then. I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t think it’s the best idea. Castrum is the most secure place in all of Caeli. This could easily be a suicide mission. We can go back to find Equestrian forces and execute this in a safer way, but if you’re still planning on going in now, go on alone. Cause I won’t follow.”

“So just like that? You’re giving up on the promise we made to all of them?”

“No. This isn’t giving up, this is letting go. Letting go for now. I know if Fortis died, the war would be over, but I don’t think this is the best plan of attack.”

“Then I want you to do something. Get me as close as you can to Castrum, then drop me off. You can go about your way, and I’ll go about mine.”

“Really? Are you sure you want to do this?”

The two paused looking into eachothers’ eyes, Midnight showing all confidence. “I’m sure of it.”

“All right. I won’t stop you.” And with that, Castrum was within sight. “I guess I’ll be seeing you then. I hope.”

“I’ll be fine. Trust me. I’ve been in many near death situations and made it out fine. I’ll see you when the war is over.” With that, he jumped out of the side door, and flew down to the forest floor as Star flew away.

Chapter 16

Castrum, time and date unknown

As Midnight came up to the fortitude capital city of Castrum, he could see how right Star was. The city was more heavily guarded than Fortis’s mansion prison. That was to be expected, really. It was the capital city of a warring country.

Midnight sat, on the forest line just away from the city gates devising a plan. “Sweet Celestia, what have I gotten myself into? I’m gonna die here. This is the end of my line. Endgame. Game over.” Midnight sat and shed a tear of both despair and happiness.

“Well, well, well. What is this?” A voice came to him. It was a familiar voice, one that he knew from his past. Her voice was warm, calm, but dark and overbearing.

“Nightmare...What do you want from me? How are you still in my head?”

“You don’t sound very inviting. I’m here to help you.”

“I thought you died with Zero.”

“Ha. Silly foal. You can’t kill me. I reside in Princess Luna’s heart and have embedded myself into yours.”

“Fine. But answer me this...Why would you wanna help me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You have a burning passion for revenge. For your dad. For your squad. It’s tearing you from inside out. And you put all the blame on one griffin. Fortis. But deep down you know the truth.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It was your fault all along. You know they didn’t have to die. You could’ve stopped Fortis then and there and this never would’ve happened. You were in a perfect position to kill Fohlen and the soldiers and save Storm. You could’ve all stayed back with Mahoff and escaped together. You didn’t need to leave Thunder and Ace behind. You could’ve stayed behind and cleared the base with them. And you don’t even need to be here right now, but you had to come here to seek your revenge. Face it. Everything up to know, all of their deaths have been your fault.”

“Shut up. I don’t have time to listen to you blame me. I know why I’m here, and I know what you want. So let’s just do this already.”

“Hmm. Whatever you say. You’re just not making this as fun as I had hoped.”

“I don’t plan on making this fun.” From the ground curling up came a spiral of flames, burning around him, and dissipating in the air. His mane, tail, hooves, and eyes burned in a flare. His wings grew with fiery feathers at the tips. In the past when Midnight used Nightmare to transform, her overwhelming power allowed her to take control of his body. For the first time, he was able to use her powers and still be in full control of his body. “Let’s end this war.”

He trotted out from his forest cover onto the main road. The city guards almost instantly spotted him as he picked up off the ground to fly over the walls. That didn’t matter to him. Any bullets that hit were deflected off of him. He didn’t give the guards any attention. He landed down in the stone city streets, running towards the castle towards the center. He had no evidence that Fortis had fled to the castle, but it was all he could go off of. He had a feeling in his gut that this assault would have a positive outcome.

Midnight charged through the streets. Not a single guard gave up their fire. Midnight came to the massive doors on the front of the castle. He rammed the door open, revealing a massive hall. At the end of the hall stood the doors to the throne room. “There.” He claimed and flew full speed down the hall, crashing the doors down. Gryphem sat high up in his chair; a large griffin. No wonder he never left the city. It looked like he could hardly move out of his throne.

“Gryphem.”

“Ol pnol pni bura pnep Fortis leot jel mucork? Kip op uyp uz nihi.”

“O’c rup nihi zuh auy. Jnihi ol Fortis?!”

“What do you want with my top commander that you could not deal with through me?”

“So you do speak English. I have personal issues with Fortis, and I know he has some issues with me that he’s thrown upon all of Equestria through an entire army of griffins.”

“Fortis is busy right now with paperwork in back. What is this blasphemy you speak of? Fortis using MY army for personal trifles? Don’t be so tenacious. My country needs land. I tried to make some sort of agreement on sharing lands with Equestria, but they refused. I had no choice to try and take over. I cannot leave my country without homes.”

Midnight smirked like he had just one this little debate, “And who told you that you need land? Let me guess. Fortis, right? I know it all. You know where I was for most of this war? In open forest. Your country has a lot of land left. I got some information from one of Fortis’ underlings. Years ago, he sent his daughter to Equestria for flight school. I was at that school with her. Her name was Gilda, a classmate of mine. We didn’t get along very well. Five years into our schooling, we had a mishap that caused me to be infected with this demon form I have. I spent a forced ten years hunting down and trying to kill my best friend, who is now my girlfriend, waiting for me at home. The evil Nightmare inside of me has been feeding on my rage. She had me kill anyone who had hurt me in the past. That is where Gilda comes in. We were always fighting, so I had no reason to like her. I ran into her on my forced search, but had no problem killing her. I had no idea that anyone would care so much about her absence.”

Suddenly, a door on the left wall of the room burst open breaking off its hinges and falling to the floor. Fortis stepped out growling, “You! O’c kurre goss auy!” He charged at Midnight in the air, crashing him into the wall. “Tu auy gruj jnep O’c kurre tu pu auy?”

“Yeah, Fortis. I got it. You’re angry. I killed your daughter. But you know what? You killed my father right in front of me for protecting Princess Celestia. Not just that, but all of my squad is now dead. My close friends in this war you started to deal with the personal issues you had with me. We watched as their world and my world crumbled away. They all had reasons to want you dead and so do I. They all gave their lives so at least one of us could get to you and kill you. And you know what? I’m not letting their efforts go to waste.” Despite Fortis holding him to the wall in all of his raging strength, Midnight spun around creating a swirling fire around him, and kicking Fortis in the side with his flaming back hoof, sending Fortis into a new wall, then ricocheting into the ceiling, and back down to the floor. Midnight bounced off of the wall next to him, jumping up and launching a fireball down onto Fortis. He landed down with the fire on Fortis and began hammering into his face and beak. until he was bloody and burned with a broken beak. After all of his anger dissipated, Midnight stood up off of the destroyed and broken body of Fortis.

“You can’t kill me.” Fortis struggled to speak. “O jur’p toi jhuc pni nuuwil uz e bura.”

Midnight simply smiled down upon him as he pulled his rifle from his back and pointed it at the bloody griffin’s head. “Auy fylp sulp pni keci.” And pulled the trigger. The blood stained and ran through the tiles on the floor as Fortis lied on the floor, lifeless. To Midnight, it felt like such a heavy burden had been lifted. Such relief hadn’t been felt by anyone before. “Sir. King Gryphem. I’m sorry you had to see such a horrible display to such a trusted advisor of yours. I just hope that you see what I say to be true after that. I don’t ask for your surrender. I just wish for you to hear me out and make the decision on whether or not there should be a war or not. Whatever you do, it’s your choice. I’m going home. I’ve got too many waiting to know if I’m still alive or not.” Midnight began making his way out. He was not too far before he heard Gryphem speak.

“You.” Midnight stopped. “Your name. Remind me.”

“My name is Midnight Flare; Midnight for short.”

“Mr. Flare. After this display, I struggle to side with you after killing my advisor. It is a hard sight for a king to see such a thing happen. But, I will heed your advice. I could have very well been wrong about this war. I will take time to look into it.”

“Thank you, sir. I have faith I will trust in your decision.” Midnight left the castle and the city with no one trying to kill him. It was...a positive sight after a long bloody fight; confident that this war had come to an end. He had one final destination in mind. Ponyville. Home. But before home. He had one pony to let know that he was alive first.

Chapter 17

Canterlot Residential Area, 3:02 A.M., June 12th, 2013

The night was still, like a storm had just subsided overhead. Not a sound could be heard but the chirp of a cricket in the grass. Midnight stood before the door of his old home, the home of his family, where now only his mother lives. The lights were off inside like all of the other houses around. He knew that didn’t matter. His mom would still react the same way.

He didn’t wait, but didn’t rush to ring the doorbell. It took a moment for anypony to answer. He assumed his mother was either asleep, to upset to answer the door, or just both. Probably both.

The door opened nonetheless. A tired, old white pony stood sleepy eyed in the doorway. “It’s 3 am. Who comes to somepony’s house at 3 in the morning?”

“Mom. It’s me.” Her head darted up and eyes widened. “I’m home.”

She said nothing. A shining smile glimmered on her face as tears rolled down her cheeks. “You’re back!” She jumped up wrapping her hooves around his neck. “You’re back, you’re back, you’re back! Hahahaha! I’m so happy to see my son made it out alive.” It took her a minute, but she finally came down and relaxed. “So if you’re home, does that mean?”

“It’s over. Fortis is dead, and the war is over. I’ve seen a lot when I was in Caeli. My life has been a living hell. Do you mind if I just sleep here until the morning?”

“Oh! No, of course not! Stay as long as you want! You have no idea how happy I am to see you home!”

“Thanks. I could really use some sleep right now.”

Ponyville, 2:31 P.M., June 12th, 2013

Midnight’s first stop was at his home; his and Rainbow Dash’s home. If he were to see any of his friends, she was definitely first. He stepped inside to find all of the light in the house were off. It seemed she wasn’t home. “Maybe she was at Sugarcube Corner. Or maybe out on some other crazy adventure with her friends. I guess I might as well check Sugarcube Corner.”

Walking inside, he found one pony he recognized. Fluttershy was behind the counter looking at what appeared to be a cookbook. He stepped up to the counter. “Hey, Fluttershy. Is Rainbow Dash here?”

Fluttershy looked up from the book. Her eyes quickly widened as a light Fluttershy-like *squeek* peeped as she ducked behind the book. Then, very suddenly, she bolted up the stairs faster than a speeding Pinkie. Midnight didn’t know how to react. He was trying to put together what just happened.

Not too long after, Pinkie came down the stairs followed by Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, AJ, and finally, a sad looking, broken hearted little Rainbow Dash.

“Midnight!” Twilight cried, “You’re home!”

Her words caught Rainbow’s attention. She looked up at him. “Midnight...” She smiled as a tear appeared under her eyes, “Midnight!” She leaped off of the stairs, landing on him, knocking him to the ground. She brought her head down, locking lips for the first time since he left for the war. “I thought I told you never to leave me like that again.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I had to. I did it for you. But it’s over. The war is done, and Fortis is gone.”

“I guess what’s important is that you’re home now. How about I let you off the floor, and you tell us some stories of your trip?” The seven stepped over and all sat down at one of the circular tables.

“I have a lot to share with you girls. I think it would be best if I told everything from my perspective at the start. Let’s start all the way back at when we were leaving for the Grand Galloping Gala.”

Chapter 1

Wait! This is the 4th installment in the series. Check out the rest of the series so you're not confused.

Ponyville, 6:38 P.M., March 6th, 2013

The night of the Grand Galloping Gala had come faster than Midnight was expecting. He’d heard tales of the Gala events of two years ago from Rainbow Dash and all of their other friends who were in attendance. When she’d reminded him of the event about a week before, he hadn’t been sure whether or not going was a good idea. The choice was already out of his hooves though, as Rainbow Dash was scheduled to perform with the Wonderbolts as one of the main events of this year’s party. The thought missing that never even crossed his mind. In addition to the time he could spend with his beloved fillyfriend, Twilight was also going and there would be plenty of time for them to talk while Rainbow Dash was busy with her new teammates. Twilight had been very much a stranger since he returned, despite the time that had passed. Her studies and various other going on had kept them from really spending much time together. But tonight was the perfect time to really catch up.

“Alright girls, you ready?” Midnight had been standing outside of Rarity’s boutique with Spike, waiting for the girls to finish changing into their new Gala dresses, once again generously designed by Rarity herself. As well as the dresses, Rarity had custom designed him a stunning tuxedo, as she had promised him, soon after they met. Her talent was unmatched in Ponyville and it showed in his new formal attire: a jet-black suit that was just a shade darker than his coat. The suits sleek appearance was enhanced by the flame designs that graced the sleeves and neckline. Each lick of flame matched the color changes of his mane and tail perfectly.

“I said are you ready?”

Much to his annoyance, the answer was not what he was looking for, although exactly what he was expecting. "One eentsy teensy more minute, Midnight.” Pinkie Pie, the ever-bouncy pink filly suffered from a perpetual case of a good mood, which only served to press Midnight’s patience a little further.

The next half hour went by much as the rest of the afternoon had, waiting for the girls to finish getting ready and poking around Carousel boutique for anything of interest, which there was none. And so went the rest of the time before departure save for a snafu involving Rarity’s tiara, which she “simply could not go without” Midnight’s patience had nearly run out as he let himself into the changing room, with the permission of its occupants, and soon after found the accessory in question resting safely on her dresser, hidden ever so well behind a powder box.

From then on out, everything went much more smoothly. Before they had even entered the boutique, several hours ago by now, Twilight had used transformation magic on an apple provided by Applejack to create their carriage for the night. She had told him afterward that it seemed a bit too similar to last year, but then justified the lack of originality by pointing out that in the end, it doesn’t even matter, so long as they all arrive there together to have the wonderful night they were all looking forward to. Rarity had insisted that Twilight transform the carriage beforehand, claiming that such magical exertions would befoul all her efforts later to help style and dress her for the Gala. This was but Rarity was Rarity after all. But now, Midnight was grateful for her fussiness, because it meant they would be able to leave that much sooner now that they all were ready.

Midnight stood beside the carriage as he waited for the girls to come outside, of whom, Twilight was first. She crossed the grassy patch in front of Carousel Boutique over to Midnight.

“Wow, Twilight. You look amazing, I’ve never seen you like this before, all dressed up.” He was so used to seeing her shut away in her library behind stacks of books for days on end. She almost looked like a whole other pony now, certainly more elegant. The gown was a beautiful deep blue, with pink shoes, matching the characteristic streak in her hair. The most interesting aspect of the outfit though, was the delicate golden tiara, with a beautiful amethyst magically suspended just above the tip.

“Thanks, Midnight.” She replied as she walked past to the door of the carriage. “You know Rarity when it comes to fashion. She never ceases to amaze.” She gave Midnight a contented smile as she climbed inside.

The next pony out the door was Rainbow Dash, an exasperated expression characteristic to her in times of intense annoyance or boredom. “Ughhhh! Rarity is such a draaag!”

“Hasn’t she calmed down yet? We did find her tiara. What has it been? Fifteen minutes since then?”

“Yeah, but she’s still a drama queen. And she wouldn’t stop messing with my hair! I kept telling her it’s fine, it’ll get messed up when I change into my uniform anyway! She ‘insisted’ though.”

“Somepony has to look out for fashion’s best interests around here.” remarked Rarity as she passed by and too, got on board the carriage, only stopping to compliment Midnight, and by extension herself on how handsome he looked in his new outfit. “My, Midnight, you do look dashing in that suit.” She chuckled at her little pun and then climbed aboard. Rainbow Dash gave Midnight one last glance, rolling her eyes dramatically, and then followed behind Rarity.

What followed could only be described as comical. It even lightened Midnight’s mood after a day of boredom and irritation. Pinkie Pie came rushing out the door, pushing Applejack out in front of her repeatedly shouting “Let’s get going, I’m gonna miss my window!”

Midnight couldn’t help but laugh. “Now what could she possibly be planning this time?” he thought.

Applejack did not look too happy as she was shuffled along by the pink pony. Baring her teeth in frustration, with Pinkie heaving her unceremoniously into the carriage and then bouncing aboard herself. Fluttershy followed them out close behind, looking quite worried about the whole thing. She looked over to Midnight as she got on, but didn’t say anything. Once the last wisps of her breezy green silk gown were over the threshold, Midnight shut the carriage door behind her.

“Alright Spike, Let’s get going. Strap me into this thing.”

“Aye aye, Midnight!” He hopped out of his coach’s chair. Midnight walked up to the front of the carriage. Spike hefted the sturdy metal harness and threw it over Midnight’s back.

He flexed his wings and legs as he acclimated to the added weight. They were going to fly this time. Midnight had volunteered to pull the carriage himself. It was the least he could do. They were all his very best friends and they deserved to ride in style, especially to such an important event.

The night was warm and there looked to be a storm off to the south, but it was moving in the opposite direction from Canterlot, so the sky would be clear for the events of the Gala. Midnight prepared himself for takeoff, digging his back hooves into the soft earth and raising his wings for the downbeat.

“Come on Midnight, let’s blow this taco stand!” Pinkie yelled out the window.

“Consider it blown.” Midnight thrust his wings down as he galloped forward, lifting himself as well as the carriage into the air.

“It’s hard to believe we’re actually going back to the Grand Galloping Gala. After the last time I wasn’t sure the Celestia would want us to come back.” Twilight said.

“She just knows the Gala wouldn’t be the same without me.” Rainbow Dash drew incredulous glances from the other ponies in the carriage. “I mean us, of course... you girls can’t take a joke?” They didn’t seem entirely convinced, but they all knew Rainbow Dash, and her heart was in a good place. “But I’ve gotta go this year. I can’t miss a performance just because I wouldn’t want to go to the Gala.”

“Anyway,” Twilight went on, “Celestia has invited Midnight and I to a special meeting. She hasn’t told us what it’s about though.”

“I reckon she just wants to see her favorite student again, y’all didn’t get much of a chance to catch up last time around.”

“Maybe, it sounded important in her letter though. That would be nice I suppose, we haven’t talked in a while, I know. By the way, what was your plan for tonight, Applejack? What have you got in this cart Midnight loaded in the carriage for you?”

“Oh just a little somethin’ Mr. and Mrs. Cake helped me with. Ah think I’ll have more luck with those ‘high class’ ponies this time.” She glanced at Rarity, who turned her nose up at her jokingly. Then the two of them laughed together, to everypony else’s confusion. They had had their disagreements from time to time, but had come to an understanding.

“Well,” Rarity began, “while Applejack is peddling her wares, I will be meeting with some of the most esteemed ponies in the world of fashion. This Gala could be an important step in my career.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Rarity. I’m so happy for you.” Fluttershy chimed in.

“Thank you, Fluttershy. I know you can appreciate the finer things. And I certainly won’t be there to win the favor of Celestia’s scum of Equestria nephew again.”

The carriage grew quiet as they remembered what had happened between him and Midnight.

“What is it?” Rarity asked, confused.

“You don’t remember?” Rainbow Dash answered, “Midnight... killed him. Back when Nightmare Moon was still inside of him.”

“Ah, yes. Regrettable I suppose, but it’s not like anypony is missing him.” It was true, Blueblood had never been a very good prince, and nopony really missed terribly him after what happened.

“Well it looks like we’re all a lot more prepared than last time, things should be goin’ a lot better fer each of us this time around. Ah reckon this’ll be the best night ever! I do feel a little bad for Midnight, though, pullin out carriage all by himself.”

“He offered to do it, Applejack. He told me he wanted to make the ride memorable for us. I think a flying carriage beats a grounded one any day.” Rainbow Dash told her.

“I know I’ve told you this a lot, but ya sure have a nice guy on your hooves there.” She continued to look out the front facing window at Midnight, pulling their carriage through the sky on the way to Canterlot.

“Hey, eyes off the pony pulling the carriage.”

“Sorry, sugarcube, you can’t blame a girl for starin’ at a pony like that once in a while.”

“*sigh* Yeah, I guess you’re right. But after what happened before I joined The Wonderbolts, I know I can trust you not to try anything funny behind my back.”

“You know y’all can trust me, Dash. I know to keep my boundaries.”

“And I love that about you.” She looked down to think for a moment before she met Applejack’s eyes again. “Just for that, I think I’m gonna have him do something special for you for your 18th birthday. How long away is that?”

“Exactly 2 weeks from today.” Rainbow Dash leaned in close and whispered in her ear. Applejack’s face went blank in the sudden surprise, “Uh, Dash? You really gonna get him to do that fer me?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head to get herself back to her senses. “Of course I will. He won’t like the idea at first because he’ll think that I won’t trust him, but he’ll ease up to the idea and will eventually see that he’s gonna love it. I’ve just got less time then I expected to get him to ease up to it.”

“Well that’s uh... mighty kind of you, Rainbow Dash. But I’m not sure how I’d be able to pay y’all back fer somethin like that.”

“No need. Consider it a birthday present from me to you.”

“Wow, this is probably the nicest thing y’all have done fer me. Which is surprising from y’all. I’m not so sure why yer bein so generous about somethin you’ve had so much problems with in the past.”

“Hmm...I dunno. I guess I just have known him for so long, and have so many moments where he’s proven his loyalty, that I just don’t worry about it anymore.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense, but still, I’m still havin’ trouble believin’ y’all are willing to do that fer me.”

“So Twilight, what do you think your meeting with Princess Celestia is about?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m not sure. All she told us is that she needed to discuss some urgent matters on the future well being of Canterlot, but I’m not really sure what she means by that exactly.” Twilight replied.

“Well I guess yer gonna hafta wait n’ see, Twilight. So, what’re yah gonna do after yer little meeting with the Princess and all?”

“I was thinking of stopping at the palace library to see if there’s anything new that I haven’t read yet. Maybe Midnight and I can go visit our parents some time after our meeting, they still live in Canterlot so we should be able to go see them while we’re here.”

“Well, Midnight promised that we’d spend the time that we’re both available together.” Rainbow Dash interrupted.

“Well, when is your performance?”

“That’s not until later in the night, but we have some “special plans” for when the performance is over.”

“So would you mind if I stole him away from you during your performance for a few hours and he could go be alone with you when your performance is over?”

“Yeah, sure. I don’t see why not.”

“Excellent. I’ll make sure he’s back by the end of your show.”

“Alright, sounds good to me. I hope you both have fun seeing your parents again.”

“Thanks, and I hope you have fun being alone with him tonight.”

“Thanks, even though that’s a little awkward.”

“Sorry, it’s just that when I see you two together, I wish I had somepony who could make me feel like that.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, Twilight. I’m sure there’s somepony out there who’s perfect for you. You’ve just gotta keep lookin.”

“Yeah, I guess. I’ll make sure to keep that in mind. Thanks, Dash. I never really thought that you’d be the pony that I’d talk to for love advice.”

“No problem, Twilight. You’re one of my best friends. Isn’t that what friends are for? Plus, I’d do it for anypony.”

“Yeah, that’s what you said when you tried getting that extra Gala ticket from me a few years ago.”

“Eheheheh.” Rainbow Dash was scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. “Yeah, I guess I did. But now is different. I really wouldn’t mind doing it for anypony.”

As they made the approach to Canterlot, The castle and surrounding landscape came into Midnight’s view. The white spires and towers jutting out from the cliff the palace was built on were alight with the glow of the celebration. Midnight found himself getting caught up in the grand spectacle of it all. There were columns of ponies queued to enter through the main doors and other carriages lined up by the entrance, all for the same grand event. The Princesses had gone all out this year. There were small fireworks sporadically lighting up the crowd and casting the white walls of the towers in bright reds, oranges and deep blues.

“You all there, Midnight?” Spike asked. Until this moment they had been holding a conversation on the subject of Spike’s ‘secret’ feelings for Rarity.

“Of course. Like I was saying before, and I’m sorry to say it, but I just don’t think that Rarity is going to have any change of heart. I mean think about it, she’s a unicorn, and you’re a dragon. Not to mention the massive age difference.”

“Yeah, I know. *sigh* It’s just hard for me to get over it. I love her and she doesn’t feel the same.”

“Maybe you should try looking to girls your age. I’m sure that there’s some girl out there for you somewhere. Hell, maybe it’s another dragon! But the first step is for you to get over Rarity. And next, maybe you could talk to her and she could help set you up with a girl she thinks would be perfect for you. I’m sure she must be acquainted with quite a few, you know, because of that boutique of hers.”

“Yeah, you could be right. Thanks, Midnight. I’ve never had anypony to talk to about this kind of thing from the guy’s view. I think I hang out with the girls too much; it can be hard to find another guy to get another view on things like that. Not that I’m completely giving up hope just yet.

“No problem, Spike. It’s just what I like to do.” He said with a grin. His mood had already changed from just a short while ago. “I think I should to talk with Spike more often.” He thought to himself. “I might be able to give him a better perspective on things.”

He then started to wonder why Spike liked Rarity in the first place. Sure she was attractive, but what could really make him feel that way for her? He looked back to see the girls all talking away, then looked back at Spike. He was quietly eating small gems whole clawfuls at a time. “Heh, maybe he was hungry for those gems on Rarity’s flank this whole time.” Midnight silently chuckled to himself.

He knew he could handle it, but the flight to Canterlot from Ponyville was really starting to tire him out. As he set them down in front of the castle, he collapsed onto the stone pathway.

“Gaah! Why did I volunteer for this?”

The girls began to step out one by one from the carriage a few moments after they set down.

“You did good, Midnight.” Rainbow Dash said as she walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek.

“Yeah. Thanks, Midnight!” Pinkie Pie added.

“Thank you, Midnight...” Fluttershy said as they all filed out and trotted up to him.

“Your efforts were highly appreciated.” said Rarity. “And I must thank you again for finding my tiara. I was simply devastated when I thought it was lost. You are a true gentlecolt for finding it for me.” He saw Applejack roll her eyes, a sentiment he shared, but he didn’t say anything.

“Much obliged, Midnight.” Applejack said happily, returning her attention to the moment at hand and tugging the handle of her apple cart close behind her.

“Ugh.” Was the only reply Midnight was able to give her at the moment

“Well, if you will excuse me everypony, I have clients to meet.” Rarity obviously was going all out to impress her new acquaintances; her dress was an exceedingly elegant number, with a royal purple front, lined with gold. As she turned to leave, he could see the back of her dress was a brilliant hue of aqua-marine, with silver diamonds scattered across, reflecting her cutie mark, as well as catching any light just perfectly to make her stand out. Her tiara was topped with an attention grabbing sapphire, just in Rarity’s style.

“The party don’t start ‘til I walk in!” Pinkie Pie bounced off into the crowd to prepare whatever shenanigans she had planned.

“Oh yes I should be going too, that pony from the garden is going to show me all the nocturnal creatures that live here, and I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

Twilight stepped up to Midnight, “Come on, we need to go see Princess Celestia.”

“Oh Twilight, please don’t make me get up.” Midnight was still trying to recover from his exhaustion.

“Midnight, I promised Princess Celestia that you and I would both go to see her right when we got here.”

“*sigh* Fine.” Midnight moaned as he got to his hooves. “Let’s go to the Royal Quarters then.” Midnight gazed up to what he assumed would be their destination, a high, slender tower. He found himself wondering how many stairs that would be to climb to the top. He then decided that he did not want to know.

“And what about you Dash?” Twilight asked. “What are you going to do while you’re not performing with The Wonderbolts?”

“Well I guess I’ll just go mingle with everypony inside. Maybe hang out with Soarin and Spitfire, talk about the routine for tonight.”

“Sounds good. Well come on Midnight, the Princess said to go see her the minute we get here.”

“Alright Twilight. See you later tonight Dashie!” Midnight said, walking with Twilight to the palace.

“Bye guys!” Dash yelled after them, then trotted off past the crowd. He saw a few of them wave to her, apparently recognizing her as a member of The Wonderbolts now. She waved back happily, with maybe a touch too much enthusiasm, she was still getting used to the recognition.

Midnight pulled himself up after catching his breath finally and stretched his sore legs for the long walk ahead of him and Twilight. “Alright, we’re off to see the Princess.”

Chapter 4

Sparkle family home, March 20th, 6:47 A.M., 2013

Midnight and Twilight had been staying with their parents for two weeks, now. Midnight had been balancing between his time with Rainbow Dash, and his time he had spent with his parents. Having been gone from home for 12 years, he had felt it was imperative that he spend time with his parents, as a way to catch up with what he had missed for oh so long. Neither his father nor his mother objected to the idea. They both actually loved the idea of spending time with Midnight. Twilight had began going to the local library every morning to check out a series of books. She had a colossal collection of books at home, but she had already read them all when she still had been staying with her parents a few years ago. Her parents had nowhere near as much interest in reading as she did. The most reading that either of them did was Mr. Sparkle reading the morning paper. So she found herself, in her free time, blowing through the entire stack of books she’d check out in one day, then bringing them back the next morning to pick up more. After breakfast, she picked up her stack of books and began heading out the front door. “Alright, I’m off to the library. Be home in a few minutes.”

“Alright, honey. Stay safe on the way there and back.”

“Don’t worry mom, I’ll be fine.” She closed the door and started off on the largest stone trail. After walking for a few minutes she came upon the bridge. Passing over the bridge and following the trail for a few more minutes, she finally came up to the front door of the library.

“Ah, Twilight. Welcome back. Here for another set of books, I see.” A short, light-blue pony, with her dark-blue mane braided all the way down the back had greeted Twilight’s entrance from behind a short desk. Her voice was gentle, yet raspy as it showed it’s deterioration with age. “You can just set them up here, I can mark them as checked in for you.”

“Alright, thank you, Mrs. Ray. I’ll be back in minute with another set of books.” Twilight replied as she set her stack of books on the desk. She then walked around the corner of a far bookshelf marked “Pony History”. As she turned the corner, a certain colt putting books away had caught her attention. A light-blue unicorn with a long, wavy, dark-blue mane curling around his horn, and a short, dark-blue tail had been taking books off of a cart, and putting them back onto the shelves. His cutie mark was a red book folded open. His eyes were a bright, sky-blue. Twilight’s infatuation was almost instant. Her eyes grew wide, mouth gaping open, cheeks flushing red, and stood as still as a rock. “Sweet Celestia” She thought, “This is the moment that I’ve been waiting for; the moment that I talked with Applejack about. He’s just perfect. I think I’m in love. Should I approach him? But what if he doesn’t like me? I don’t know if I’d ever be able to come to this library again.” Her thoughts were racing through her head uncontrollably. “No, I might not get another chance like this. I need to talk to him.” She began to slowly walk up to him, slowly and steadily. Sweat began to run down her face more and more with every step she took closer to him. “Come on, Twilight.” She thought, “You can do this. You need to do this.” Finally reaching the colt at the end of the hallway, she struggled to bring herself to speak. “Um, h-hi...”

The pony turned his head towards Twilight. As soon as his eyes met her’s, his eyes instantly grew as wide as Twilight’s; flushing-red cheeks, almost as bright as her’s. “Uh, h-hey. Um, i-is there something I-I can help you with?”

“I-I’d j-just like to talk. I mean, if you’re not busy...”

“N-No, not at all. I’ve got time.” He was struggling to speak just as much as she was, but neither of them could see it.

“W-Well, maybe w-we could start by...introducing ourselves.”

“S-sure, that sounds good to me. M-My name... is Starbuck; Starbuck Ray. But everypony just calls me Starbuck.”

“I-It’s nice to meet you. Mine... is Twilight; Twilight Sparkle.”

“Wow, Twilight, what a beautiful name.”

“Thanks, I guess I like your name, too. You said your last name is Ray. Are you related to Mrs. Ray, the librarian here?”

“Yeah, of course I am. She’s my grandmother. I’ve been working here at the family library for some time now.”

“That’s awesome. I work in a library, too. I own the library in Ponyville.”

“Wow; Ponyville? That’s pretty far away. What’re you doing all the way up here in Canterlot?”

“Well, my brother and I have been staying with my parents here in Canterlot for the past two weeks. We’re both here on royal business with Princess Celestia.”

“Wow, that’s amazing! How’d you get connections with the Princess?”

“Well, that’s a long story, and because you’re working, I don’t think you really have the time.”

“Well, we’ll have all the time in the world when I’m done in a few hours. What say you come back here after 11:00, and I take you to my favorite place in Canterlot so we can talk alone?”

“That would be simply wonderful.”

“So, see you in a few hours?”

“I’ll be sure to be here.”

“Alright, I gotta get back to work. See you later, Twilight.”

“Bye, Starbuck.” He returned to putting the books onto the shelves, and Twilight had walked away from the Pony History section, the section that she had picked from everyday, and found herself in a different section; the romance section. “Wow” She thought as she scanned the shelves, “That went better then expected.” She came upon a book that seemed to fit the moment quite well and decided to get more like it from this new section. After she gathered up all the new books and checked them out at the front, she turned back to find that Starbuck was watching her with love-stricken eyes. He blushed once he realised she was looking back and went back to work. Twilight giggled and blushed back. She picked up the books and left the library, sighing with anticipation for the date that was going to transpire in a few hours.

After trotting back up the trail to her home, all the while fantasizing about her new colt friend, Twilight entered her house and let out another sigh. Her parents were in the living room and turned their attention to her when they heard. “Something wrong, dear?” Her father asked.

“Oh no. Nothing’s wrong. In fact, everything is perfect. *sigh* Just perfect.” She trotted to her room and placed the books on her desk. Searching for the right book, she finally decided on one with the title, “The Fallen Rose”. Twilight opened the book and began to read. Or, at least, she tried to, but with each new line came a new image of the blue-maned colt she had fallen so hard for. She looked out the window in the direction the library would be in, just thinking about her first date. She forced herself to read to pass the time, to get to her Starbuck faster.

Just as she finished the book, the clock struck eleven. Twilight looked up and let out a loud *squee!*. She slammed the book closed, threw it on her bed, and ran out the door. “I’m going out real quick! Bye!”. Half way there though, she slowed to a slow gallop, fearing that when she arrived she might be out of breath and sweaty. Twilight came up to the entrance, took a deep breath, and entered the library.

“Oh dear, I’m sorry but the library is closed as of five minutes ago.” Mrs. Ray said to Twilight as she was putting away the last of a few carelessly placed books.

“Actually Grandma,” Starbuck insisted. “She’s here for me. Earlier today we kinda made some plans.” He said while blushing at Twilight.

Twilight followed suit and blushed right back. Mrs. Ray looked between the two of them, dumbfounded. Until it hit her. “Oh! How lovely! My little grandson and my best customer have found love, together!” As she said that Twilight and Starbuck both blushed even more and shifted uncomfortably. “Carry on, don’t mind me. I was just leaving!” She headed towards the door and turned back. “After you’re both done with this little date, would you mind locking up the place, dearies?” And with that, she left. Both ponies were left standing there with nothing to say to break the awkward silence.

“S-So, Starbuck, what were we planning on doing?

“Well, I do have the perfect place to hang out and get to know each other some more. It’s in the park, this one tree that I’ve shared many memories under. And I guess I kinda figured, why not make another memory, with you I mean.” Starbuck was finding it hard to express himself, and Twilight took notice.

“Aw, that’s so sweet. I would love to go to the park with you, Starbuck.”

“A-Awesome! Alright then, let’s go!” Twilight could see that Starbuck was just as excited as she was, which just made her happier. She never thought that this would be so easy and feel so right. As they walked out the door Twilight reminded Starbuck, “Don’t forget to lock up!”

“Oh, right!” Starbuck went back to the door and pulled out some keys. He locked the door and put the keys away. “Alright, now let’s go to that park I told you about.” They started off down another stone trail towards the park. As they were walking, Twilight took in all the beauty and serenity, and found herself leaning into Starbuck affectionately. She was about to pull away when she realized he too was leaning in with the same affection. A smile grew on her face, and she closed her eyes as she leaned in closer to Starbuck.

“Okay, we’re here.” Starbuck said suddenly. Twilight opened her eyes. They were under an enormous, beautiful tree. She turned around and saw that they had walked quite a long ways from the library. Though it seemed to be mere seconds, minutes have passed without notice. Was this love? She had no idea, but whatever it was she liked it. The two ponies came up to the side of the large tree and sat next to each other. Starbuck pulled out a book from the bag he had brought along. “Want me t-to read to you, Twilight?” He asked timidly.

“Well I doubt there’s a book in that whole library that I haven’t-” But she was cut off by the sight of the title. Twilight read the title out loud, slowly. “‘Equestrian Hearts’...strange, I haven’t read this one.”

“So you wouldn’t mind if I read it to you?” Starbuck asked again, holding the book out for her to see the rest of the cover and spine. The book was beautiful. “I picked this one because it reminded me of you.” They both began blushing intensely.

“Alright, just this once.” Twilight answered while giggling. They nuzzled up close against the tree. Starbuck opened the book and began reading.

“Chapter 1: The Heart and Mind. On such a cold winter’s night, where the last leaves had fallen from the trees, and the thick white blanket of snow had covered the ground as far as the eye could see, the last thing that I expected to find was the warming heart of another; right by my side, keeping my heart and mind warm. What I had found, was myself to be alone on the abandon nighttime roads of Manehatten. The streets were near mute; with only sounds of a light breeze, and the faint buzzing coming from the a flickering street light by a dark alleyway. The night had seemed like most any other night in my life. I had left from work just a few minutes before. The frost bite had that had grown on my nose, the only part that had been sticking out of my warm apparel, was almost instant as I stepped out the doorway. The smallest of breezes that had blown themselves by had felt colder than the coldest gales in The Frostmane Peaks. I didn’t expect tonight to be any different; but I couldn't have been more wrong. As I walked down the empty sidewalk, I began to contemplate my place in this world. I worked the same, tedious desk job every night. I went home to nothing but my lonely self. My free time was little to none, and when I had any, I could never find even the tiniest shred of entertainment. My life had been in this rut for the years and I just brushed it off. But it began to become less and less tolerable. It set under my skin, and became an itch I didn’t know how to scratch. I had no idea what to do. Then, it hit me. A filly with a beautiful lavender coat and a long, flowing violet mane had stepped out the front door of the local library just down the street; her beautiful amethyst eyes staring into the black night sky, with nothing but a torn black scarf to keep her warm. It had hit me right away. “This is the moment that I’ve been waiting for.” I had thought. I had picked up my pace down the sidewalk, but not so fast it seemed like I was after the poor girl. “Hey, you gonna walk home with only that on?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t live too far from here.”

“Alright, but in this cold? Here, take my coat.” I said as I took off my warm jacket and threw it over her, hoping she’d accept my generous act.”

“Oh, thank you. But won’t you be cold?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I walk home at this time every night.” This was obviously a lie. My entire body had become numb when I took my jacket off from the exposure to the harsh weather.

“Well, that’s very kind of you. Thank you. Would you care to walk to my house with me?”

“I’d love to.“ At this point, I was completely dumbfounded. I didn’t think I’d be this far so fast. Albeit, I didn’t know a thing about her but her face and voice. But compared to most times in my life, I felt like I was accomplishing something. We began walking, and for the first minute or so, our conversation was lacking. It wasn’t until we got into the residential area that either of us said a word. Not until she finally spoke up.

“So, you said you’re out here this late every night, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a night shift desk job at Hoofington Inc.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah...really.”

“No way! My daddy owns that place.”

“Really? You’re Mr. Hoofington’s daughter? To be quite honest, I didn’t think that he had a daughter.”

“It’s okay, I hear that a lot. He doesn’t have the most of appealing personalities to anypony who isn’t family.”

“Yeah, I can definitely see that in him.” Another awkward silence broke out. I knew I had to keep the conversation up if I wanted to keep getting closer to her. “So, what were you doing out here so late?”

“Well, if you must know, I’ve been living alone lately; I just moved out of my parents house a few months ago. I’ve kinda been getting a little lonely lately, so I’ve been coming out to the library and checking out a romantic novel or two.”

“Oh, I see. I’ve been living on my own for a few years, now.”

“Aww, that sounds sad. How have you been holding up?”

“I’ve been fine, my life has just been slow; kinda going nowhere right now.” After all the time, walking in the bitter cold, we finally came to a stop at her doorstep. “Well, I guess this is where we split paths. You can keep the coat, umm... I never caught your name.”

“My name is Amethyst Hoofington.”

“Wow, what a beautiful name. Mine is Cobalt. I hope we can talk again sometime.”

Twilight had been keeping close to Starbuck, eyes on the book, blinking but once or twice, and following along right where he had been reading. She enjoyed going at a slower pace rather than her usual frantic way of reading. No matter how fast she read, the information she gathered just stuck. Though at this slower pace, Twilight could really feel herself within the story. Feeling every emotion as if it were her own, hearing every word as if spoken directly to her. She caught herself getting closer and closer to Starbuck with each page read. And she liked his warmth, his soft voice entrancing her. With each new chapter came more and more romance than Twilight had ever read before. She found herself sighing and catching her breath at a particularly important parts. Starbuck seemed to notice because each time this happened a slight smile would appear on his face, making Twilight blush. Starbuck pulled her in closer, reassuringly, and Twilight let him. She closed her eyes and just listened to Starbuck as he read to her; getting lost in his words and her imagination. With his sweet, silver-tongued voice, and the soft whisper with every word he breathed from the pages, Twilight fell deeper into a harmonious trance of the love and adoration that she could feel from Starbuck’s warming heart; melting her heart as it melted his. The book had brought itself to a point where Cobalt had joined the lovely Amethyst in her fire-warmed home. The mood had been set; the two slowly warming up to each other. Twilight began contemplating whether or not she should take advantage of this moment to make a move or not. The timing was nearly perfect, but not perfect enough. She wanted to give it more time; letting the story arch flow until it came to just the right time. Starbuck had turned the page, and came to Cobalt waiting on the couch. Soon after, Amethyst had come out of her bedroom, and joined him on the couch. Neither of the characters speaking for a few pages, until Cobalt had finally tried to get a sentence out. But as he tried to speak, Amethyst jumped on him, reaching in for a kiss, and as Amethyst made her move, so did Twilight; jumping onto Starbuck, knocking the book out of her way, and locking her lips with his. Twilight, having this been her first ever kiss, had no idea what it was going to feel like. But what she had felt had been a greater feeling then any book could ever tell her. She could feel his hoofs reaching around to the back of her head; Starbuck’s moist lips touching her’s. Twilight felt his warm breath, as she breathed her’s into his mouth. Starbuck pulled away slowly, as did Twilight; both ponies holding each other close.

“You’re just perfect, Twilight.”

“You’re everything I ever wanted in a man. Please, don’t let this moment end; not just yet.” She pulled him back and brought their lips together again. They lied together, in the grass, under the tree, and feeling each other’s heart-felt affection until the sun had begun to set below the endless horizon.

After the sun had set, and the luminescent full moon had positioned itself high in the night’s sky, Starbuck had walked Twilight back to her home; ready to meet her parents and brother for the first time. Twilight had opened the door in front of him, and stepped inside to greet her parents. “Mom, Dad, I’d like both of you to meet somepony.” Starbuck stepped through the doorway, just a little behind Twilight. “This is Starbuck. I met him today at the library. We got to talking and found we had a bit in common. So, we decided to take our day and spend it in the park together. We spent the entire day talking and reading together, and we found out that we have a lot in common. So, as of today, we decided that we’re going to start dating.”

“Oh, how sweet, Twilight!” Her mother exclaimed, “We’re both really happy for you.”

“My little girl’s finally growing up.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle.” He held his hoof out to Mr. Sparkle as he got up out of his chair. Mr. Sparkle reached up and greeted Starbuck with a returning hoofshake.

“Pleasure to meet the boy who’s gonna make my little girl happy. Wish we could stay and chat, but the Mrs. and I gotta get going. We got some friends to meet for some time out at the casino.”

“Okay, fair enough.” Twilight acknowledged, “Do you know where Midnight is? He still needs to meet Starbuck.”

“Yeah, he left a few hours ago. He said he was going to some filly named Applejack’s house.”

“Wait, is today the 20th already?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

Twilight let out a little chuckle. “Oh, nothing. It’s just Applejack’s birthday today, and Midnight made a promise to her for her birthday.”

“Well, alright. We’re not gonna try and figure out things we probably don’t wanna know. We’ll be heading out, then. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do if we were here.”

“Don’t worry, Dad. We won’t.” Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle walked out the door, side by side, and Mr. Sparkle had shut the door behind them. “It’s too bad that Midnight isn’t here. I really wish you could’ve met him, tonight.”

“That’s alright. There’s always next time. And I’m definitely planning on seeing you again sometime.”

“Aww, you’re so sweet.”

“Hey, Twi. I’m home.” Midnight was standing in the doorway, slouched over on the doorframe. “Who’s your friend.

"Oh hey, Midnight; perfect timing. I’d like you to meet somepony. Midnight, this is my new boyfriend, Starbuck. Starbuck, this is my older brother, Midnight.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Midnight.” Starbuck held his hoof out to Midnight, expecting a hoofshake. Midnight simply stared at him; starting with a stare of sheer disapproval.

“No. Twilight, I don’t want you dating him.”

“What?! Who ever said that was for you to decide?!”

“You’re too young, Twilight.”

“Really, Midnight? I’m too young. I’m 17 years old. I think I’m capable of making my own decisions.”

“I’ve seen how irrationally you think when you’re driven by your strong emotions.”

“Midnight, the only pony acting irrationally because of their strong emotions right now is you. Just please, give it a chance.”

Not liking the idea of his little sister, the pony that he felt that he had to keep safe, dating somepony he didn’t know had held in his mind. But nevertheless, Midnight kept his defenses to himself. "Alright, fine! I'll let you date him, Twilight.” He turned his attention to Starbuck. “But if I ever find that you even made her shed the smallest of fucking tears, you better start praying to fucking Celestia that I have even the slightest big of mercy on your pathetic little fucking soul!” Midnight had nearly pressed his forehead to Starbuck’s Midnight’s horn touching Starbuck’s head, and Starbuck’s horn touching Midnight’s head; both ponies could feel their eyes nearly touching. “You got that?!"

“*gulp* Got it...” Starbuck replied, feeling the sweat beating down his face.

“Good. Now, even though I approved, I still don’t like you.” Midnight trotted away, shooting fire out of his nose as he went down the hallway to his bedroom.

“I’m really sorry, Starbuck. He’s not normally like this. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. I’m sure he’s just a little stressed. He probably doesn’t hate you.

A faint, “Yes I do.” Came down the hall from Midnight’s bedroom.

“It’s okay; I’m sure this will brush over soon enough.”

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, Twilight.”

“Alright.” She reached up and gave him one last kiss on the lips, just before he went out the front door, and walked home. The smile across her face disappeared as Starbuck stepped out, and an angry glare came across her face as she stared down the hall towards Midnight’s room. As she slammed his door open, Midnight quickly jolted up in his bed. “What the hell is wrong with you, Midnight?!”

“What’s wrong with me?! What’s wrong with you?!”

“There is nothing wrong with Starbuck, and you’re just too stuck up to see that!”

“I still don’t want you to date somepony I don’t know!”

“How bad do you think he could be?! He works with his grandmother in the family’s public library!”

“Yeah, but that’s one thing. There could be a whole other side to him that you don’t know!”

“He is one of the sweetest ponies you could ever know and you have yet to give him a chance! You know what we did today?! We sat under a tree together and he read a book to me! Does that sound like he’s some shifty guy with another side to you?!”

“I’m just not gonna trust him until I get to know him, okay?!”

“I just don’t see why you’re acting so irrational. You’ve always seemed like one of the most clear headed ponies I have ever known.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight. It’s just that we just got the family back together, and now that you’ve gotten a boyfriend, I don’t want to see him taking the family apart.”

“Midnight, don’t worry, our family’s not gonna be torn apart because I have a boyfriend.”

“I know, it’s just hard. Just give me a chance to get to know him first before I trust him.”

“I understand, but you’re still being too over protective. I’m almost 18, Midnight.”

“Yes, I know; you’re growing up. And it’s hard to see you growing up so fast. Just give me some time to think alone in my room, alright?”

“Alright, I’ll give you time alone. Maybe in the morning we can talk on my way to the library. That sound good?”

“Yeah, and maybe I could pick up a book on learning Caelian.”

“Sounds good to me, I’ll see you in the morning then, Midnight.” She closed the door behind her; yet she was still distraught about Midnight’s concerns.