Warriorsby SolidFireChaptersPrologue: FireflyPrologue: RiccoPrologue: Cloud SkipperChapter 1: FireflyChapter 2: Cloud SkipperChapter 3: FireflyPrologue: FireflyThe unrelenting wind buffeted my face with sand, its grainy and annoying texture brushed through my mane and felt as if it was piercing the skin under my fur. I made the mistake of opening my wings to try to fly, the useful appendages immediately caught the wind and threw me backwards. I had the strange, spinning sensation ponies get when they fall then I felt my back hit the sand. I covered the top of my eyes, then opened them, seeing sand blowing over me in what looked to be a never ending torrent, the scorching sun beamed down, but was shrouded by the sandstorm. “Well shit...” I cursed, spitting out some of the grinding sand in my mouth. I knew this had been a stupid idea, I should have never listened to Thunder Cloud or Roaring Rain. They had dared me to fly into a sandstorm for fifty bits, and who in tartarus was I to not accept? I mean, fifty bits could get me quite a lot. I sighed, “Money isn’t everything, Firefly.” I spoke my mother’s words, she had told me that countless times, and yet I still get into things like this. I brought myself to my hooves and ran towards the way I had been going, hearing a louder and louder hurricane of laughter. I had to admit, I started laughing too once I broke out of the wall of the sandstorm, dropping at the hooves of a laughing stallion. A dark blue hoof helped me up and dragged me away from the sandstorm. “Holy shit, Firefly, I didn’t think you could do that!” Roaring Rain said. “Well, I did.” I said, looking around. “Where did Thunder Cloud get off to?” I asked. He made a sour-looking face. “Um, he said he would be back in a few minutes, he was going to... uh, get the money we owe you.” I raised an eyebrow at him, but disregarded it. “I’ll just go meet him!” I said cheerfully, spreading my wings for flight. “Wait!” He called out suddenly, making me tuck my wings back down. “He... uh, was acting really weird, I think he might be proposing today!” He said. I felt my heart skip a beat, Thunder Cloud and I had been dating for a little over a year now, everything had been running smoothly. I thought of his dreamy, golden eyes, his smooth, ash coat and soft, thundercloud-black mane. I felt my wings flare out again and I took off, I had to see him. I unconsciously flew across town with a wide smile on my face, if there was a thermometer for happiness and you measured me with it, the meter would break. I stared straight ahead, never giving a glance to the sand and mud built homes. To me, it was normal, to others from across the world, it would be different. I stopped over the large house at the end of Haynolulu street, looking in the ceiling window that would show down to Thunder Cloud’s bedroom. What I saw there, would stay in my heart forever. At first I thought he was just standing on top of his bed, but as I flew closer, I saw another face, another face I recognized from High School Mercedes Sapphire. On top of her, rutting her like there was no tomorrow, was Thunder Cloud, my coltfriend. Not her coltfriend, my coltfriend. I felt tears well up in my eyes, my vision blurred for a few moments. When I opened my eyes again, she had her bright blue eyes opened, as well as her mouth, staring up at me. It took a few seconds for Thunder to realize what she was doing, then he also looked up, staring up at me. Tears were like liquid fire, burning my eyes. I dropped down to the front door, taking his spare keys he had given me and swung the door open. It felt like every step I took up the stairs I was growing hotter and hotter with fury. He opened the door before I got up the stairs. Looking at me with frightened eyes. “Firefly, I-” I pushed past him, entering his bedroom and coming face-to-face with Mercedes. “What are you doing here?” She asked. Her lipstick looked like it had just been redone, I was determined to knock the smirk right off of her face, but I pushed past her too, exhaling deeply. “I’ve come to get my things.” I said. “Then I’m leaving.” As much as I hated my own words, I knew I would achieve nothing with violence, it was over between us. I started grabbing a few things that were mine when Thunder came up behind me, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Sweetie, please, don’t do this.” Thunder said imploringly. I didn’t speak, but I whipped his hoof off rather forcefully with my wing. “Firefly.” He demanded, spinning me around and holding my shoulders. “Let go of me.” I said, trying to back up, but only finding myself against a wall. He grasped one of my wings with his own, massaging the base of it and sending a tingling sensation into my spine. “C’mon, baby, you know I love you.” He said, increasing pressure on my wing. Mercedes flicked her hair impatiently in the background, mumbling something to herself. “Stop.” I said, twisting his wing in an awkward position. He took his foreleg and raised me up on the wall, holding it under my chin. My hindlegs were just touching the ground enough to keep me from choking, but he raised a bit more, lifting me completely off the ground. “You aren’t going anywhere.” He said, “You were nothing until I took you in, you didn’t have friends, you were on the streets for fuck’s sake.” I remembered my foalhood, moving from house to house, I remembered when we had to leave dad. I remembered ending up here. Meeting Thunder Cloud and his friends in high school. He did take me in, he pretty much supported my mother and me. I felt instinct take over my body, I realized that I was choking, suffocating against his grip. I looked at his wing in my wing, the closeness of my hindlegs to his stallionhood, then his muzzle, then I reacted. First, I delivered a ball-breaking kick to his stallionhood, he dropped me and backed up a few hooves. Next, I twisted his wing with my own, doing a frontflip over him and twisting the flying appendage until it was bent backwards and I heard a menacing pop! Finally, as he fell onto his right, holding his now broken wing, I spun around and blew him onto his bad wing with a skull-shattering kick to his temple. I took a silent breath, grabbed my leather jacket from his closet and walked out, pushing the starstruck Mercedes out of the way. I stared into the mirror, my room was lit by four candles, my pink fur still had bits of sand in it, as well as my purple-blue mane and tail. I sat back on my haunches, breathing heavily from the fly home. I blinked, looking closer at my purple eyes, marveling at the almost artificial sparkle and glow that came from the nearby candlelight. I exhaled deeply, looking down at my hooves. “It’s okay, girl, you did what you had to.” I said to myself. I looked to the right, seeing the bathroom, I dragged myself in there, turning on the water to the shower and stepping in, the warm water surged down over me, running through my mane and in between my eyes, I shut my eyes, twisting my neck to pop it. The water gave me a warmth that was like a mother’s hug. I yawned slowly, a sleepy feeling building up in my chest. After everything that had happened today, I was ready for bed. After shampooing myself, I stepped out of the shower, a towel held my mane up and I whipped my tail back and forth to dry it off. I slipped a cozy velvet robe over my body and splayed out on my bed, letting my mane hang free. I stretched my legs freely, holding them in the air for a second before I dropped them back down at my sides. I brought my tail up, rubbing it across my belly, feeling the soft dampness against my soft fur. Knock, Knock, Knock. I raised an eyebrow, someone was knocking on my door. I looked at the clock on the wall, it was half past midnight. I wondered who could be knocking on the door at such a time. Knock, Knock, Knock. “Yeah, I’m coming...” I said, exiting my room and quickly skipping towards my front door, slowly opening it. Three ponies in professional-looking suits were standing there, two larger, dark blue stallions stood on the sides of a light yellow mare. “Firefly?” The mare said. “Yes, may I help you three?” The stallion on her left’s horn lit up and he mumbled something. “We need you to come with us.” The mare said demandingly. I backed up, “Wait, what?” I asked. “But, what about my-” “Your mother is already in good hands, she is staying in a Royal Suite in Canterlot.” She said, cutting me off. I blinked. “Canterlot... Equestria?!” I stared in disbelief, neither of the ponies expressions changed the slightest bit, this was clearly no joke. “Yes, Ma’am.” The mare said, “Princess Celestia needs you.” “Princess Celestia?! What does she want with a pony like me?!” I asked. The mare reached out her hoof to me, “Everything will be explained when we get there, we just need you. Right now, it is a National Emergency.” The mare didn’t wait for me to answer, she extended her hoof and touched my shoulder. I was falling. Falling fast. I could not open my wings, I was completely frozen in place. Yet I was falling. Just as quick as it happened, a blinding light flashed, and I covered my eyes. “Hello, Firefly. Author's Note So here's another story, and this one is written mostly by The Mirage and... CybeastHunter, which is a user that no longer exists. This is an amazing collaboration story that is already well underway. I hope you all enjoy it! Prologue: RiccoAn underground arena bustled with activity. Music blared in the background, but all the real attention was down at The Pit. The Pit was just a sandy floored area surrounded by rickety wood planks. Two griffons were fighting claw to claw inside. If you don’t know anything about griffon fights, they are no holds are barred. This was a fight that lasted until one of them were knocked out, or even dead in some cases. One Griffon was easily twice the weight of the other, who was trying to use his small size to his advantage. The bigger of the two swept a claw and tripped the smaller, then slammed into its side, pushing out all the air in its lungs. The bigger picked the smaller one up and threw him into the side, snapping some planks like twigs. An announcer blared from a radio somewhere. “RICCO THE CRUSHER WINS AGAIN!!!” The announcer shouted, “CAN ANYONE STOP THIS ROUGH AND TUMBLE GRIFFON?!?! Seeing as I was the one in question, I decided to say nothing. I just walked to the other side of the arena and slumped down, taking another drink from my Cider. A random griffon jumped down from the crowd into the pit. the crowd roared. “I’ll fight ‘em.” The new griffon said. “It seems we have a challenger.” the announcer said, “Let’s get this thing started!” I immediately got up and kicked the other griffon to the ground. When the griffon tried to get up, I punched his face, sending him right back down. “T-That’s not fair!” The griffon said, holding his nose. “All’s fair in a fight to the death!” I said, before kicking sand into the griffon’s eyes. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and smashed his head into another side of the arena, knocking him unconscious. The announcer blared loudly again. “NO ONE CAN STOP THIS GRIFFON FOR ALL IT’S WORTH!!” The announcer said. I was tired of all the noise and fighting, I’ve probably paid for this month’s rent, and today’s dinner twofold with all of these matches. I spread my wings and jumped over the barrier and walked away, not looking back until I got to the winnings table. When I did, the other griffons didn’t say a word. I picked up the forty thousand bits and walked out and flew to my apartment. When I reached my door, I looked to see if the paper had fallen from the opening between the door and the wall. Of course it hadn’t. I looked back up and opened the door, closing and locking it before doing anything. I walked over to the closet and opened it to find my SSA, peppered and loaded for anything. I looked over to another weapon that I’d had no use for yet. It was like a musket, but had a longer barrel. It also had a telescopic lens on the top of the firing mechanism. Knock, knock, knock I picked up and hid my Single Action Army in my wing. I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. It was the griffon from the ring, the one I kicked sand into. I open the door and held it open with one hand. “What?” I said, trying to sound uninterested. “Give me my money back.” He gritted through his teeth. “No.” I said, I put my hand on the trigger. “You cheated.” The griffon unfurled his wings “No, I didn’t.” I said again, pulling the firing pin back. “YES YOU DID!” The griffon pulled out a shotgun. But I was faster. A .75 caliber round dug into the griffon’s skull, not leaving the other side. He dropped, dead, to the ground. I simply closed the door and waited. … … … AHHHHHHHH! “There we go.” I picked up my things, as quickly as possible. dismantled the strange weapon and put it into a bag, along with a few days worth of food, a nice suit I’d had forever, never finding a time to wear it. I took down everything I’d taped up over the years. I took out one of my primary feathers and placed it in the front of the door. I looked over the room one last time. Everything still out was replaceable. Knock, knock, knock. I looked at the door, then to the window. The window seemed more friendly than the door right now. I covered my front with my wings and lunged through the window. I opened my wings as soon as I heard the door give way. “Hey!” One called. The accent was different than my own, but I couldn’t place it. I was at least thirty meters away from my home when I felt myself fall over, it was like a gigantic wasp had stung me on the wing, I felt the ‘venom’ streak through the rest of my body. I was shaking, face-first in the dirt, cursing from the pain. I heard movement behind me, I tried to unfurl my wing, but only found it numb. The SSA had fallen at my side, I made an attempt to reach for it, but it was kicked away before I could get my claws on it. I didn’t see claws, nor paws smacking it away. I saw hooves, large, but weak looking, pony hooves. “W-w-what... the f-fuck...” I said. The male pony grabbed under my beak and stared me in the eyes, speaking quickly and aggressively. “Are you Ricco Porvet?” He asked. “And what if I am?” I countered breathlessly. “Look, I don’t care what went down back there, I only care who you are and if you are the Griffon I am looking for.” He said, squeezing my wing with his unicorn magic. “Yeah, so what?” I said, not thinking about the pain. The pony dropped my wing and pulled me up, I stood a bit taller than him, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention to my size. “I need you to come with me.” “Last time someone said that to me, and I listened, I was beaten senseless in the back of a shed.” I said, surprising the unicorn with my claws. The unicorn looked down at my claws, but looked back up at me. “Well I assure you, Princess Celestia won’t be hosting any private beatings to any griffons.” He said. “It is against our way to torture.” Well, I did recognise the name Celestia. “You say that now.” I said, becoming a little less menacing. “Ricco, Celestia needs you,” He said. “Do you know what the Elements of Harmony are?” “Sure...” I said, “but why do I care?” “Because you’ll get a good pay to get them back.” He said. “And, judging by your ego, it will be easy peasy.” “Okay, smarty pants. Which type of the Elements of Harmony do I have to save? The ponies themselves, or the stupid necklaces?” I asked, I only act stupid to throw people off. The stallion chuckled to himself for a second, then looked up with what looked like a tear in his eye. “Fuckin’ both.” He said. “Huh, need to think about this for a second.” I said, pretending to contemplate the matter. “No time to think, we have to act.” He said. “I will teleport you to Celestia directly, we have two others working with you to get them back, once the deed is done, you can get your pay, and go back to this place.” His horn flared up with magic before I could speak, a blinding light threw me away from him and I felt a spinning sensation. Then, just as fast as I could contemplate what was happening, I was someplace far different. Two ponies sat in front of me, a large, white mare with both a horn and wings, sitting upon a great throne, and a smaller, pink mare with only wings. She stared at me for a few seconds, then turned away, showing off the back of what now looked like light armor. “Well fuck you too.” I said to the pink mare, then turned to the white mare, “Celestia, I presume?” Prologue: Cloud SkipperIt was bad, definitely bad news. I had done something wrong, very, very wrong to be called to the Princess directly. I hit my hoof against my head repeatedly, I couldn’t remember anything I had done lately to set anypony off. Sure I argued with some of Luna’s Night Guard a few times, but all of the guards did that! Each and every Night Guard was a rival with a Royal Guard, we would argue constantly if we could. I felt sweat begin to bead on my forehead, I was in trouble for something, no doubt, but for what exactly?! I clicked my hooves nervously against the stone walkway as I slowly inched toward the castle’s excessively large doors. I looked up at their massive height, trying to contemplate what could all fit in there. Most Royal Guards knew that Canterlot Castle was once used to house dragon’s, but hadn’t been used for such a purpose for hundreds, if not thousands of years. I bumped my head into the door, not knowing that I had gotten so close to them. I looked around, trying to see if somepony had seen my foalish mistake. One guard stood on either side of the door, not moving a muscle, but I knew that deep down, they were laughing their asses off. I frowned, and slowly creaked the door open. “Excuse me?!” I heard a mare say. I looked in the building, Celestia was up on her throne, looking down at two others, on the left, a large, brown, white and black Griffon that was clearly angered, on the right, a smaller, pink mare in a light suit of leather armor with a steel neck cuff that elongated from the end down to her wings were glaring daggers at one another. I had never seen either of the two before. “Ricco, I will advise you not to speak to my subjects in such an impolite manner.” Celestia said, motioning to the Griffon. “If you need some time for the teleportation spell to wear off, you may find your quarters at the end of the hall that way.” She said, pointing to left. The Griffon stomped past the mare, snapping his tail like a whip as he strode past her. “Such immaturity...” Celestia mumbled, looking my direction. I had forgotten that I had been walking towards the scene the entire time, and I was now just a few yards away from Celestia herself. She inhaled, “Cloud Skipper, it is nice to see you again.” “N-nice to see you again as well, P-princess.” I stuttered, bowing quickly. The pink mare gave me a quizzical look which I picked up on from the corner of my eye. “Do you know why I brought you here today?” My mind banked, I couldn’t focus on a single thought in the millions that swirled through my mind. “N-no Princess.” Even her blinking seemed to carve into my very soul, I wasn’t ready for any form of punishment. I didn’t even know what I had done to make her angry. “Sit down, I wanted to speak to all three of you together, but from what I have heard, Ricco has already gotten the memo.” She explained, looking over to the direction the Griffon, who I assumed was Ricco, had gone. The pegasus mare beside me sat down, she was a light, but not quite bubblegum pink with a bluish-purple mane and tail. She had a slight frown on her face. “Cloud Skipper, this is Firefly, she is from Haywaii.” Celestia said, gesturing to the mare. “She has come a long way in order to help us.” “No disrespect princess, but what exactly am I helping you with?” Firefly asked, tapping her hoof against the ground. Celestia looked calmly down towards her, “Six of Equestria’s most beloved heroes and six of the most sacred artifacts have been taken from Equestria.” I heard myself gasp. “Princess, are you talking about-” “The Elements of Harmony.” She said. “As well as their bearers.” The mare stood up, “But how are two random, regular ponies and a griffon supposed to stop something that was powerful enough to take the Elements?” She asked. Celestia sighed. “I asked myself the same question when I thought of this idea...” She said softly, looking down. “But I visioned you three, and you three only, each one of you have a gift, even if you don’t see it.” She explained. “I am willing to put Equestria on the line for this.” “For this? For a hunch?!” Firefly raised her voice. “I would bet my life on it.” She said. Firefly sat down and looked down at her hooves. “This is so crazy...” She mumbled. Celestia’s voice cracked. “I understand if you do not feel the same way, I will schedule for your return, Firefly.” I looked over to Firefly, then spoke. “Firefly, I don’t know you, I don’t know what you have been through, but I know one thing for certain...” I began. “When the Princess asks for something so great, she is not wrong.” I bowed before Celestia. “I will do it, for you and the ponies I swore to protect.” Firefly looked over at me, her eyes sparkled with an unseen emotion. “Fine... If you think this is best for Equestria, who am I to argue?” Firefly asked, bowing as well. “I will do it.” A few stomps came from the left hallway, directing my attention to a visibly vexed Griffon. “I’m not bowing, and I’m not doing it for you babies, and, just so you know I don’t take orders unless they’re fair...” Ricco said,. “But yeah, I’m in.” Firefly put her hoof in front of her, I put my hoof on hers, noticing the motion. Ricco calmly slid over and put his claws on my hoof. “Then it is settled then.” Celestia said, stepping down from her throne and leading us down the right hallway. “Come.” We followed, an intense glow flashed from her horn. “You three will be training as much as you can until Monday morning, which is when you will be off to Equestius to find them, my sources tell me that they are located somewhere in the Cheval Desert.” “Equestius is quite far from home, Celestia.” Firefly said, “How would we know where to find anything?” Ricco piped up, “Moving around will be a piece of cake, I know the layout of all the countries, Griffonia doesn’t exactly want to not know what we’re up against.” I turned my head and glared at him, “What do you mean, against?” I asked. Ricco kept silent, which seemed to bug Firefly. “Now, now, I did not bring you three here to fight amongst yourselves, I brought you to fight against your enemy.” Celestia said, trying to divide us. “And who might that be?” Firefly asked. Somepony blocked our path up ahead, an orange pony in a military grade jacket and a pair of aviators stood strong. As we came up next to her I noticed her as Spitfire, the Wonderbolt Captain. Spitfire had received military training just as much as any other pony would if they were to join the Royal-Guard or what-not. As far as I was concerned, The Wonderbolts were just as much of guards as we were. “I see you’ve brought along some newbies for me, Princess.” She said, her raspy voice kind of echoed through the halls. “Not exactly, Spitfire.” Celestia said, “They are trained in their own ways, this one especially.” She said, pointing a hoof towards me. I released the strap of my helmet and pulled it from my head. It felt like my mane could breathe now, the cool, yet calm air flowed through it. “Ah, Cloud Skipper.” Spitfire said. “Looks like I only have two newbies.” “One.” Ricco said, pointing an accusing claw at Firefly. “Oh, dammit.” Firefly said. “Excellent.” Spitfire said with a menacing smirk. “Let’s get started.” Chapter 1: FireflySpitfire was definitely not a girly-girl, oh no, she had us working 24-7 since we first spoke to her. My wings had never be the strongest, but they were not weak. The Wonderbolt had us each carrying loads of fifty pounds on each wing while they were outstretched, leading across a room that was as large as a hoof-ball field. The stallion, Cloud Skipper and the Griffon, Ricco, seemed to be having no trouble whatsoever. I could understand why Ricco’s wings were so strong, they were gigantic! But Cloud Skipper moved just as fast as the Griffon with his powerful wing cradling the weights like they were marshmallows. “What the hell are you doing back here, newbie?!” Spitfire yelled, popping up beside me. “I’m a mare, Ma’am, I’m not as... strong as those two.” I said, regretting my words. “Just because you are a mare doesn’t mean you can show weakness, that’s when ponies take advantage of you, because they know...” Spitfire delivered a wild kick to my side, knocking the wind out of me and causing me to fall over, she stood over me with an annoyed smile. “...they can overpower you.” I jumped up, letting my wings fall to my side. “Neither of them can overpower me.” I said with an angry tone. “Oh? Is that so?” Spitfire said, turning to the two, who had finished. “Ricco, get over here!” Ricco tensed for a second, but complied. “What?” “She thinks that you can’t overpower her.” Spitfire said, staring up at the griffon without a hint of fear. “What do you think about that?” “I think it’s a challenge.” Ricco said, then his mouth grew into a grin. “Then a challenge it is.” Spitfire said. “Fight her, right here, right now.” “Okay.” Ricco opened his wings and lunged at me. We rolled until we hit the wall, where Ricco punched me across the face with tremendous force. My own blood spattered across the floor. I thought fast and used the wall as leverage to push Ricco away from myself, giving me time to notice just how powerful the punch had really been. It was blinding, and put me in a trance-like state for a few moments. I moved quickly across the ground as the griffon charged again, missing by just mere inches, I delivered a swift blow to the back of his head while I was behind him. Ricco used his tail to trip my hind legs. I fell to the ground and Ricco slammed both fists into my stomach, pushing out all the air in my lungs. He picked me up by the neck and launched me back to the wall. I felt myself leave consciousness for a split second, but stood up nonetheless, taking in a few quick, shallow breaths. “You have fight in you...” Spitfire taunted me. “...and that will give you your own advantages.” She turned to Ricco, “You attack almost blindly, but can hit harder than her, or Cloud Skipper over there.” She explained. “Cloud is almost a mixture between you two, he attacks quickly, but powerfully.” I tried to talk, but my jaw was in a tight, gripping pain, so I nodded. “Are we done here?” Ricco asked, sitting down. I approached the griffon carefully, waiting to see if he would try to attack again. I slowly raised a hoof for a shake and nodded towards it. His hand shot towards my face and I closed my eyes in expectancy of another hard hit. Instead, I felt a hand on my head, not a fist to the face, ruffling my mane. “See you soon, Bubblegum.” Ricco said, getting up and walking towards the door. I watched him leave, then sighed, “Fherken Dhek...” I tried. Spitfire chuckled a bit then spoke. “I’ll see you three tomorrow. Your room is in the west hallway, fifth door on the left.” I walked out of the room with Cloud Skipper slowly, walking side by side with him down the hallway towards my room. I kind of rotated my jaw around, then took my tongue off of my teeth and spoke to the stallion. “So, you ever met Ricco before?” I asked him. “No, I haven’t. I haven’t met all that many griffons come to think of it.” Cloud replied. “You ever fought one?” I asked, gingerly touching the side of my face. “Once or twice, yeah. They always fight dirty, not really caring how much that have to hurt somepony in order to win.” Cloud said. I stopped at the room I was put in. I looked at the door for a second, then looked at Cloud, who was still looking at me. “Don’t you need to get to your room?” I asked. “I was put in this room too.” He said. I feared the worst immediately, I swung the door opened and saw a giant griffon lounging on a bottom bunk of a bed. “Somepony’s going to be in the hospital by morning.” Ricco said as he looked towards us. He probably assumed they’d be in the same room when he saw the bunk beds. “If it’s me, someone will have a broken beak.” I said, fluttering up to the top bunk of the opposite bed. “I’m lightest, so I get top.” “I meant whoever put us in the same room, maybe you should stop always assuming you’re the subject of the sentence, Bubblegum.” Ricco said. “My fur is not bubblegum!” I shouted. “It’s just pink.” “Somepony is already named Pinkie, so I can’t call you that, Bubblegum.” Ricco said, his voice remained constant. “Why can’t you just call me by my name, Firefly?” I asked. “I like nicknames, Bubblegum.” Ricco said. “Okay, fine.” I said. “I think we all just need to just chill.” Cloud said. “We all know you two started on the wrong hoof, so why don’t we try to get to know each other, instead of fighting.” “Okay, we can go in a circle, I’ll go first.” I said. “Ricco, where are you from?” “Griffonia.” Ricco said. “Now me, Firefly, tell us about your family.” I froze. Family wasn’t the biggest part of my life, I knew I had a sister, somewhere, but my dad had left when we were foals. “I have my mom, that’s about it.” I said. “My turn, what’s everyone good at? How do you make money?” “I just worked around, I had gotten out of school awhile ago, so I didn’t really get a job.” I said. “I’m a guard, as you can see.” Cloud Skipper said. “So... Butt-kisser and wild card?” Ricco questioned, but didn’t wait for answer, ”Good, your turn, Bubblegum.” I sighed. “How do you make money Ricco?” “I do... Things.” Ricco said, “You’d probably arrest me if I told you. “I’m not gonna judge you if you’re a stripper.” I said playfully. “You wish.” Ricco said. “Maybe.” I said, rolling over on my back and looking at him upside down. “But I’m guessing you’d like this mare better.” “You, still, wish.” Ricco flicked my nose. “Cute.” I chuckled, “Actually, do all griffons hit as hard as you do? Because I think you dislocated my jaw.” “Not that I know of.” Ricco said, “That was your question.” “I’m about ready for bed, so you kids can keep on doing whatever you're doing, I’m going to bed.” Cloud Skipper said with a yawn. “Whatever,” Ricco said. “So, Bubblegum, What were you doin’ before coming here?” “Taking a bath, but before that I was beating my ex’s ass.” “Wow, he must’ve been a pussy.” Ricco said. “He was fine for awhile, but I found him cheating on me.” I said. “And he was strong, I was faster though.” “Ok ok.” Ricco said, “Your turn.” “I think I’m going to turn in as well, we probably need to be up early tomorrow...” I said, feeling a yawn coming. “Alright, suit yourself.” I turned around in the top bunk, facing the wall and pulling the blanket over my shoulders. The soft fabric caressed my cutie mark as well as my shoulder blades, it was odd to have a different blanket than my own, one that I had been under for years. The feeling was alien, but comforting. It didn’t take long for the darkness to embrace me, gently rocking me to sleep. Light. A lot of light. “Fuck... ow...” I grumbled, rolling onto my belly and pulling the pillow over the back of my head. The rays of the sun had left a little lightshow on the insides of my eyelids, making my idea of going back to sleep more challenging. I pushed up on my front hooves, pulling my neck back to stretch. I fluttered my wings gently, then stretched them as well, popping a few joints in them. I let out a slow and quiet moan at the nice feeling and left my wings up for a few more seconds. “Look’s like someone had a nice dream.” I heard a voice say, I turned left to see Ricco with a grin as he stared at my wings. I put them down at my sides and jumped off of the top bunk, landing with a light Thunk! “You wish.” I said, doing a little wiggle as I stretched, pushing my flank into the air and getting my head low to the ground. I caught Cloud Skipper staring, “Like what you see?” I asked with a little girly grin, still stretching. “Let’s try to keep what we are doing here as professional as possible.” Cloud said, his cheeks a little rosy. “I don’t think professionals stare.” I giggled, striking another pose with my wings splayed out and a cocky grin on my face. “Yeah? And I don’t think professionals flaunt their body around either,” He said, clearing his throat and looking away. “I wasn’t at first.” I said, whipping him lightly with my tail and opening the door. “I’m going for a fly, who’s coming?” Ricco looked at me with an unamused face. “Too lazy.” he said. “I might as well join you.” Cloud replied, sliding off of the bed and trotting to my side. I sashayed out of the room, Cloud followed close behind. I had never seen the interior of Canterlot Castle in the day, there were dozens of murals and fancy windows shining brightly in the bright sun. I gawked at the six murals lining a hallway near the entrance of the castle, each one were painted with a different color, violet, cyan blue, a buttery yellow, pink, orange and a deep purple. Each also had intricate designs with numerous shapes and almost visibly swaying lines. I smiled, there were no castles or grand halls in Haywaii, it was nice to see something so different. We made it to the grand entrance, where I stopped and looked over at Cloud Skipper, who walked through the halls uninterested in the beautiful works of art. “What is it like to guard this place?” I asked, “Ponies must try to steal from here all the time.” “Actually, it is pretty peaceful here. Ponies respect the Elements of Harmony too much to steal their commemoration from the princess.” He explained. I was almost startled. “Wow, if we had something like this in Haywaii, it would be empty by nightfall.” I said. “It just shows that everypony here doesn’t know what happens everywhere else except for the princess.” “If it doesn’t concern a pony’s own well being, they won’t care to think about what happens anywhere else.” He said, turning towards me. “But it does, ponies die all the time from murder, rape and other horrible things... doesn’t that happen here?” I asked. “Not really, no. If it does, the princesses will handle it quickly and prevent it from spreading.” “That’s... good, I guess.” I said, shaking the thoughts of murder and rape from my mind and opening the door. The sun immediately burned my eyes and I had to cover them, when I could put my hoof down, I could see that Canterlot was bustling with activity, it was like somepony had started a riot. “It is... legal... to fly around here, right?” I asked awkwardly. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” “In some of our cities you can get arrested and beaten for flying too high.” I explained. “Well, that won’t happen here. The princesses try to keep all of the laws as fair as possible.” He said. “Oh, that’s nice of them...” I said, spreading my wings and taking off. The feeling of having wind run over you as you glide through the sky is different than swimming, or running, or jumping, it gives an unmatched sense of freedom. To see the ground slowly disappear under you gives an elegant glow to the rest of the world, being locked to the ground you can only see things from a few heights, but flying you can go anywhere and see anything. I smiled as I looked down on the now tiny city and ponies looking like an ant colony. An idea popped in my head, I flew down towards Cloud Skipper, who gained height with a lazy speed, almost bumping into him with momentum. “You wanna race?” I asked excitedly, it had been awhile since I had a good race, I thought for sure a soldier would be faster than any regular pony. “Really? I’m not all that fast.” “Aww,” I groaned, why couldn’t anypony ever work there wings for speed instead of just raw power? “Fine, I’ll go easy on you.” “No, if we race, then you go all out. It isn’t worth it if you don’t push yourself.” I grinned and squealed with giddiness, even though it was embarrassing. “Okay, we race through the streets down there,” I said, pointing to the streets of Canterlot. “then we’ll circle around and end at the castle.” I explained, lining the path with my hoof. “Sounds good to me.” “Okay, onetwothreego!” I quickly shouted, shooting downwards at the buildings. My eyes turned into slits as I neared the ground at air-slicing speed, just before I collided I tilted my wings and shot through a crowd of ponies, never even clipping one. I turned right on the first road, flying past windows and shooting a cocky grin towards the ponies inside. I turned my head back to the path and noticed a sign coming at me at blinding speeds, I curved around it just in time to not hit it, brushing off the little bit of panic that had gone over me. I turned left then right again swiftly, frightening some of the ponies under me. I remembered the race, I looked behind me, where Cloud Skipper was nowhere to be seen, I grinned confidently. Turning back, I was surprised to see a figure flying in front of me. Cloud Skipper. I was so confused I almost missed the next turn. I pushed the beat of my wings to a new extreme, pulling ahead of him and focusing harder on the race and my wings. I didn’t pay attention to the mass amount of papers and other light things flying up from under us as we sped by. I grinned, giving an extra boost of confidence soar through my body, tickling my spine and sending adrenaline roaring through my veins. I noticed a black spot clouding my vision, I looked over casually, feeling my body turn and react before I could think about it. As I stared longer into the spot I noticed the odd rotation it was doing, it seemed like the more I tried to make sense of it the more my mind was... off. “Distracted are we?” A voice asked. Suddenly, a unreal force stopped me, holding me in place. The buildings around me seemed to fall off the face of the earth and the sky steamed and melted into an endless black. Absolute nothingness surrounded me, I tried to judge if I was falling, or upside down. Wherever I was, it was almost dizzying. I tried to move, but only found myself locked in place. I struggled harder, the blackness felt as if it was choking me. “You think you know what you’re getting into, don’t you?” The voice from before reappeared, but echoed from all around, making it impossible to judge where it was coming from. “Wha-? Who are you? Where am I?” I asked, I feeling of panic had leaped into my heart. “You think you know darkness, think you know pain... Let me tell you something, doll...” It said, ignoring my question. Suddenly, a figure broke the endless black barrier and appeared right in front of me. A pair of yellow and red eyes stared with a menacing glare, a jagged tooth in a devilish smile disturbed my very being. This... thing, floated before me in an almost casual manner, like it had done it millions of times before, yet the wings on it’s back did not move an inch. It chuckled and grabbed my chin with two griffon talons. “You don’t.” I tried to scream, his talons were beginning to dig into my lower jaw, but I felt a smoke-like substance imprisoning my throat from making a noise. It cleared its throat “I want to show you something.” It said with a disturbing giddiness. “It will be the last thing you see, and the last you forget.” The thing dragged me with some intense magical power, a more... ‘full’ enviroment built up around us, a room, white walls, stone floor. In the middle of it... Me. My left front hoof was completely gone, cleanly cut through, my face was brutally beaten, both eyes blackened, light streams of blood and an oil-like substance streamed from my closed eyes. Both of my back hooves were twisted in impossible ways, both bleeding at knee joints, my right ear was half gone, and I crawled slowly, painfully with one right hoof. I watched helplessly as the doppelganger bled out onto the floor. My body was past panic, I was in full-stage freakout mode, trying desperately to free myself from the unbreakable magic surrounding me. “So let me start this, as punishment for ever accepting your mission, you can choose to go on, and end up like this, or stop now, and leave for home.” It said, turning me towards him so I faced him. He pressed his paw and griffon claw against my face and leaned in to my ear, whispering with it’s foul breath. “Discord.” Suddenly a claw on his right and a talon on his left extended into my eye sockets, pressing against them with tremendous force. A sharp, blinding pain shot through my brain, I felt myself tumbling erratically, an invisible fire burned my eyes, I heard somepony scream, my eardrums felt like they were going to blow in my ears. I felt my lungs light on fire, like I had been inhaling smoke for the past hour. I rolled, feeling a hot liquid under me, something crunched as I moved, I heard another scream before I noticed it was me who was causing it. I had never felt so many things in my life, the fright of me not being able to see or even hear as I felt like I was hauled away was hellish. I had no idea where I could be, I was on somepony, or somethings back, moving rather quickly. That was the last thing I remembered. Chapter 2: Cloud SkipperI stared through an open door into a pure white room, rays of sunlight poured in from a window opposite of where I was standing, against the middle of the wall was a small bed, white sheets and chrome bars holding it all together. A steady beep let me know that the unmoving mare hadn’t lost her life during the crash. I thought hard about the whole thing, everything was going swimmingly throughout the whole race. Was it momentum that caused her to not stop? Was she getting distracted? I shook my head and stepped into the room, a dark blue alicorn stood over the mare, looking down at her blindfolded face. A look of sorrow stuck on her face. Princess Luna. The alicorn leaned down towards the small pegasus, her horn glowed with a dark blue aura, she pressed the tip of her horn against the blindfold, enveloping it with the aura, at first I didn’t move, she was trying to heal her, which was perfectly possible, but to restore her vision was not. “I am sorry Ma’am.” The nurse said. I rotated my head, seeing the nurse, and a mare I hadn’t seen before, her face had a look of disappointment and anger. “You have nothing to be sorry about, she should know better than to use those damn wings in such a way.” The mare said, she blew a hot pink hair from her face. I frowned, “A mother should not be so angry with her child, she was only trying to have a little fun.” I said. “You shouldn’t be telling me how I should mother my child.” The mare said, her pink fur seemed to waver with anger. “Watch your tongue.” I said, “I was only trying to help.” The mare stormed out of the room, I tried not to stare, I saw a pink magic envelope the door and slam it shut. I did a double-take. Firefly’s mother was a unicorn? I must have thought out loud. “My dad named me.” A raspy, broken voice said. I turned around, Firefly shuffled under the covers. “He was a unicorn too, but he was happy to have a pegasus, my mom didn’t share his feelings.” She said, trying to sit up. “Firefly, I do not think you should be moving so early...” Luna warned as the mare got out of the bed. Firefly took her hooves and untied the blindfold. “Wait!” Luna said. Firefly seemed to freeze, she turned and looked at me, her eyes were clouded, and whiter than before. She blinked. I noticed a glow in her eyes, like there was a fire behind them. “Why can’t I...” She blinked again, then waved a hoof in front of her face. Luna cleared her throat, “I’m sorry, Firefly.” “Am I...” Firefly choked on her own words, “Blind?” Even if Firefly was in the hospital, Ricco and I still showed up for training, the griffon hadn’t even seen the mare yet, which I thought was rather cold of him. “How exactly are we supposed to save the Elements of Harmony with a blind mare slowing us down?” He would ask, I would not answer, I didn’t know if she even considered going anymore. As Spitfire yelled at us for not paying attention, the doors to the gymnasium opened, Celestia walked in, Firefly by her side, I noticed quickly that her eyes were covered by a black leather blindfold that wrapped around her head and tucked tightly behind her mane so it was hidden from behind. Spitfire turned to Firefly and Celestia with a respect that Ricco and I had not got from her yet. “Spitfire, I want you to fight this mare.” Celestia said. Spitfire choked on Celestia’s words, “What?!” She asked, “You can’t be serious!” Celestia did not move, her eyes remained fixed on Spitfire. Spitfire straightened herself and removed her jacket, “Very well then.” I raised an eyebrow and walked up to Firefly, leaning close to her. “What in Tartarus are you doing?” I hissed. She looked at me through the leather blindfold, a frown on her face. “Training.” She said with a smirk. I backed up, I didn’t know what Celestia was doing, she was blind! Spitfire moved back a few steps and Celestia moved away from Firefly. Spitfire charged first, swinging a wild hoof towards the mare’s head, which was dodged almost expertly. Spitfire swung again, her hoof was caught by Firefly’s, she tried to escape by hitting the other mare with her free hoof, which was also caught and pinned to the ground. Firefly attacked quickly with a jarring headbutt, she pulled the Wonderbolt’s front hooves toward her and slid beneath her, sweeping the orange mare’s legs out from under her, When Spitfire tried to get up, a menacing uppercut lifted her off the ground and made her land with a violent thud. Spitfire was out cold. I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding. “Damn...” Ricco cooed. Celestia moved towards Firefly, putting a hoof around her neck and taking her over to where Ricco and I were standing. “I assume you two want to know how she did such a thing.” Celestia said. “Of course.” Ricco said, looking over at Firefly, who looked a bit more frightening with the blindfold on. “Luna used an old Night Vision spell on her eyes, giving her a bit of her sight back, she says Firefly will be able to see the aura of all things, managing to see the outline clearly through the blindfold, but can’t see anything with it off, Luna is trying to find a solution for this, but hasn’t come up with anything yet.” Celestia explained. “As for her enhanced awareness, the aura of what she is in contact with reacts with her brain in a way Luna nor I can explain.” Firefly nodded by her side, she lifted a hoof to me. “I never noticed you were so cute.” She said, running a hoof through my mane, a grin on her face. Being called cute wasn’t exactly something I would think I would be described as, but I took the compliment anyways. Ricco chuckled, “You kids are so cute.” He joked. Firefly turned around and walked towards the door, whipping her tail side to side, giving me a clear view of her flank, I knew she was meaning to do this, and had nothing against it. “Pervert.” Ricco whispered loudly to me. Celestia didn’t seem to hear, “You two are dismissed.” She said. I followed Firefly’s trail to the door, thinking about her sudden mood towards me, she was just a mare, right? I thought about her calling me cute, she was pretty cute as well. I shook my head, I was thinking too much about her, I had a job to do. I stared at the bottom of the top bunk, trying to think today back over, I rolled, facing the wall. I couldn’t get my mind off of the mare above me, the mare I had met only two days ago, I didn’t have a reason to be thinking about her so much, she had called me cute. Big deal, it’s not like she kissed me, she hadn’t done anything affectionate, and I hadn’t done anything back. A whimper echoed through the small room. I froze, Ricco was asleep, and that couldn’t have been him. There was movement on the bunk above me. I gulped, I sat up to help, but felt my chest pull me back, I noticed my pounding heart, I was nervous as hell. I shook off the sudden feelings and fluttered up to the top bunk, peeking over it, Firefly was facing the wall, shivering and whispering. Dis... Discord... I noticed the name. “Firefly, are you alright?” I whispered so she could hear. She stopped shivering, I watched her chest rise and fall for a few seconds before she rolled over, I looked into two glowing white eyes, tears streamed down the mare’s face. “Yeah, I-I’m fine.” She said. “Are you sure?” I asked, feeling a sense of sadness at her eyes. She blinked and sniffled. “Yeah, just... go back to bed...” She said. I did what she asked. After about five minutes, I heard her shift from above me again, I closed my eyes, trying to find sleep. I felt something poke me on the shoulder, I opened my eyes, seeing a mare with a pillow in her mouth, looking down at me. I could almost feel the heat from her blush. “Um... Sorry to bother you, but, um...” She hesitated. “Do you think I could sleep with you tonight? It’s, um, cold up there.” I blinked, then moved over to the wall, I could hear the fear in her voice, but I couldn’t find out why it was there. “Of course.” I said. The mare set the pillow down and laid down beside me, I pulled the covers over the both of us and turned towards the wall, closing my eyes again, I could feel the heat from the mare’s body, she had a scent of a field of flowers in the spring. I did a double-take when the mare’s arms wrapped around me, her body pressed against my own, she didn’t seem to mind me being so close, feeling her heartbeat against my back was almost soothing, it felt nice to have somepony next to me. I felt it again, that push against my chest, I didn’t know what it was, but it had intensified since I had last felt it minutes ago. I fell asleep minutes later, wondering what could be causing this. Chapter 3: FireflyIt is different to wake up without any vision. It is kind of like when you wake up, but don’t open your eyes for a while. The only difference being I couldn’t open my eyes and look around, not now, not ever again. I blinked and rolled over, feeling a presence beside me. Cloud Skipper. I wrapped my hooves around him, and my heart jumped suddenly. I couldn't help but smile. It was nice to sleep with somepony; they were warm and just feeling them breath was soothing. I moved my hoof away from him and reached into my pillowcase, feeling a leather piece. I placed it over my closed eyes for a few seconds, then took it down and opened my eyes, exhaling as a blue aura outlined the room, giving me a better sense of direction. I looked over at Cloud Skipper, an interesting glow emanated from his outline, fading away like smoke after a few seconds. I smiled, moving closer to him and wrapping my arms around him, exhaling deeply. I felt him stir, he yawned as he awoke. “Good morning.” I cooed a little too affectionately. “Well, good morning to you too.” He said, rolling to look at me. I bit my tongue and took a risk, leaning into him more and curling my neck so my mane caressed under his chin and I could feel surrounded by his larger, stronger frame. “You’re so warm.” I said with a sweet smile. “Thanks, you’re pretty soft.” He said, raising a bit to give my head more room. I giggled, I felt a sudden pressure in my chest, I felt my heart rate escalate a bit. We stayed like that for a few minutes, before I heard shuffling in the opposite bed. “Well isn’t that cute.” Ricco said groggily. “You two been doing it all night?” I frowned, feeling a bit of offense in his humor. “No Ricco. We didn’t do anything. I don’t appreciate your tone.” Cloud said, I felt him move away from me, sitting up. “Hey, I don’t judge too much, she’d be a good buttbuddy.” He said. I jumped out of the bed and just about attacked him before I stopped myself. “I’m nopony’s bitch.” I snarled. “I’m not a pony.” Ricco snickered back. I turned towards the door, walking away before I felt a pair of eyes on me, I covered my flank with my tail, something I hadn’t normally done. “Quit staring asshole.” I said, my voice laced with aggression. I swung the door open and stomped out, slamming it behind me. I was met face-to-face with Spitfire. “Oh, um... good morning.” I said, hoping she hadn’t heard the conversation. She eyed me quizzically for a few seconds, her fiery orange irises locked with my clouded violet. “Morning, Firefly.” She said. “How are your eyes?” “Better.” I said, trying to figure out if she was testing me. “Princess Luna explained what she did to help, that is truly remarkable.” She said. “Can I take that as a compliment?” I asked. “Of course.” “Well, thank you then.” I side-stepped the larger mare and she walked into the room. I heard a shout, then I turned around, seeing Cloud Skipper on top of Ricco in the middle of the room, the pegasus smashing his hoof repeatedly into the griffon’s face and beak. I rushed back into the room, Spitfire stood there, watching with an amused smile on her face. “Fuck you!” Cloud shouted, hitting Ricco again. Ricco pushed him off and got up, his talons extended and he rushed the pegasus, slashing at his neck, slicing off a bit of fur, then ramming him into the wall. “Okay! That’s enough!” Spitfire shouted, her voice louder than I would have expected. The two stopped abruptly, looking over at the wonderbolt. “Anypony want to explain why the fuck you two are fighting?” The orange mare asked. The two walked towards the door, Cloud pushed Ricco to the side so he could go first, I ran after him. I knew it wasn’t the best question to ask, but I asked it regardless. “Are you alright?” I asked, stepping in front of him to stop him. He tried to push past once, firmly, but not hard enough to cause harm. I held him in place, lifting his chin and checking his neck, a small trail of blood was leaking from the cut down onto his coat. I didn’t think first, but I acted, moving my muzzle close and licking the blood from his coat. Cloud Skipper jumped back, I saw a pink aura around his face and his wings rustle a bit, then I realized what I did. I felt a blush invade my cheeks. “I... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that...” I said, cursing myself under my breath. Okay, it wasn’t a mystery to me anymore, I was attracted to the stallion. I was very attracted to him, I felt safe around him whenever Ricco was pushing me around or when Spitfire was pissed off. I felt my heart rate increase as he spoke. “D-don’t worry about it...just give me a bit of a warning next time, okay?” “Yeah... um... are you alright?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a few scratches and bruises. Nothing a Royal Guard isn’t used to.” He said. I gave him a friendly peck on his cheek and smiled at his dumbfounded expression. “Thanks for protecting me... Cloud Skipper.” I said, my blush intensifying. “You’re welcome.” He said, smiling softly. I turned around, looking down the hallway. I turned back, seeing the stallion walking away. “Hey! Cloud Skipper!” I called. He turned around, “Yeah?” He asked. “You wanna walk with me?” I asked. He stood for a second, then spoke. “Sure.” So we walked, occasionally using our wings to get around the city. It had been a few hours since we had woke up, the sun was up in the very middle of the sky, shining down to light the city. As Cloud Skipper and I walked down the road, Ricco approached us, his expression had changed since this morning. “Hello Ricco,” I said, watching him take his place on my right, where Cloud Skipper was on my left. “nice of you to join us.” “Likewise.” He said simply. “Are you alright since this morning?” I asked. “Yes! why wouldn’t I be?!” Ricco yelled, then flinched, “Sorry, I just... Nevermind.” I flinched at Ricco’s random outburst, then continued walking beside the two. I moved a bit closer to Cloud. “Are you alright?” Cloud Skipper asked. “What was that?” “Nothing important.” Ricco said. “It’s pretty important, considering we’re going to go save the Elements of Harmony together.” I said, bumping Ricco lightly and noticing how soft his feathers were. “I-I get home sick okay?” Ricco blushed, “It was a crap of an apartment, but it was where I lived.” I blinked. This big, rough griffon got homesick? “If it makes you feel any better, I kind of do too, I didn’t even think about what I left before I left it.” “Ehh, maybe a little.” The griffon said, looking the other direction. “Cloud, you live in Canterlot, where is a good place to go to pass time?” I asked, looking over at Cloud Skipper. “Canterlot isn’t exactly an entertaining city. There’s not all that much to do here.” Cloud said with a shrug. “Oh, great.” I said. “Any nightclubs? Bars? Anything?” “Well, there is Club Pon-3. That place is pretty good.” “Then we should-” I facehoofed, “We need to go back to the castle first, a Night-Club probably wouldn’t be doing anything special right now.” I said, “We can go spar until later, Spitfire would probably be happier too.” “Firefly! You and Cloud Skipper are up!” Spitfire shouted. I stepped out near Spitfire, and Cloud followed, getting a few hooves away from me and stopping, facing me. I grinned and winked at him. “Don’t hold back, Skippy.” I said, taunting him, with the ‘Come hither’ hoof movement. The stallion rushed me, putting his strength into his shoulders and putting his head down. I easily side-stepped his attack, giving him a quick smack on the back of his head. When he stopped, he looked over at me with a confused expression. “Try again.” He moved fast, getting up on his hind legs and swinging a hoof at me. I stopped the hoof with my own and flared my wings, smacking him across the face. “Come on, you can get it this time.” I taunted again. He chuckled for a second, then swung two hooves rapidly, I dodged the first one, but the other one caught me across the face, spinning me around and sending me to the ground. As I looked at the floor, I got an idea. I whimpered pitifully, trying to get some fake tears to come from my eyes, eventually letting them drip onto the ground. I heard him kneel down behind me, he put his hoof on my shoulder. “Firefly, are you-” I hopped up, sending my hoof into the bottom of his jaw, then held his other hoof with my wing, pulling him towards me and pushing him backwards again with a hoof to his stomach, he lurched over and held his stomach, I stood up on my hind legs and dropped my body weight down onto his head with my elbow. He laid on the ground for a second, obviously surprised. I giggled a bit and helped him to his hooves, there was a cut over his eyebrow, leaking down his face. “You okay?” I asked him, trying not to laugh at his expression. “Yeah, I’m fine. I didn’t really expect you to fight dirty like that.” He said, shaking his head. “Hey, Cotton Flitter.” Ricco shouted from where Spitfire was, “She’s faster than you, anticipate her movements.” “You want to try your luck against her?” He shouted over at Ricco as I helped him walk towards Spitfire and Ricco. “You know what?” Ricco spread his wings, “Sure.” Ricco used his strong wings to fly to the arena and land with a thud. I was surprised that the ground didn’t crack. “I beat her once, I’ll do it again.” I looked over at Ricco, then to Cloud, licking his small wound. “Don’t worry,” I said, tasting the coppery flavor of blood. “I’ll be fine.” I trotted over towards the arena, stopping a few yards from Ricco, cracking the joints in my neck and grinning. “Let’s go.” Ricco used his wings to burst towards me, I countered by using my own to go higher than him, landing behind him. I rushed him while he had his back turned, swiping at the back of his head with my wing. I felt something foreign wrap around my middle and throw me from his back, I landed on the ground with a menacing thud. “One thing ponies don’t have, usable tails.” The griffon said, waving the said limb back and forth. I quickly hopped up, waiting for the larger being to make a move. He just stood there. Ricco started to look at his claws for dirt. I started slowly approaching him, watching his eyes scan my body for its every movement. I ended up right in front of him, as he towered over me, I smiled up at him. I flared my right wing, shooting a few feathers in that direction. His eyes moved just like I wanted them to, seizing the opportunity, I quickly shot upwards and gave him a quick punch with my left hoof, then my right, landing before him again. Before I could pull back, he grabbed my right foreleg joint and pulled the whole limb from its socket, causing a sickening crack to echo throughout the room. “Only dislocated.” Ricco said. A blinding pain invaded my brain as he spoke, I felt myself go flying back as he kicked me away, I heard myself scream, the pain was so intense I thought I was going to pass out, my whole foreleg felt like it had been ripped from my body. I managed to stand up after a few seconds, the pain making my outline-vision almost fail altogether, a red aura replaced the blue. I tried to stretch the limb, but found it to hurt worse. I felt myself almost fall again, but I caught myself with a wing. Wings. I watched as my vision blurred, Ricco came closer and closer until I rammed into him, launching him backwards. He used his wings to catch himself and land normally. “Are we done?” Ricco asked, untensing. Blood pounded in my ears, fury built up until I felt like I was going to breathe fire. My vision failed, then everything intensified. Wind passed my body as I felt my good hoof smashing into something, somewhere in between, I was thrown through the air, slamming back down, luckily on my good side. For a few seconds I thought I had passed out. “Nopony... that still sounds weird, nopony answered my question.” “Yeah... we’re done.” Cloud Skipper said, his voice drawing near me. I just laid there, keeping still, wishing for the pain to go away. “Are you okay Firefly? How’s your leg?” “H-how d-do you th-think?” I asked, feeling tears build in the side of my eyes. “It should be fine.” Ricco said, “I didn’t do anything major.” I felt myself getting lifted up, slowly, carefully I was placed on who I guessed was Cloud Skipper’s back. I stayed quiet as the three of us returned to our room.
Prologue: FireflyThe unrelenting wind buffeted my face with sand, its grainy and annoying texture brushed through my mane and felt as if it was piercing the skin under my fur. I made the mistake of opening my wings to try to fly, the useful appendages immediately caught the wind and threw me backwards. I had the strange, spinning sensation ponies get when they fall then I felt my back hit the sand. I covered the top of my eyes, then opened them, seeing sand blowing over me in what looked to be a never ending torrent, the scorching sun beamed down, but was shrouded by the sandstorm. “Well shit...” I cursed, spitting out some of the grinding sand in my mouth. I knew this had been a stupid idea, I should have never listened to Thunder Cloud or Roaring Rain. They had dared me to fly into a sandstorm for fifty bits, and who in tartarus was I to not accept? I mean, fifty bits could get me quite a lot. I sighed, “Money isn’t everything, Firefly.” I spoke my mother’s words, she had told me that countless times, and yet I still get into things like this. I brought myself to my hooves and ran towards the way I had been going, hearing a louder and louder hurricane of laughter. I had to admit, I started laughing too once I broke out of the wall of the sandstorm, dropping at the hooves of a laughing stallion. A dark blue hoof helped me up and dragged me away from the sandstorm. “Holy shit, Firefly, I didn’t think you could do that!” Roaring Rain said. “Well, I did.” I said, looking around. “Where did Thunder Cloud get off to?” I asked. He made a sour-looking face. “Um, he said he would be back in a few minutes, he was going to... uh, get the money we owe you.” I raised an eyebrow at him, but disregarded it. “I’ll just go meet him!” I said cheerfully, spreading my wings for flight. “Wait!” He called out suddenly, making me tuck my wings back down. “He... uh, was acting really weird, I think he might be proposing today!” He said. I felt my heart skip a beat, Thunder Cloud and I had been dating for a little over a year now, everything had been running smoothly. I thought of his dreamy, golden eyes, his smooth, ash coat and soft, thundercloud-black mane. I felt my wings flare out again and I took off, I had to see him. I unconsciously flew across town with a wide smile on my face, if there was a thermometer for happiness and you measured me with it, the meter would break. I stared straight ahead, never giving a glance to the sand and mud built homes. To me, it was normal, to others from across the world, it would be different. I stopped over the large house at the end of Haynolulu street, looking in the ceiling window that would show down to Thunder Cloud’s bedroom. What I saw there, would stay in my heart forever. At first I thought he was just standing on top of his bed, but as I flew closer, I saw another face, another face I recognized from High School Mercedes Sapphire. On top of her, rutting her like there was no tomorrow, was Thunder Cloud, my coltfriend. Not her coltfriend, my coltfriend. I felt tears well up in my eyes, my vision blurred for a few moments. When I opened my eyes again, she had her bright blue eyes opened, as well as her mouth, staring up at me. It took a few seconds for Thunder to realize what she was doing, then he also looked up, staring up at me. Tears were like liquid fire, burning my eyes. I dropped down to the front door, taking his spare keys he had given me and swung the door open. It felt like every step I took up the stairs I was growing hotter and hotter with fury. He opened the door before I got up the stairs. Looking at me with frightened eyes. “Firefly, I-” I pushed past him, entering his bedroom and coming face-to-face with Mercedes. “What are you doing here?” She asked. Her lipstick looked like it had just been redone, I was determined to knock the smirk right off of her face, but I pushed past her too, exhaling deeply. “I’ve come to get my things.” I said. “Then I’m leaving.” As much as I hated my own words, I knew I would achieve nothing with violence, it was over between us. I started grabbing a few things that were mine when Thunder came up behind me, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Sweetie, please, don’t do this.” Thunder said imploringly. I didn’t speak, but I whipped his hoof off rather forcefully with my wing. “Firefly.” He demanded, spinning me around and holding my shoulders. “Let go of me.” I said, trying to back up, but only finding myself against a wall. He grasped one of my wings with his own, massaging the base of it and sending a tingling sensation into my spine. “C’mon, baby, you know I love you.” He said, increasing pressure on my wing. Mercedes flicked her hair impatiently in the background, mumbling something to herself. “Stop.” I said, twisting his wing in an awkward position. He took his foreleg and raised me up on the wall, holding it under my chin. My hindlegs were just touching the ground enough to keep me from choking, but he raised a bit more, lifting me completely off the ground. “You aren’t going anywhere.” He said, “You were nothing until I took you in, you didn’t have friends, you were on the streets for fuck’s sake.” I remembered my foalhood, moving from house to house, I remembered when we had to leave dad. I remembered ending up here. Meeting Thunder Cloud and his friends in high school. He did take me in, he pretty much supported my mother and me. I felt instinct take over my body, I realized that I was choking, suffocating against his grip. I looked at his wing in my wing, the closeness of my hindlegs to his stallionhood, then his muzzle, then I reacted. First, I delivered a ball-breaking kick to his stallionhood, he dropped me and backed up a few hooves. Next, I twisted his wing with my own, doing a frontflip over him and twisting the flying appendage until it was bent backwards and I heard a menacing pop! Finally, as he fell onto his right, holding his now broken wing, I spun around and blew him onto his bad wing with a skull-shattering kick to his temple. I took a silent breath, grabbed my leather jacket from his closet and walked out, pushing the starstruck Mercedes out of the way. I stared into the mirror, my room was lit by four candles, my pink fur still had bits of sand in it, as well as my purple-blue mane and tail. I sat back on my haunches, breathing heavily from the fly home. I blinked, looking closer at my purple eyes, marveling at the almost artificial sparkle and glow that came from the nearby candlelight. I exhaled deeply, looking down at my hooves. “It’s okay, girl, you did what you had to.” I said to myself. I looked to the right, seeing the bathroom, I dragged myself in there, turning on the water to the shower and stepping in, the warm water surged down over me, running through my mane and in between my eyes, I shut my eyes, twisting my neck to pop it. The water gave me a warmth that was like a mother’s hug. I yawned slowly, a sleepy feeling building up in my chest. After everything that had happened today, I was ready for bed. After shampooing myself, I stepped out of the shower, a towel held my mane up and I whipped my tail back and forth to dry it off. I slipped a cozy velvet robe over my body and splayed out on my bed, letting my mane hang free. I stretched my legs freely, holding them in the air for a second before I dropped them back down at my sides. I brought my tail up, rubbing it across my belly, feeling the soft dampness against my soft fur. Knock, Knock, Knock. I raised an eyebrow, someone was knocking on my door. I looked at the clock on the wall, it was half past midnight. I wondered who could be knocking on the door at such a time. Knock, Knock, Knock. “Yeah, I’m coming...” I said, exiting my room and quickly skipping towards my front door, slowly opening it. Three ponies in professional-looking suits were standing there, two larger, dark blue stallions stood on the sides of a light yellow mare. “Firefly?” The mare said. “Yes, may I help you three?” The stallion on her left’s horn lit up and he mumbled something. “We need you to come with us.” The mare said demandingly. I backed up, “Wait, what?” I asked. “But, what about my-” “Your mother is already in good hands, she is staying in a Royal Suite in Canterlot.” She said, cutting me off. I blinked. “Canterlot... Equestria?!” I stared in disbelief, neither of the ponies expressions changed the slightest bit, this was clearly no joke. “Yes, Ma’am.” The mare said, “Princess Celestia needs you.” “Princess Celestia?! What does she want with a pony like me?!” I asked. The mare reached out her hoof to me, “Everything will be explained when we get there, we just need you. Right now, it is a National Emergency.” The mare didn’t wait for me to answer, she extended her hoof and touched my shoulder. I was falling. Falling fast. I could not open my wings, I was completely frozen in place. Yet I was falling. Just as quick as it happened, a blinding light flashed, and I covered my eyes. “Hello, Firefly. Author's Note So here's another story, and this one is written mostly by The Mirage and... CybeastHunter, which is a user that no longer exists. This is an amazing collaboration story that is already well underway. I hope you all enjoy it!
Prologue: RiccoAn underground arena bustled with activity. Music blared in the background, but all the real attention was down at The Pit. The Pit was just a sandy floored area surrounded by rickety wood planks. Two griffons were fighting claw to claw inside. If you don’t know anything about griffon fights, they are no holds are barred. This was a fight that lasted until one of them were knocked out, or even dead in some cases. One Griffon was easily twice the weight of the other, who was trying to use his small size to his advantage. The bigger of the two swept a claw and tripped the smaller, then slammed into its side, pushing out all the air in its lungs. The bigger picked the smaller one up and threw him into the side, snapping some planks like twigs. An announcer blared from a radio somewhere. “RICCO THE CRUSHER WINS AGAIN!!!” The announcer shouted, “CAN ANYONE STOP THIS ROUGH AND TUMBLE GRIFFON?!?! Seeing as I was the one in question, I decided to say nothing. I just walked to the other side of the arena and slumped down, taking another drink from my Cider. A random griffon jumped down from the crowd into the pit. the crowd roared. “I’ll fight ‘em.” The new griffon said. “It seems we have a challenger.” the announcer said, “Let’s get this thing started!” I immediately got up and kicked the other griffon to the ground. When the griffon tried to get up, I punched his face, sending him right back down. “T-That’s not fair!” The griffon said, holding his nose. “All’s fair in a fight to the death!” I said, before kicking sand into the griffon’s eyes. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and smashed his head into another side of the arena, knocking him unconscious. The announcer blared loudly again. “NO ONE CAN STOP THIS GRIFFON FOR ALL IT’S WORTH!!” The announcer said. I was tired of all the noise and fighting, I’ve probably paid for this month’s rent, and today’s dinner twofold with all of these matches. I spread my wings and jumped over the barrier and walked away, not looking back until I got to the winnings table. When I did, the other griffons didn’t say a word. I picked up the forty thousand bits and walked out and flew to my apartment. When I reached my door, I looked to see if the paper had fallen from the opening between the door and the wall. Of course it hadn’t. I looked back up and opened the door, closing and locking it before doing anything. I walked over to the closet and opened it to find my SSA, peppered and loaded for anything. I looked over to another weapon that I’d had no use for yet. It was like a musket, but had a longer barrel. It also had a telescopic lens on the top of the firing mechanism. Knock, knock, knock I picked up and hid my Single Action Army in my wing. I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. It was the griffon from the ring, the one I kicked sand into. I open the door and held it open with one hand. “What?” I said, trying to sound uninterested. “Give me my money back.” He gritted through his teeth. “No.” I said, I put my hand on the trigger. “You cheated.” The griffon unfurled his wings “No, I didn’t.” I said again, pulling the firing pin back. “YES YOU DID!” The griffon pulled out a shotgun. But I was faster. A .75 caliber round dug into the griffon’s skull, not leaving the other side. He dropped, dead, to the ground. I simply closed the door and waited. … … … AHHHHHHHH! “There we go.” I picked up my things, as quickly as possible. dismantled the strange weapon and put it into a bag, along with a few days worth of food, a nice suit I’d had forever, never finding a time to wear it. I took down everything I’d taped up over the years. I took out one of my primary feathers and placed it in the front of the door. I looked over the room one last time. Everything still out was replaceable. Knock, knock, knock. I looked at the door, then to the window. The window seemed more friendly than the door right now. I covered my front with my wings and lunged through the window. I opened my wings as soon as I heard the door give way. “Hey!” One called. The accent was different than my own, but I couldn’t place it. I was at least thirty meters away from my home when I felt myself fall over, it was like a gigantic wasp had stung me on the wing, I felt the ‘venom’ streak through the rest of my body. I was shaking, face-first in the dirt, cursing from the pain. I heard movement behind me, I tried to unfurl my wing, but only found it numb. The SSA had fallen at my side, I made an attempt to reach for it, but it was kicked away before I could get my claws on it. I didn’t see claws, nor paws smacking it away. I saw hooves, large, but weak looking, pony hooves. “W-w-what... the f-fuck...” I said. The male pony grabbed under my beak and stared me in the eyes, speaking quickly and aggressively. “Are you Ricco Porvet?” He asked. “And what if I am?” I countered breathlessly. “Look, I don’t care what went down back there, I only care who you are and if you are the Griffon I am looking for.” He said, squeezing my wing with his unicorn magic. “Yeah, so what?” I said, not thinking about the pain. The pony dropped my wing and pulled me up, I stood a bit taller than him, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention to my size. “I need you to come with me.” “Last time someone said that to me, and I listened, I was beaten senseless in the back of a shed.” I said, surprising the unicorn with my claws. The unicorn looked down at my claws, but looked back up at me. “Well I assure you, Princess Celestia won’t be hosting any private beatings to any griffons.” He said. “It is against our way to torture.” Well, I did recognise the name Celestia. “You say that now.” I said, becoming a little less menacing. “Ricco, Celestia needs you,” He said. “Do you know what the Elements of Harmony are?” “Sure...” I said, “but why do I care?” “Because you’ll get a good pay to get them back.” He said. “And, judging by your ego, it will be easy peasy.” “Okay, smarty pants. Which type of the Elements of Harmony do I have to save? The ponies themselves, or the stupid necklaces?” I asked, I only act stupid to throw people off. The stallion chuckled to himself for a second, then looked up with what looked like a tear in his eye. “Fuckin’ both.” He said. “Huh, need to think about this for a second.” I said, pretending to contemplate the matter. “No time to think, we have to act.” He said. “I will teleport you to Celestia directly, we have two others working with you to get them back, once the deed is done, you can get your pay, and go back to this place.” His horn flared up with magic before I could speak, a blinding light threw me away from him and I felt a spinning sensation. Then, just as fast as I could contemplate what was happening, I was someplace far different. Two ponies sat in front of me, a large, white mare with both a horn and wings, sitting upon a great throne, and a smaller, pink mare with only wings. She stared at me for a few seconds, then turned away, showing off the back of what now looked like light armor. “Well fuck you too.” I said to the pink mare, then turned to the white mare, “Celestia, I presume?”
Prologue: Cloud SkipperIt was bad, definitely bad news. I had done something wrong, very, very wrong to be called to the Princess directly. I hit my hoof against my head repeatedly, I couldn’t remember anything I had done lately to set anypony off. Sure I argued with some of Luna’s Night Guard a few times, but all of the guards did that! Each and every Night Guard was a rival with a Royal Guard, we would argue constantly if we could. I felt sweat begin to bead on my forehead, I was in trouble for something, no doubt, but for what exactly?! I clicked my hooves nervously against the stone walkway as I slowly inched toward the castle’s excessively large doors. I looked up at their massive height, trying to contemplate what could all fit in there. Most Royal Guards knew that Canterlot Castle was once used to house dragon’s, but hadn’t been used for such a purpose for hundreds, if not thousands of years. I bumped my head into the door, not knowing that I had gotten so close to them. I looked around, trying to see if somepony had seen my foalish mistake. One guard stood on either side of the door, not moving a muscle, but I knew that deep down, they were laughing their asses off. I frowned, and slowly creaked the door open. “Excuse me?!” I heard a mare say. I looked in the building, Celestia was up on her throne, looking down at two others, on the left, a large, brown, white and black Griffon that was clearly angered, on the right, a smaller, pink mare in a light suit of leather armor with a steel neck cuff that elongated from the end down to her wings were glaring daggers at one another. I had never seen either of the two before. “Ricco, I will advise you not to speak to my subjects in such an impolite manner.” Celestia said, motioning to the Griffon. “If you need some time for the teleportation spell to wear off, you may find your quarters at the end of the hall that way.” She said, pointing to left. The Griffon stomped past the mare, snapping his tail like a whip as he strode past her. “Such immaturity...” Celestia mumbled, looking my direction. I had forgotten that I had been walking towards the scene the entire time, and I was now just a few yards away from Celestia herself. She inhaled, “Cloud Skipper, it is nice to see you again.” “N-nice to see you again as well, P-princess.” I stuttered, bowing quickly. The pink mare gave me a quizzical look which I picked up on from the corner of my eye. “Do you know why I brought you here today?” My mind banked, I couldn’t focus on a single thought in the millions that swirled through my mind. “N-no Princess.” Even her blinking seemed to carve into my very soul, I wasn’t ready for any form of punishment. I didn’t even know what I had done to make her angry. “Sit down, I wanted to speak to all three of you together, but from what I have heard, Ricco has already gotten the memo.” She explained, looking over to the direction the Griffon, who I assumed was Ricco, had gone. The pegasus mare beside me sat down, she was a light, but not quite bubblegum pink with a bluish-purple mane and tail. She had a slight frown on her face. “Cloud Skipper, this is Firefly, she is from Haywaii.” Celestia said, gesturing to the mare. “She has come a long way in order to help us.” “No disrespect princess, but what exactly am I helping you with?” Firefly asked, tapping her hoof against the ground. Celestia looked calmly down towards her, “Six of Equestria’s most beloved heroes and six of the most sacred artifacts have been taken from Equestria.” I heard myself gasp. “Princess, are you talking about-” “The Elements of Harmony.” She said. “As well as their bearers.” The mare stood up, “But how are two random, regular ponies and a griffon supposed to stop something that was powerful enough to take the Elements?” She asked. Celestia sighed. “I asked myself the same question when I thought of this idea...” She said softly, looking down. “But I visioned you three, and you three only, each one of you have a gift, even if you don’t see it.” She explained. “I am willing to put Equestria on the line for this.” “For this? For a hunch?!” Firefly raised her voice. “I would bet my life on it.” She said. Firefly sat down and looked down at her hooves. “This is so crazy...” She mumbled. Celestia’s voice cracked. “I understand if you do not feel the same way, I will schedule for your return, Firefly.” I looked over to Firefly, then spoke. “Firefly, I don’t know you, I don’t know what you have been through, but I know one thing for certain...” I began. “When the Princess asks for something so great, she is not wrong.” I bowed before Celestia. “I will do it, for you and the ponies I swore to protect.” Firefly looked over at me, her eyes sparkled with an unseen emotion. “Fine... If you think this is best for Equestria, who am I to argue?” Firefly asked, bowing as well. “I will do it.” A few stomps came from the left hallway, directing my attention to a visibly vexed Griffon. “I’m not bowing, and I’m not doing it for you babies, and, just so you know I don’t take orders unless they’re fair...” Ricco said,. “But yeah, I’m in.” Firefly put her hoof in front of her, I put my hoof on hers, noticing the motion. Ricco calmly slid over and put his claws on my hoof. “Then it is settled then.” Celestia said, stepping down from her throne and leading us down the right hallway. “Come.” We followed, an intense glow flashed from her horn. “You three will be training as much as you can until Monday morning, which is when you will be off to Equestius to find them, my sources tell me that they are located somewhere in the Cheval Desert.” “Equestius is quite far from home, Celestia.” Firefly said, “How would we know where to find anything?” Ricco piped up, “Moving around will be a piece of cake, I know the layout of all the countries, Griffonia doesn’t exactly want to not know what we’re up against.” I turned my head and glared at him, “What do you mean, against?” I asked. Ricco kept silent, which seemed to bug Firefly. “Now, now, I did not bring you three here to fight amongst yourselves, I brought you to fight against your enemy.” Celestia said, trying to divide us. “And who might that be?” Firefly asked. Somepony blocked our path up ahead, an orange pony in a military grade jacket and a pair of aviators stood strong. As we came up next to her I noticed her as Spitfire, the Wonderbolt Captain. Spitfire had received military training just as much as any other pony would if they were to join the Royal-Guard or what-not. As far as I was concerned, The Wonderbolts were just as much of guards as we were. “I see you’ve brought along some newbies for me, Princess.” She said, her raspy voice kind of echoed through the halls. “Not exactly, Spitfire.” Celestia said, “They are trained in their own ways, this one especially.” She said, pointing a hoof towards me. I released the strap of my helmet and pulled it from my head. It felt like my mane could breathe now, the cool, yet calm air flowed through it. “Ah, Cloud Skipper.” Spitfire said. “Looks like I only have two newbies.” “One.” Ricco said, pointing an accusing claw at Firefly. “Oh, dammit.” Firefly said. “Excellent.” Spitfire said with a menacing smirk. “Let’s get started.”
Chapter 1: FireflySpitfire was definitely not a girly-girl, oh no, she had us working 24-7 since we first spoke to her. My wings had never be the strongest, but they were not weak. The Wonderbolt had us each carrying loads of fifty pounds on each wing while they were outstretched, leading across a room that was as large as a hoof-ball field. The stallion, Cloud Skipper and the Griffon, Ricco, seemed to be having no trouble whatsoever. I could understand why Ricco’s wings were so strong, they were gigantic! But Cloud Skipper moved just as fast as the Griffon with his powerful wing cradling the weights like they were marshmallows. “What the hell are you doing back here, newbie?!” Spitfire yelled, popping up beside me. “I’m a mare, Ma’am, I’m not as... strong as those two.” I said, regretting my words. “Just because you are a mare doesn’t mean you can show weakness, that’s when ponies take advantage of you, because they know...” Spitfire delivered a wild kick to my side, knocking the wind out of me and causing me to fall over, she stood over me with an annoyed smile. “...they can overpower you.” I jumped up, letting my wings fall to my side. “Neither of them can overpower me.” I said with an angry tone. “Oh? Is that so?” Spitfire said, turning to the two, who had finished. “Ricco, get over here!” Ricco tensed for a second, but complied. “What?” “She thinks that you can’t overpower her.” Spitfire said, staring up at the griffon without a hint of fear. “What do you think about that?” “I think it’s a challenge.” Ricco said, then his mouth grew into a grin. “Then a challenge it is.” Spitfire said. “Fight her, right here, right now.” “Okay.” Ricco opened his wings and lunged at me. We rolled until we hit the wall, where Ricco punched me across the face with tremendous force. My own blood spattered across the floor. I thought fast and used the wall as leverage to push Ricco away from myself, giving me time to notice just how powerful the punch had really been. It was blinding, and put me in a trance-like state for a few moments. I moved quickly across the ground as the griffon charged again, missing by just mere inches, I delivered a swift blow to the back of his head while I was behind him. Ricco used his tail to trip my hind legs. I fell to the ground and Ricco slammed both fists into my stomach, pushing out all the air in my lungs. He picked me up by the neck and launched me back to the wall. I felt myself leave consciousness for a split second, but stood up nonetheless, taking in a few quick, shallow breaths. “You have fight in you...” Spitfire taunted me. “...and that will give you your own advantages.” She turned to Ricco, “You attack almost blindly, but can hit harder than her, or Cloud Skipper over there.” She explained. “Cloud is almost a mixture between you two, he attacks quickly, but powerfully.” I tried to talk, but my jaw was in a tight, gripping pain, so I nodded. “Are we done here?” Ricco asked, sitting down. I approached the griffon carefully, waiting to see if he would try to attack again. I slowly raised a hoof for a shake and nodded towards it. His hand shot towards my face and I closed my eyes in expectancy of another hard hit. Instead, I felt a hand on my head, not a fist to the face, ruffling my mane. “See you soon, Bubblegum.” Ricco said, getting up and walking towards the door. I watched him leave, then sighed, “Fherken Dhek...” I tried. Spitfire chuckled a bit then spoke. “I’ll see you three tomorrow. Your room is in the west hallway, fifth door on the left.” I walked out of the room with Cloud Skipper slowly, walking side by side with him down the hallway towards my room. I kind of rotated my jaw around, then took my tongue off of my teeth and spoke to the stallion. “So, you ever met Ricco before?” I asked him. “No, I haven’t. I haven’t met all that many griffons come to think of it.” Cloud replied. “You ever fought one?” I asked, gingerly touching the side of my face. “Once or twice, yeah. They always fight dirty, not really caring how much that have to hurt somepony in order to win.” Cloud said. I stopped at the room I was put in. I looked at the door for a second, then looked at Cloud, who was still looking at me. “Don’t you need to get to your room?” I asked. “I was put in this room too.” He said. I feared the worst immediately, I swung the door opened and saw a giant griffon lounging on a bottom bunk of a bed. “Somepony’s going to be in the hospital by morning.” Ricco said as he looked towards us. He probably assumed they’d be in the same room when he saw the bunk beds. “If it’s me, someone will have a broken beak.” I said, fluttering up to the top bunk of the opposite bed. “I’m lightest, so I get top.” “I meant whoever put us in the same room, maybe you should stop always assuming you’re the subject of the sentence, Bubblegum.” Ricco said. “My fur is not bubblegum!” I shouted. “It’s just pink.” “Somepony is already named Pinkie, so I can’t call you that, Bubblegum.” Ricco said, his voice remained constant. “Why can’t you just call me by my name, Firefly?” I asked. “I like nicknames, Bubblegum.” Ricco said. “Okay, fine.” I said. “I think we all just need to just chill.” Cloud said. “We all know you two started on the wrong hoof, so why don’t we try to get to know each other, instead of fighting.” “Okay, we can go in a circle, I’ll go first.” I said. “Ricco, where are you from?” “Griffonia.” Ricco said. “Now me, Firefly, tell us about your family.” I froze. Family wasn’t the biggest part of my life, I knew I had a sister, somewhere, but my dad had left when we were foals. “I have my mom, that’s about it.” I said. “My turn, what’s everyone good at? How do you make money?” “I just worked around, I had gotten out of school awhile ago, so I didn’t really get a job.” I said. “I’m a guard, as you can see.” Cloud Skipper said. “So... Butt-kisser and wild card?” Ricco questioned, but didn’t wait for answer, ”Good, your turn, Bubblegum.” I sighed. “How do you make money Ricco?” “I do... Things.” Ricco said, “You’d probably arrest me if I told you. “I’m not gonna judge you if you’re a stripper.” I said playfully. “You wish.” Ricco said. “Maybe.” I said, rolling over on my back and looking at him upside down. “But I’m guessing you’d like this mare better.” “You, still, wish.” Ricco flicked my nose. “Cute.” I chuckled, “Actually, do all griffons hit as hard as you do? Because I think you dislocated my jaw.” “Not that I know of.” Ricco said, “That was your question.” “I’m about ready for bed, so you kids can keep on doing whatever you're doing, I’m going to bed.” Cloud Skipper said with a yawn. “Whatever,” Ricco said. “So, Bubblegum, What were you doin’ before coming here?” “Taking a bath, but before that I was beating my ex’s ass.” “Wow, he must’ve been a pussy.” Ricco said. “He was fine for awhile, but I found him cheating on me.” I said. “And he was strong, I was faster though.” “Ok ok.” Ricco said, “Your turn.” “I think I’m going to turn in as well, we probably need to be up early tomorrow...” I said, feeling a yawn coming. “Alright, suit yourself.” I turned around in the top bunk, facing the wall and pulling the blanket over my shoulders. The soft fabric caressed my cutie mark as well as my shoulder blades, it was odd to have a different blanket than my own, one that I had been under for years. The feeling was alien, but comforting. It didn’t take long for the darkness to embrace me, gently rocking me to sleep. Light. A lot of light. “Fuck... ow...” I grumbled, rolling onto my belly and pulling the pillow over the back of my head. The rays of the sun had left a little lightshow on the insides of my eyelids, making my idea of going back to sleep more challenging. I pushed up on my front hooves, pulling my neck back to stretch. I fluttered my wings gently, then stretched them as well, popping a few joints in them. I let out a slow and quiet moan at the nice feeling and left my wings up for a few more seconds. “Look’s like someone had a nice dream.” I heard a voice say, I turned left to see Ricco with a grin as he stared at my wings. I put them down at my sides and jumped off of the top bunk, landing with a light Thunk! “You wish.” I said, doing a little wiggle as I stretched, pushing my flank into the air and getting my head low to the ground. I caught Cloud Skipper staring, “Like what you see?” I asked with a little girly grin, still stretching. “Let’s try to keep what we are doing here as professional as possible.” Cloud said, his cheeks a little rosy. “I don’t think professionals stare.” I giggled, striking another pose with my wings splayed out and a cocky grin on my face. “Yeah? And I don’t think professionals flaunt their body around either,” He said, clearing his throat and looking away. “I wasn’t at first.” I said, whipping him lightly with my tail and opening the door. “I’m going for a fly, who’s coming?” Ricco looked at me with an unamused face. “Too lazy.” he said. “I might as well join you.” Cloud replied, sliding off of the bed and trotting to my side. I sashayed out of the room, Cloud followed close behind. I had never seen the interior of Canterlot Castle in the day, there were dozens of murals and fancy windows shining brightly in the bright sun. I gawked at the six murals lining a hallway near the entrance of the castle, each one were painted with a different color, violet, cyan blue, a buttery yellow, pink, orange and a deep purple. Each also had intricate designs with numerous shapes and almost visibly swaying lines. I smiled, there were no castles or grand halls in Haywaii, it was nice to see something so different. We made it to the grand entrance, where I stopped and looked over at Cloud Skipper, who walked through the halls uninterested in the beautiful works of art. “What is it like to guard this place?” I asked, “Ponies must try to steal from here all the time.” “Actually, it is pretty peaceful here. Ponies respect the Elements of Harmony too much to steal their commemoration from the princess.” He explained. I was almost startled. “Wow, if we had something like this in Haywaii, it would be empty by nightfall.” I said. “It just shows that everypony here doesn’t know what happens everywhere else except for the princess.” “If it doesn’t concern a pony’s own well being, they won’t care to think about what happens anywhere else.” He said, turning towards me. “But it does, ponies die all the time from murder, rape and other horrible things... doesn’t that happen here?” I asked. “Not really, no. If it does, the princesses will handle it quickly and prevent it from spreading.” “That’s... good, I guess.” I said, shaking the thoughts of murder and rape from my mind and opening the door. The sun immediately burned my eyes and I had to cover them, when I could put my hoof down, I could see that Canterlot was bustling with activity, it was like somepony had started a riot. “It is... legal... to fly around here, right?” I asked awkwardly. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” “In some of our cities you can get arrested and beaten for flying too high.” I explained. “Well, that won’t happen here. The princesses try to keep all of the laws as fair as possible.” He said. “Oh, that’s nice of them...” I said, spreading my wings and taking off. The feeling of having wind run over you as you glide through the sky is different than swimming, or running, or jumping, it gives an unmatched sense of freedom. To see the ground slowly disappear under you gives an elegant glow to the rest of the world, being locked to the ground you can only see things from a few heights, but flying you can go anywhere and see anything. I smiled as I looked down on the now tiny city and ponies looking like an ant colony. An idea popped in my head, I flew down towards Cloud Skipper, who gained height with a lazy speed, almost bumping into him with momentum. “You wanna race?” I asked excitedly, it had been awhile since I had a good race, I thought for sure a soldier would be faster than any regular pony. “Really? I’m not all that fast.” “Aww,” I groaned, why couldn’t anypony ever work there wings for speed instead of just raw power? “Fine, I’ll go easy on you.” “No, if we race, then you go all out. It isn’t worth it if you don’t push yourself.” I grinned and squealed with giddiness, even though it was embarrassing. “Okay, we race through the streets down there,” I said, pointing to the streets of Canterlot. “then we’ll circle around and end at the castle.” I explained, lining the path with my hoof. “Sounds good to me.” “Okay, onetwothreego!” I quickly shouted, shooting downwards at the buildings. My eyes turned into slits as I neared the ground at air-slicing speed, just before I collided I tilted my wings and shot through a crowd of ponies, never even clipping one. I turned right on the first road, flying past windows and shooting a cocky grin towards the ponies inside. I turned my head back to the path and noticed a sign coming at me at blinding speeds, I curved around it just in time to not hit it, brushing off the little bit of panic that had gone over me. I turned left then right again swiftly, frightening some of the ponies under me. I remembered the race, I looked behind me, where Cloud Skipper was nowhere to be seen, I grinned confidently. Turning back, I was surprised to see a figure flying in front of me. Cloud Skipper. I was so confused I almost missed the next turn. I pushed the beat of my wings to a new extreme, pulling ahead of him and focusing harder on the race and my wings. I didn’t pay attention to the mass amount of papers and other light things flying up from under us as we sped by. I grinned, giving an extra boost of confidence soar through my body, tickling my spine and sending adrenaline roaring through my veins. I noticed a black spot clouding my vision, I looked over casually, feeling my body turn and react before I could think about it. As I stared longer into the spot I noticed the odd rotation it was doing, it seemed like the more I tried to make sense of it the more my mind was... off. “Distracted are we?” A voice asked. Suddenly, a unreal force stopped me, holding me in place. The buildings around me seemed to fall off the face of the earth and the sky steamed and melted into an endless black. Absolute nothingness surrounded me, I tried to judge if I was falling, or upside down. Wherever I was, it was almost dizzying. I tried to move, but only found myself locked in place. I struggled harder, the blackness felt as if it was choking me. “You think you know what you’re getting into, don’t you?” The voice from before reappeared, but echoed from all around, making it impossible to judge where it was coming from. “Wha-? Who are you? Where am I?” I asked, I feeling of panic had leaped into my heart. “You think you know darkness, think you know pain... Let me tell you something, doll...” It said, ignoring my question. Suddenly, a figure broke the endless black barrier and appeared right in front of me. A pair of yellow and red eyes stared with a menacing glare, a jagged tooth in a devilish smile disturbed my very being. This... thing, floated before me in an almost casual manner, like it had done it millions of times before, yet the wings on it’s back did not move an inch. It chuckled and grabbed my chin with two griffon talons. “You don’t.” I tried to scream, his talons were beginning to dig into my lower jaw, but I felt a smoke-like substance imprisoning my throat from making a noise. It cleared its throat “I want to show you something.” It said with a disturbing giddiness. “It will be the last thing you see, and the last you forget.” The thing dragged me with some intense magical power, a more... ‘full’ enviroment built up around us, a room, white walls, stone floor. In the middle of it... Me. My left front hoof was completely gone, cleanly cut through, my face was brutally beaten, both eyes blackened, light streams of blood and an oil-like substance streamed from my closed eyes. Both of my back hooves were twisted in impossible ways, both bleeding at knee joints, my right ear was half gone, and I crawled slowly, painfully with one right hoof. I watched helplessly as the doppelganger bled out onto the floor. My body was past panic, I was in full-stage freakout mode, trying desperately to free myself from the unbreakable magic surrounding me. “So let me start this, as punishment for ever accepting your mission, you can choose to go on, and end up like this, or stop now, and leave for home.” It said, turning me towards him so I faced him. He pressed his paw and griffon claw against my face and leaned in to my ear, whispering with it’s foul breath. “Discord.” Suddenly a claw on his right and a talon on his left extended into my eye sockets, pressing against them with tremendous force. A sharp, blinding pain shot through my brain, I felt myself tumbling erratically, an invisible fire burned my eyes, I heard somepony scream, my eardrums felt like they were going to blow in my ears. I felt my lungs light on fire, like I had been inhaling smoke for the past hour. I rolled, feeling a hot liquid under me, something crunched as I moved, I heard another scream before I noticed it was me who was causing it. I had never felt so many things in my life, the fright of me not being able to see or even hear as I felt like I was hauled away was hellish. I had no idea where I could be, I was on somepony, or somethings back, moving rather quickly. That was the last thing I remembered.
Chapter 2: Cloud SkipperI stared through an open door into a pure white room, rays of sunlight poured in from a window opposite of where I was standing, against the middle of the wall was a small bed, white sheets and chrome bars holding it all together. A steady beep let me know that the unmoving mare hadn’t lost her life during the crash. I thought hard about the whole thing, everything was going swimmingly throughout the whole race. Was it momentum that caused her to not stop? Was she getting distracted? I shook my head and stepped into the room, a dark blue alicorn stood over the mare, looking down at her blindfolded face. A look of sorrow stuck on her face. Princess Luna. The alicorn leaned down towards the small pegasus, her horn glowed with a dark blue aura, she pressed the tip of her horn against the blindfold, enveloping it with the aura, at first I didn’t move, she was trying to heal her, which was perfectly possible, but to restore her vision was not. “I am sorry Ma’am.” The nurse said. I rotated my head, seeing the nurse, and a mare I hadn’t seen before, her face had a look of disappointment and anger. “You have nothing to be sorry about, she should know better than to use those damn wings in such a way.” The mare said, she blew a hot pink hair from her face. I frowned, “A mother should not be so angry with her child, she was only trying to have a little fun.” I said. “You shouldn’t be telling me how I should mother my child.” The mare said, her pink fur seemed to waver with anger. “Watch your tongue.” I said, “I was only trying to help.” The mare stormed out of the room, I tried not to stare, I saw a pink magic envelope the door and slam it shut. I did a double-take. Firefly’s mother was a unicorn? I must have thought out loud. “My dad named me.” A raspy, broken voice said. I turned around, Firefly shuffled under the covers. “He was a unicorn too, but he was happy to have a pegasus, my mom didn’t share his feelings.” She said, trying to sit up. “Firefly, I do not think you should be moving so early...” Luna warned as the mare got out of the bed. Firefly took her hooves and untied the blindfold. “Wait!” Luna said. Firefly seemed to freeze, she turned and looked at me, her eyes were clouded, and whiter than before. She blinked. I noticed a glow in her eyes, like there was a fire behind them. “Why can’t I...” She blinked again, then waved a hoof in front of her face. Luna cleared her throat, “I’m sorry, Firefly.” “Am I...” Firefly choked on her own words, “Blind?” Even if Firefly was in the hospital, Ricco and I still showed up for training, the griffon hadn’t even seen the mare yet, which I thought was rather cold of him. “How exactly are we supposed to save the Elements of Harmony with a blind mare slowing us down?” He would ask, I would not answer, I didn’t know if she even considered going anymore. As Spitfire yelled at us for not paying attention, the doors to the gymnasium opened, Celestia walked in, Firefly by her side, I noticed quickly that her eyes were covered by a black leather blindfold that wrapped around her head and tucked tightly behind her mane so it was hidden from behind. Spitfire turned to Firefly and Celestia with a respect that Ricco and I had not got from her yet. “Spitfire, I want you to fight this mare.” Celestia said. Spitfire choked on Celestia’s words, “What?!” She asked, “You can’t be serious!” Celestia did not move, her eyes remained fixed on Spitfire. Spitfire straightened herself and removed her jacket, “Very well then.” I raised an eyebrow and walked up to Firefly, leaning close to her. “What in Tartarus are you doing?” I hissed. She looked at me through the leather blindfold, a frown on her face. “Training.” She said with a smirk. I backed up, I didn’t know what Celestia was doing, she was blind! Spitfire moved back a few steps and Celestia moved away from Firefly. Spitfire charged first, swinging a wild hoof towards the mare’s head, which was dodged almost expertly. Spitfire swung again, her hoof was caught by Firefly’s, she tried to escape by hitting the other mare with her free hoof, which was also caught and pinned to the ground. Firefly attacked quickly with a jarring headbutt, she pulled the Wonderbolt’s front hooves toward her and slid beneath her, sweeping the orange mare’s legs out from under her, When Spitfire tried to get up, a menacing uppercut lifted her off the ground and made her land with a violent thud. Spitfire was out cold. I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding. “Damn...” Ricco cooed. Celestia moved towards Firefly, putting a hoof around her neck and taking her over to where Ricco and I were standing. “I assume you two want to know how she did such a thing.” Celestia said. “Of course.” Ricco said, looking over at Firefly, who looked a bit more frightening with the blindfold on. “Luna used an old Night Vision spell on her eyes, giving her a bit of her sight back, she says Firefly will be able to see the aura of all things, managing to see the outline clearly through the blindfold, but can’t see anything with it off, Luna is trying to find a solution for this, but hasn’t come up with anything yet.” Celestia explained. “As for her enhanced awareness, the aura of what she is in contact with reacts with her brain in a way Luna nor I can explain.” Firefly nodded by her side, she lifted a hoof to me. “I never noticed you were so cute.” She said, running a hoof through my mane, a grin on her face. Being called cute wasn’t exactly something I would think I would be described as, but I took the compliment anyways. Ricco chuckled, “You kids are so cute.” He joked. Firefly turned around and walked towards the door, whipping her tail side to side, giving me a clear view of her flank, I knew she was meaning to do this, and had nothing against it. “Pervert.” Ricco whispered loudly to me. Celestia didn’t seem to hear, “You two are dismissed.” She said. I followed Firefly’s trail to the door, thinking about her sudden mood towards me, she was just a mare, right? I thought about her calling me cute, she was pretty cute as well. I shook my head, I was thinking too much about her, I had a job to do. I stared at the bottom of the top bunk, trying to think today back over, I rolled, facing the wall. I couldn’t get my mind off of the mare above me, the mare I had met only two days ago, I didn’t have a reason to be thinking about her so much, she had called me cute. Big deal, it’s not like she kissed me, she hadn’t done anything affectionate, and I hadn’t done anything back. A whimper echoed through the small room. I froze, Ricco was asleep, and that couldn’t have been him. There was movement on the bunk above me. I gulped, I sat up to help, but felt my chest pull me back, I noticed my pounding heart, I was nervous as hell. I shook off the sudden feelings and fluttered up to the top bunk, peeking over it, Firefly was facing the wall, shivering and whispering. Dis... Discord... I noticed the name. “Firefly, are you alright?” I whispered so she could hear. She stopped shivering, I watched her chest rise and fall for a few seconds before she rolled over, I looked into two glowing white eyes, tears streamed down the mare’s face. “Yeah, I-I’m fine.” She said. “Are you sure?” I asked, feeling a sense of sadness at her eyes. She blinked and sniffled. “Yeah, just... go back to bed...” She said. I did what she asked. After about five minutes, I heard her shift from above me again, I closed my eyes, trying to find sleep. I felt something poke me on the shoulder, I opened my eyes, seeing a mare with a pillow in her mouth, looking down at me. I could almost feel the heat from her blush. “Um... Sorry to bother you, but, um...” She hesitated. “Do you think I could sleep with you tonight? It’s, um, cold up there.” I blinked, then moved over to the wall, I could hear the fear in her voice, but I couldn’t find out why it was there. “Of course.” I said. The mare set the pillow down and laid down beside me, I pulled the covers over the both of us and turned towards the wall, closing my eyes again, I could feel the heat from the mare’s body, she had a scent of a field of flowers in the spring. I did a double-take when the mare’s arms wrapped around me, her body pressed against my own, she didn’t seem to mind me being so close, feeling her heartbeat against my back was almost soothing, it felt nice to have somepony next to me. I felt it again, that push against my chest, I didn’t know what it was, but it had intensified since I had last felt it minutes ago. I fell asleep minutes later, wondering what could be causing this.
Chapter 3: FireflyIt is different to wake up without any vision. It is kind of like when you wake up, but don’t open your eyes for a while. The only difference being I couldn’t open my eyes and look around, not now, not ever again. I blinked and rolled over, feeling a presence beside me. Cloud Skipper. I wrapped my hooves around him, and my heart jumped suddenly. I couldn't help but smile. It was nice to sleep with somepony; they were warm and just feeling them breath was soothing. I moved my hoof away from him and reached into my pillowcase, feeling a leather piece. I placed it over my closed eyes for a few seconds, then took it down and opened my eyes, exhaling as a blue aura outlined the room, giving me a better sense of direction. I looked over at Cloud Skipper, an interesting glow emanated from his outline, fading away like smoke after a few seconds. I smiled, moving closer to him and wrapping my arms around him, exhaling deeply. I felt him stir, he yawned as he awoke. “Good morning.” I cooed a little too affectionately. “Well, good morning to you too.” He said, rolling to look at me. I bit my tongue and took a risk, leaning into him more and curling my neck so my mane caressed under his chin and I could feel surrounded by his larger, stronger frame. “You’re so warm.” I said with a sweet smile. “Thanks, you’re pretty soft.” He said, raising a bit to give my head more room. I giggled, I felt a sudden pressure in my chest, I felt my heart rate escalate a bit. We stayed like that for a few minutes, before I heard shuffling in the opposite bed. “Well isn’t that cute.” Ricco said groggily. “You two been doing it all night?” I frowned, feeling a bit of offense in his humor. “No Ricco. We didn’t do anything. I don’t appreciate your tone.” Cloud said, I felt him move away from me, sitting up. “Hey, I don’t judge too much, she’d be a good buttbuddy.” He said. I jumped out of the bed and just about attacked him before I stopped myself. “I’m nopony’s bitch.” I snarled. “I’m not a pony.” Ricco snickered back. I turned towards the door, walking away before I felt a pair of eyes on me, I covered my flank with my tail, something I hadn’t normally done. “Quit staring asshole.” I said, my voice laced with aggression. I swung the door open and stomped out, slamming it behind me. I was met face-to-face with Spitfire. “Oh, um... good morning.” I said, hoping she hadn’t heard the conversation. She eyed me quizzically for a few seconds, her fiery orange irises locked with my clouded violet. “Morning, Firefly.” She said. “How are your eyes?” “Better.” I said, trying to figure out if she was testing me. “Princess Luna explained what she did to help, that is truly remarkable.” She said. “Can I take that as a compliment?” I asked. “Of course.” “Well, thank you then.” I side-stepped the larger mare and she walked into the room. I heard a shout, then I turned around, seeing Cloud Skipper on top of Ricco in the middle of the room, the pegasus smashing his hoof repeatedly into the griffon’s face and beak. I rushed back into the room, Spitfire stood there, watching with an amused smile on her face. “Fuck you!” Cloud shouted, hitting Ricco again. Ricco pushed him off and got up, his talons extended and he rushed the pegasus, slashing at his neck, slicing off a bit of fur, then ramming him into the wall. “Okay! That’s enough!” Spitfire shouted, her voice louder than I would have expected. The two stopped abruptly, looking over at the wonderbolt. “Anypony want to explain why the fuck you two are fighting?” The orange mare asked. The two walked towards the door, Cloud pushed Ricco to the side so he could go first, I ran after him. I knew it wasn’t the best question to ask, but I asked it regardless. “Are you alright?” I asked, stepping in front of him to stop him. He tried to push past once, firmly, but not hard enough to cause harm. I held him in place, lifting his chin and checking his neck, a small trail of blood was leaking from the cut down onto his coat. I didn’t think first, but I acted, moving my muzzle close and licking the blood from his coat. Cloud Skipper jumped back, I saw a pink aura around his face and his wings rustle a bit, then I realized what I did. I felt a blush invade my cheeks. “I... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that...” I said, cursing myself under my breath. Okay, it wasn’t a mystery to me anymore, I was attracted to the stallion. I was very attracted to him, I felt safe around him whenever Ricco was pushing me around or when Spitfire was pissed off. I felt my heart rate increase as he spoke. “D-don’t worry about it...just give me a bit of a warning next time, okay?” “Yeah... um... are you alright?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a few scratches and bruises. Nothing a Royal Guard isn’t used to.” He said. I gave him a friendly peck on his cheek and smiled at his dumbfounded expression. “Thanks for protecting me... Cloud Skipper.” I said, my blush intensifying. “You’re welcome.” He said, smiling softly. I turned around, looking down the hallway. I turned back, seeing the stallion walking away. “Hey! Cloud Skipper!” I called. He turned around, “Yeah?” He asked. “You wanna walk with me?” I asked. He stood for a second, then spoke. “Sure.” So we walked, occasionally using our wings to get around the city. It had been a few hours since we had woke up, the sun was up in the very middle of the sky, shining down to light the city. As Cloud Skipper and I walked down the road, Ricco approached us, his expression had changed since this morning. “Hello Ricco,” I said, watching him take his place on my right, where Cloud Skipper was on my left. “nice of you to join us.” “Likewise.” He said simply. “Are you alright since this morning?” I asked. “Yes! why wouldn’t I be?!” Ricco yelled, then flinched, “Sorry, I just... Nevermind.” I flinched at Ricco’s random outburst, then continued walking beside the two. I moved a bit closer to Cloud. “Are you alright?” Cloud Skipper asked. “What was that?” “Nothing important.” Ricco said. “It’s pretty important, considering we’re going to go save the Elements of Harmony together.” I said, bumping Ricco lightly and noticing how soft his feathers were. “I-I get home sick okay?” Ricco blushed, “It was a crap of an apartment, but it was where I lived.” I blinked. This big, rough griffon got homesick? “If it makes you feel any better, I kind of do too, I didn’t even think about what I left before I left it.” “Ehh, maybe a little.” The griffon said, looking the other direction. “Cloud, you live in Canterlot, where is a good place to go to pass time?” I asked, looking over at Cloud Skipper. “Canterlot isn’t exactly an entertaining city. There’s not all that much to do here.” Cloud said with a shrug. “Oh, great.” I said. “Any nightclubs? Bars? Anything?” “Well, there is Club Pon-3. That place is pretty good.” “Then we should-” I facehoofed, “We need to go back to the castle first, a Night-Club probably wouldn’t be doing anything special right now.” I said, “We can go spar until later, Spitfire would probably be happier too.” “Firefly! You and Cloud Skipper are up!” Spitfire shouted. I stepped out near Spitfire, and Cloud followed, getting a few hooves away from me and stopping, facing me. I grinned and winked at him. “Don’t hold back, Skippy.” I said, taunting him, with the ‘Come hither’ hoof movement. The stallion rushed me, putting his strength into his shoulders and putting his head down. I easily side-stepped his attack, giving him a quick smack on the back of his head. When he stopped, he looked over at me with a confused expression. “Try again.” He moved fast, getting up on his hind legs and swinging a hoof at me. I stopped the hoof with my own and flared my wings, smacking him across the face. “Come on, you can get it this time.” I taunted again. He chuckled for a second, then swung two hooves rapidly, I dodged the first one, but the other one caught me across the face, spinning me around and sending me to the ground. As I looked at the floor, I got an idea. I whimpered pitifully, trying to get some fake tears to come from my eyes, eventually letting them drip onto the ground. I heard him kneel down behind me, he put his hoof on my shoulder. “Firefly, are you-” I hopped up, sending my hoof into the bottom of his jaw, then held his other hoof with my wing, pulling him towards me and pushing him backwards again with a hoof to his stomach, he lurched over and held his stomach, I stood up on my hind legs and dropped my body weight down onto his head with my elbow. He laid on the ground for a second, obviously surprised. I giggled a bit and helped him to his hooves, there was a cut over his eyebrow, leaking down his face. “You okay?” I asked him, trying not to laugh at his expression. “Yeah, I’m fine. I didn’t really expect you to fight dirty like that.” He said, shaking his head. “Hey, Cotton Flitter.” Ricco shouted from where Spitfire was, “She’s faster than you, anticipate her movements.” “You want to try your luck against her?” He shouted over at Ricco as I helped him walk towards Spitfire and Ricco. “You know what?” Ricco spread his wings, “Sure.” Ricco used his strong wings to fly to the arena and land with a thud. I was surprised that the ground didn’t crack. “I beat her once, I’ll do it again.” I looked over at Ricco, then to Cloud, licking his small wound. “Don’t worry,” I said, tasting the coppery flavor of blood. “I’ll be fine.” I trotted over towards the arena, stopping a few yards from Ricco, cracking the joints in my neck and grinning. “Let’s go.” Ricco used his wings to burst towards me, I countered by using my own to go higher than him, landing behind him. I rushed him while he had his back turned, swiping at the back of his head with my wing. I felt something foreign wrap around my middle and throw me from his back, I landed on the ground with a menacing thud. “One thing ponies don’t have, usable tails.” The griffon said, waving the said limb back and forth. I quickly hopped up, waiting for the larger being to make a move. He just stood there. Ricco started to look at his claws for dirt. I started slowly approaching him, watching his eyes scan my body for its every movement. I ended up right in front of him, as he towered over me, I smiled up at him. I flared my right wing, shooting a few feathers in that direction. His eyes moved just like I wanted them to, seizing the opportunity, I quickly shot upwards and gave him a quick punch with my left hoof, then my right, landing before him again. Before I could pull back, he grabbed my right foreleg joint and pulled the whole limb from its socket, causing a sickening crack to echo throughout the room. “Only dislocated.” Ricco said. A blinding pain invaded my brain as he spoke, I felt myself go flying back as he kicked me away, I heard myself scream, the pain was so intense I thought I was going to pass out, my whole foreleg felt like it had been ripped from my body. I managed to stand up after a few seconds, the pain making my outline-vision almost fail altogether, a red aura replaced the blue. I tried to stretch the limb, but found it to hurt worse. I felt myself almost fall again, but I caught myself with a wing. Wings. I watched as my vision blurred, Ricco came closer and closer until I rammed into him, launching him backwards. He used his wings to catch himself and land normally. “Are we done?” Ricco asked, untensing. Blood pounded in my ears, fury built up until I felt like I was going to breathe fire. My vision failed, then everything intensified. Wind passed my body as I felt my good hoof smashing into something, somewhere in between, I was thrown through the air, slamming back down, luckily on my good side. For a few seconds I thought I had passed out. “Nopony... that still sounds weird, nopony answered my question.” “Yeah... we’re done.” Cloud Skipper said, his voice drawing near me. I just laid there, keeping still, wishing for the pain to go away. “Are you okay Firefly? How’s your leg?” “H-how d-do you th-think?” I asked, feeling tears build in the side of my eyes. “It should be fine.” Ricco said, “I didn’t do anything major.” I felt myself getting lifted up, slowly, carefully I was placed on who I guessed was Cloud Skipper’s back. I stayed quiet as the three of us returned to our room.
