Tales of a Brighton Phoenix

Chapters

2

Morning was climbing through the windows of our well furnished bedroom. Wait? Well furnished bedroom? I rubbed my eyes and looked. Indeed, it was a well furnished bedroom. The Alicorn was tucked under my bat like wing...wait a minute.

I found a mirror and stared for ten solid minutes without blinking. I definitely looked like a thestral. Bright blue eyes, ice blue mane and tail, and a...horn on my head? What? A horn? How the hell?

“Okay, who did what?” I asked.

“Bro?”

I turned to see the Alicorn.

“Not to be rude, but who are you?”

“You don't recognize me?” she quizzed.

“Skylar?” I asked.

“Yep, except as Skyla,” she said.

“Don't you think that you being Skyla is a little convenient?” I asked.

“I do, but I want to know who brought us here,” she said.

After we stretched out, wings included, I pushed the door open and looked at a stone faced pegasus wearing gold and purple sheet metals so thin, I could have sneezed and it would have collapsed.

“Come with me,” he growled.

Skyla said nothing. I looked to see she wasn't moving. I walked to stand beside her. The guard turned after going some twenty feet down the hall.

“Come on,” he snapped. “You two are needed now.”

Me and Skyla said nothing and shut the door. Sitting in a couple of chairs, we looked at each other and tried to reason out why we were all here and as ponies.

“Okay, so who would bring us here in the first place?” I asked.

“Let's see-Discord, then he could have minions do his bidding by giving all unicorns and alicorns chaos magic; Starlight Glimmer, so she could have us bring new ponies to her village; Tirek, so we could work for him rounding up ponies so he can harvest their magic; Nightmare Moon, then that way she'd have her own personal guards and we can usher in Eternal Night; King Sombra, so he can keep the Crystal Empire enslaved. I would say The Sirens, but they don't have plans to take over Equestria,” Skyla said. “It's a one will get you ten bet that Starlight brought us. After all there are changelings in our group and she'd great advantage of using them to subdue larger ponies such as a princess and then she could easily remove their Cutie Mark.”

“So your saying this is one of those many universes, where she was never defeated and now she runs Canterlot and is holding the Princess of the Sun hostage?” I asked.

“That's sizing it up nicely,” she said.

I was going to say something but a loud knocking interrupted us. Skyla bid enter. The door swung open to reveal a white unicorn with a phalto blue mane and a light pink Alicorn with a cream and dark pink mane.

“Yes?” I quizzed, looking up at them?

“Why didn't you come in Staff Sergeant Ice Boulder summoned you?” the unicorn asked, sharp.

“Shiny, don't be uptight,” the Alicorn said. “They probably didn't come because they were busy talking about something silly.”

“Shiny” grunted. The Alicorn chuckled and looked at us.

“Did you two refuse to come with the Staff Sergeant because of his foul manner?” she asked us.

“No,” said Skyla. “We decided to not come and reason out why we were summoned here. The best bet is that, and if it is a lie, do not hold it against us, is that you she pointed to the Alicorn are Starlight Glimmer in a transformation spell and are holding Celestia against her will.”

That got the Alicorn to actually laugh.

“Not at all,” she said. “I'm Princess Cadence and the Colt next to me is Captain Shining Armor, my soon to be husband.”

Skyla and I felt silly. Shining was not exactly happy Skyla made the claim and wanted to voice his displeasure but Cadence raised a hoof.

“Shiny, they had a legitimate reason to think such a think such a thing,” she said. “They thought that an enemy was bringing them here to aide her in keeping Equestria under her rule and they wouldn't do such a thing. You know, the others we found with them said the same thing and they're talking with Celestia and Nebula about their theory.”

Shining Armor grunted again. I felt like being an ass.

“What, you want me to voice my theory about you instead, sir?” I asked.

“And what would that be?” he snorted.

“That you're actually King Sombra,” I said. “Let's look at how you stand-like someone who has power and is not afraid to use it to abuse the ones under you. Your cold glare, your constant snarling and growling. Do you think I'm willing to trust you at this moment? You stand there, ready to denounce all theories we have as just mere “Child's Fancy Dreams” and trying to deny the physical proof to the contrary.”

At that, he chuckled.

“Okay, I can see why Cadence let you have that theory. In a sense, it makes sense. It was the only logical conclusion you could have had at the moment of confusion,” he said.

After sorting everything out, Skyla looked up.

“So who really summoned me, my brother and our friends?” she asked.

“That would be me,” Cadence said. “I thought you all deserved a better life. Also, I thought you and your sister would benefit from a...functional family.”

Skyla and I blinked before she asked, “This means what?”

“It means you and your brother are going to be me and Shining Armor's adopted son and daughter,” Cadence said.

Skyla and I blinked again before staring at each other in straight confusion. Why them? If any one of the royalty should do this stunt, it'd be Luna or even Celestia. After we got our minds squared away, I asked about Nebula.

“She's Luna and Celestia's mother, while Astronomous is their father,” Cadence said.

“Wait a tick? They have parents?” I asked. “That's something new.”

Cadence giggled, “I take it you know nothing much about our land.”

“You can say that again,” I said. “I know nothing of the residents of this land. In the Television based around you guys, they wasted so much backstory, leaving it to fans to interpret and theorize. Unlike Thomas the Tank Engine, where the writers waste no time in giving the characters a proper backstory. I know it's a rude thing, but it's the truth.”

“Something I appreciate,” Cadence said.

Soon me and Skyla were walking happily alongside Cadence and Shining Armor, talking about our roles as their soon to be children, which explained why we were Alicorns, although it made less sense. Logic states that it would have made more sense to wait until they were married, then brought us over and while the others were adults, me and Skylar be a filly and foal and grow up naturally.

However, it was their choice and this is the road they took. Without getting too involved in the many worlds interpretation, there is a world out there where me and my friends are the children of an already married Shining Armor and Cadence and another one where we're the children of Cadence and Chrysalis and so on down the line. At least those realities are only possibilities and not the reality that we were brought into.

Cadence, who was a lot more inquisitive, asked questions to get to know us and listened. Shining, who was so militaristic, literally went out of his way to actually salute the Alabaster Alicorn and the Dark blackish green one.

“Queen Nebula, Princess Celestia,” he said.

They returned the salute. Cadence smiled and bowed, as did Skyla. I stood, registering things before bowing. That got a wry chuckle out of the two sitting Alicorns.

“You don't have to bow if you don't feel it right,” the Dark Blackish green Alicorn said. “And as per manners, I am Queen Nebula, mother to Princess Celestia, at my left and Luna, who is away.”

“Pleasure's all mine,” I said.

That earned me a glare from Shining Armor.

“Address them as your highness,” he hissed.

I was about to say something when the Alabaster Alicorn interrupted.

“Let him speak freely,” she said. “It's certainly interesting.”

That got Cadence to chuckle.

“He is,” she said.

Skyla looked at Celestia and Nebula.

“Mind me asking an idiot question?” she asked.

“Not at all,” Nebula said.

“Why have all our friends been brought over if Cadence wanted me and my brother as her children?” Skyla asked.

“Simple, your friends are to have a job here with me,” Nebula said. “But that doesn't mean you can't be with them.”

Okay, I need to address this now-It's only chapter 2 and already, me and Skyla are son and Daughter to a soon to be married Cadence and Shining Armor; My friends are to be working under the Royalty in Canterlot and to top it off, we're being thrown in way over our heads. Where the hell is the moderation in this?

Okay, time to breathe and think things through. Is there any positives in this situation? Yes, we actually get a chance to do something many dreamed of, but at the same time, it paints targets on us. If I had the chance, I'd trade this to work in a colliery. I love getting dirty. That does lead me to this question-Can it work out?

The answer is yes. Just take everything in stride. If a situation arises, handle it as best as you can. Learn your lessons and move on to the next fiasco. Also, don't be afraid to ask a few questions should you need help. Now that I have that in mind, I will leave you and head back to this little scenario unfolding before your very eyes.

Cadence looked around.

“Certainly an interesting group you have,” she said. “Such diversity, yet you manage to tolerate each other. How do you do that?”

“We tolerate each other because we've known each other and aren't afraid to tell the truth,” one of the Changelings said.

I took a good look. Compared to the other three Changelings, that particular Changeling was taller, more muscular and wore what looked like ancient Roman armor. It was also worth note that the Changeling was a she.

“Ah, and you are?” Shining Armor asked.

“Western Brass,” she said. “And here with me is Tintin, Somerset, Dorset, Arson Wall, Sapphire Mine, Quiet Whispers, Cumulus Clock, Short Circuit, Winter Diagnostic, Patriot, Scarblade, Bladed Star, Chickpea, Silhouette, Arachnus, Titanius Pit, Dream Weaver, Arctic Blast, Blau Mynydd, Gleaming Krystals and Rust Patch.”

Cadence chuckled at the introduction. It sounded like a role call in a class room more than a formal introduction.

“It is an honor to meet you all,” she said.

Shining Armor saluted, only to be told not to be such a stickler by Nebula. I decided to keep myself out of the little chucklefest. Once finished, I looked around. Nebula smiled warmly.

“We do have a plan for you until we get your jobs sorted,” she said.

3

Okay, if you ever get sucked into Equestria, make sure to ask the royalty if they have plans before they say so. If you do, you'll stump them. It was a mistake I made to let them say they have plans for me and my friends until our jobs were sorted-Braysburg Community College. Of course, us not having money meant that the royalty paid our tuition, which was cheap.

Now, Braysburg Community College is stranger than most human community colleges were. It's mainstay class rooms were focused around the campus courtyard while the others were some distance away. The main office was out some 650 yards from the main campus. Looking at it, it was a massive structure.

Cadence was walking with us to make sure the papers were properly signed. After signing the papers and getting our classes solidified, we went to get our books. That proved to be the fun task as the classes we had had seven books each. Cadence chuckled at our displeasure.

“Don't panic,” she said. “It'll work out in the end.”

We agreed and walked into the bookstore and looked around. I went ahead and found all the books we needed and as I was carrying them up, I felt something bump into me and two more things crash down over me. I could hear my sister give a groan while the others were laughing. Cadence was a little more concerned and pulled the ponies off me.

Once I got to my hooves, I looked at the ponies. One was a dark blue pegasus stallion with a jet black mane and an ink quill and paper Cutie Mark. The other two were thestrals. One was a normal thestral, dark gray coat, midnight blue mane and a cutie mark of a full moon covered by two clouds. The other one was of a volcanic red with a dark ashen gray mane and a cutie mark of a volcano.

“Oh, sorry, distracted with classwork and books,” the pegasus said. “I'm Inkwell Prose.”

“Brighton,” I said.

“Strange name,” one of the thestrals commented.

I ignored that and waited for them to tell me their names. They just stared back. I cleared my throat politely.

“Yes?” they asked.

“Names?” I asked

“I'm Echo,” the dark gray thestral said.

“I'm Volcanis,” said the volcanic red thestral.

“Pleasure,” I said.

“What brings you here to this college?” Inkwell asked.

“Well, until we can find proper jobs,” I said. “The ponies we're staying with wanted us to get an education and even get certain types of education like Business ethics, pottery and whatever can be taught in a classroom.”

Cadence chuckled. After purchasing our books, we ambled down to the dormitories. Yes, Equestrian Community Colleges have dormitories so the students don't have to travel unless they live in the town.

The room we had was a fairly large room for all of us with spare beds for up to five extra ponies. Of course, we let our new acquaintances stay with us because they knew the campus better than us. Talk about convenient placement of aide and help.

“Thank you, Cadence,” I said.

“No problem. When you have your half terms and vacations, come back, we'll be waiting,” she said and left, leaving us to settle in.

As we organized our desks and got ready for the first day of school, I heard Echo ask Skyla how we knew Cadence.

“It's that we were long time family friends of Cadence,” She said, lying to cover our sorry flanks.

As I set my first day's books out along with notebooks, pens and a small bookbag, I felt something close to my rear flank. Glancing back, I saw Volcanis inspecting my flanks with a meticulous detail.

“Where in Celestia's sun is your cutie mark?” she demanded.

“Don't have one,” I said.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Just was unlucky,” I said, indifferently.

“That isn't fair,” Echo squeaked, overhearing the whole conversation.

“It is,” I said.

I heard Skyla chuckling.

“He's still himself,” she said.

The others agreed and went back to finish our preparations. Once that was done, I checked the drawer, where I kept my books for the classes not needed and saw a pair of jars full of bits with the words “Emergency funds”.

“She's always one step ahead,” I said under my breath.

After shutting the drawer, we walked down to explore the campus. I felt that something was going to go wrong, but I didn't know when, where or even how.

5

We had few classes over the next term. Advanced improvisation theater, taught by a stocky black and green pegasus mare named Stage Left was fun and even relaxing. The home consisted of buying props, practicing schticks and even reading several theories.

Our next class was a business ethics class. If my math teacher was a complete bitch, then this professor was a genuine angel. Till Funds, a coal black earth pony colt was sharp and always made sure that there was something for every single pony in the classroom.

Our third class was Anatomy and Physiology class. The teacher, an Earth Pony by the name Lung Capacity was semi difficult, but a fair teacher none the less. She assigned homework on the Monday, but didn't expect it until next Monday. That and she encouraged ponies to ask questions about things they didn't understand.

The last class we had was a script writing class with a Dragon named Fire Field. She was really relaxed and in fact encouraged us to try out different styles. It made for a fun class.

One day, before finals, we were in our dorm room talking about plan of attack.

“So chaps, what's next?” I asked.

“Look for a job,” Echo said.

“Maybe I can help, My Little Ponies,” a cold, malicious voice said.

We looked around.

“Who's there?!” Skyla demanded.

A bluish black mist hovered around us and then solidified into a familiar pony. Dark cyanish armor, a horn that matched the length of Celestia. Her eyes were serpentine and she spoke with a calm, yet maniacal voice. She searched our faces and smiled.

“Yes,” she said. “You'll definitely do.”

“We'll do for what?” Echo demanded, her wings flaring in anger.

“A....simple proposition,” she said.

I felt something come into my throat and it wasn't my lunch. After waiting, I cracked the largest grin ever.

“Last time I heard those words, I ended up married to a cookie,” I said.

That got her to give me a strange look, before realizing I had made a wise crack. Her gaze turned to a glare.

“Hold your tongue, fool,” she hissed.

“Sorry, it's my habit to make wise cracks,” I said.

She glared again. Skyla said nothing and the others stared. The silence was amazing. Smiling to myself, I kept at least eight more smart ass remarks to myself. The nightmare Alicorn walked around the room and perched on a bed.

“This simple proposition is that you pledge your undying allegiance to me,” she said.

“Wha....?” Inkwell asked.

“Pledge you allegiance to me,” she said. “Help me spread eternal night all over Equestria.”

Me and my dormmates looked at each other and huddled.

“What do you want to do?” Inkwell asked in a hoarse whisper.

“Make for the hills?” I whispered.

Western Brass looked at Nightmare, who was amusing herself with the text books. The large changeling chuckled.

“Seems the evil queen of the night has found our books amusing,” she whispered.

“Stick her down and we'll beat it,” I said.

To say it was successful would be an understatement. Nightmare, being so easily amused, didn't seem to be a threat. As we started to think about a new plan, she looked at us.

“What is this...Community college thing?” she asked.

Skyla explained everything. Nightmare chuckled and smiled. Something told us she had greater plans for us.

6

We finished the term with straight A's. Once we had our diplomas and were ready, we talked it over with each other some more before taking up Nightmare on her offer. The Nightmare Corps was a more detailed guard unit, and a counterpart to what Nightmare Moon called the “Solar Corps”. As we walked along, Nightmare explained how the Nightmare and Solar corps were in essence the Untouchables of My Little Pony.

“Untouchables?” She asked.

“Basically, you couldn't bribe these guys and they were known for being some of the toughest operatives in the human world,” I said.

“Wow,” Inkwell said.

“Yep,” Skyla said.

We walked towards the Everfree Forest and entered. I sensed Inkwell, Echo and Volcanis's fears, but we plunged forward. With the sun's twilight lighting our path, we made our way to a bridge that was way to weak to support any pony of any weight, we watched as Nightmare took to the air. Skyla, who was more adept at magic than I was, levitated those who couldn't fly while those who could, flew over.

Once safely over, I levitated a knife (which took me seven months to learn to do) to the ropes and cut them, sending the bridge crashing down. I then surveyed the chasm and had a small plan. After rejoining the group, we entered a rather crumbly castle. Be it ever so crumbly, there's no place like home.

Once inside, I started to plan out a new bridge. Nightmare Moon looked at me.

“What?” I quizzed.

“Why are you designing a new bridge?” she asked.

“This is a bridge that we can use. It's easily removable so that way any undesirables are left without a way across unless they have Alicorns in their back pocket,” I said.

Nightmare smiled at that and walked off to inspect the castle. I sat back and finished making the bridge. Once it was approved, Skyla summoned the supplies and I set to work constructing the bridge. It took some time, but eventually I had it built. When I returned, Nightmare Moon had me come to see her in the forge room.

The others were there and being fit with armor similar to her's. Skyla had to have her wings spread out to make sure they didn't catch on the armor. I had to carry out the same process, but the fitters had to take greater care because my Thestral wings were a touch more delicate. To say the armor was heavy would be an understatement. It weighed an absolute ton and a half.

However, the color scheme was a lot more...guard colored. Midnight Cyanish Blue. It could also withstand a magical blast from up to twenty miles away. The armor looked like it hadn't taken any damage. Okay, this was getting more and more better, including better rooms and even pay that would rival that in the royal guard. 1,800 bits an hour with a 3,500 bit increase per job completed. It seemed that she was making an impression on the world

Once we had our armor fit and forged to our body contours, we went to the barracks, were our beds were waiting. Deciding to entertain my team members with some simple magic tricks.

I pulled out three bits and laid them on the bed.

“Why do you have three bits on your bed?” Volcanis asked.

“For a trick called three coins,” I said.

The others watched. I put two coins in one hoof and held one coin in my aura.

“The coin in my aura is the magic coin. I have two coins in hoof. Now I hide this in my mane and now, Volcanis, how many bits are in my hoof?” I quizzed.

“Two,” she said.

“Are you sure?” I asked, showing her all three coins.

Her eyes widened.

“I haven't seen magic like this,” she said.

“Slight of hoof,” I said.

“Stage magic,” Somerset said, looking at Volcanis's confused looked.

We went about doing that until we went to sleep, wondering what Nightmare Moon had for us.

7

Some days later, it was time for the Summer Sun Celebration. Nightmare Moon had recruited more ponies for the job of making sure that no ill befell Celestia.

The first pony was a dull red dragon pony named Malestrom. He was a tough nut and took no crap from any pony and was one for breaking a few legs. He was known for having a cool temper, unless you said something to piss him off.

Pony number two was a pegasus named Cloud Chaser. The Pale Persian Blue pegasus who was a Wonderbolts trainee and a bit of a weapons expert. Her knowledge made her a dangerous ally but she knew how to have fun.

The third new pony was an Earth Pony named Rose Luck. A very pale yellow coat with rose cutie mark, and a dull magenta mane only panicked as a disguise.

As for the others, they were still being looked over by Nightmare Moon, so I won't introduce them just yet, but just so you, the reader know, we will have a forty pony strong team. However, a forty strong pony team sounds good for what we were doing.

I was assigned to work with Skyla and act as Celestia's body guards. The others were to hide out in the shadows, making sure no criminals came a calling. However, I felt that things would go wrong before the actual celebration even started.

Skyla, sensing my worry, walked alongside me.

“It'll be fine,” she said. “We'll face whatever problem comes our way head on. No side streets or back alleys.”

“I know, but my concern is that something, and I can't place it in this puzzle, is going to go wrong at the start, but what?” I stated, simply.

Skyla had to admit, it was a point. However, we were soon sent off, by Nightmare Moon to stand surveillance until Celestia arrived. Being Alicorns, she suggested that the use of clouds would be a good cover, until I realized that Rainbow Dash would be clearing clouds away for the celebration. However, Skyla said we'd take it up. Heading out and flying towards Ponyville, we said nothing.

Upon arrival, Skyla found Dash and explained the situation, in layman's terms, while keeping all other facts about the guard force classified. Once we had our clouds, we positioned them in a strategic way and hid. I was watching the front doors while making notes of all all the ponies who came to the door and the ponies working the door.

Alicorns, one tall, one short. The tall one was a dark red, similar in shade to that of the LMS's Crimson lake while the other one was a bright, almost kiddie coloring book bright red. Both wore trenchcoats and were admitting ponies one at a time, after frisking them.

“Hmmmm,” I muttered. “I'm not sure that's a completely foolproof plan.”

disappearing into my cloud, I grabbed a clipboard and note paper and started making all sorts of notes of my observations. These would help me later, maybe when I have the time to fix the police force here, but for right now, they were my findings. At least they would be helpful in the future, if we ever got that far.

I returned to playing “Fence Post Spy” when I saw Rainbow Dash make her way to the dark red Alicorn. I cocked an ear and listened in as best I could without revealing myself.

“There's two ponies, wearing Nightmare Armor, saying something about there being trouble,” she said. “If you can make something of that, use it.”

I suddenly felt the cloud get slightly heavier. Turning around, I came face two face with...gulp...the bright red Alicorn.

“Alright,” he said. “Just who are you?”

“A concerned member of a guard force,” I said. “The details are classified as are my orders and who I work for. Now, get back to that door.”

He thought he'd say something, then decided against it and went back to his post. Ten minutes elapsed, then fifteen, then twenty, before Celestia's chariot arrived. The four pegasi guards pulling the chariot looked very unenthusiastic and two even looked ready to go off for a beer.

“Slackers,” I muttered again. “Two of me and two of Skyla and there'd be no problem. But we have to wait and see what happens.”

Again, more notes were made and Celestia went inside. It seemed to be no time at all before the rest of the guard force showed up and concealed themselves where they could see the ponies, but not be seen themselves. As for Nightmare Moon, she had stayed behind at HQ to tend to papers.

I looked down and saw something that piqued my interest. Several ponies, all wearing what appeared to be police uniforms marched straight into the town hall. In minutes, there were noises and one of the “police” demanding all prized possessions. I took that as cue to go in as did my colleagues.

I burst through the door, tackled one of the fake cops sticking up several fairly to do ponies and pinned him down.

“So, you think your going to do some robbing?” I asked.

“Yep,” he hissed. “and don't worry, I have plenty of mates to go round.”

“And I have twice as many guards who aren't afraid to break a few legs,” I chuckled. “And I'll even save Celestia the trouble of dealing with you.”

At that moment, Nightmare Moon entered. I gave her a verbatim report, while pinning dumber than a sack of tin cans down. I watched her mouth curl into a pleased smile.

“Most excellent. Now, take them away, where we can ask them questions,” she said. “Let not the celebration go on being interrupted.”

With that, we left, dragging the robbers behind us. As for the guards, they were too busy looking like they were occupied with the grass to even notice the nearly disastrous Summer Sun Celebration. Idiots.

Back at base, we dragged the scum to the cells in what was at one point, the dungeon. Once they were safely locked away, Nightmare Moon lined us up and told us point blank that we would be expected to perform at a much higher level.

“Yes, Ma'am,” we said and saluted.

Skyla was ordered behind, the others were ordered to go and rest and I was ordered to go and stay with Celestia until the celebration was over. A simple task, for a special forces pony. Making my way back to the town hall, I found Celestia and stayed behind some curtains so no pony could see me, but I could see them.

I kept the clipboard and papers in my aura and made notes. I owe Skyla so damn much for teaching me this basic magic. I would ask why I can't do magic as well as other Alicorns, but it's of no concern. Watching the scenario, I noted how every pony interacted with each other and even how Celestia talked with them.

Knowing my orders, I stayed well hidden, but had a clear sight-line and a clear path to Celestia should it be needed. Five minutes later, I was joined by Skyla.

“Nightmare Moon has given us new orders,” she said.

“Which is what?” I asked.

“You and I are to take part in the Celebration,” she said. “Nightmare Moon wanted us to have some time to ourselves. The others are taking care of the culprits.”

I was curious as to why she allowed me and Skyla to take a break from our guard duties. Deciding not to question her motives, we took the time to mingle among the ponies. My company consisted of several ponies. Skyla was talking to the guards and working on a cake.

I preferred to wait and not spoil my appetite for dinner with sweets. After the ponies I had been conversing with left, a certain purple unicorn appeared.

“I've never seen you around here, where are you from?” she asked.

“Maresbury,” I said. “My sister was born there too, but moves to Maredy to take up working in the coal mines. We got back together here at long last.”

I was lying through my armor and I knew it. Maresbury and Maredy didn't exist. The Unicorn nodded as to say she understood what I was saying and she continued to talk to me, making small talk. As we talked, Skyla came over to me.

“Twilight, mind if I borrow my brother real quick?” she asked.

“Sure, why?” she asked.

“I want to talk to him about doing some magic stunts here for the entertainment,” she said. “I'm sure you'll enjoy these.”

Twilight left and we talked. After thirty minutes, I was in, on the stage in the townhall and practicing behind closed doors. After making sure I had my routines down, Skyla invited the ponies and helped get them seated. After they were all seated, I walked out.

“Now, magic spells and magic that raises the sun and the moon are all well and good, but what of magic that isn't in spell books or even taught in a classroom? Well your about to see some,” I said.

Walking over, a candlestick in aura, I looked at the audience.

“Watch as I proceed to eat some of this flame,” I said sliding my hoof in front of it.

They gasped as it was lit on fire and some passed out when I placed it in my mouth and dragon's smoke popped out my nostrils. I smiled and even performed it five more times, each time getting more and more complicated. After finishing and preparing my next trick, I turned around again.

“This time, instead of eating fire or even doing anything crazy, I'm actually going to come down and show you a trick I learned many years ago,” I said, jumping down.

The crowd watched. I pulled three coins out and laid them on the table. Afterwards, I took off my Nightmare Armor and stood there.

“I'm going to strip down to my bare essentials so you can't accuse me of cheating at this, as this is a three coin trick,” I said.

I levitated the third coin.

“This goes behind my ear. It's out of sight, out of mind,” I said. “Now focus on these two coins and watch as I place them in this bag. Now, how many coins went in the bag?”

“Two,” the crowd said.

“Right, but this is the three coin trick,” I said, dumping all three coins out of the bag.

I did it again and again, this time, the audience got to inspect that and even inspected the bag. I still kept doing the same stunt over and over again. Some even accused my of putting the coin in the back through other means of magic. I proved them wrong by having a magic nullifying ring placed on it.

“How do you keep doing that?” one earth pony colt asked.

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” I said.

After that one, I pulled out a deck of playing cards. Turning, I faced a marshmallow white unicorn.

“Pick a card, any card,” I said. “After you have your card you may show it to the audience and then put it back in the deck. After it's been shuffled, I will pick your card out using only a hoof to handle the cards. No Alicorn magic whatsoever.”

I watched as the rest of the Nightmare Corp came up and as the mare put the card in the deck. I let One of the Trench coat Alicorns shuffle it to where the cards were completely randomized. He gave them back to me and I looked at her and flipped up the 3 of diamonds.

“Your card, madam,” I said.

Her expression and general freakout about that made me chuckle.

“Are you thinking I read your mind?” I asked.

“Yes,” she squeaked.

“I didn't. I observed your face as I noticed that you zeroed in on a particular card,” I said.

The others were impressed. I continued with barscam magic, impressing them more and more. Every time they asked, I would only answer, “It's a magician's secret and I am taking that to the grave.”

“Cheeky,” the others said.

I merely smiled and looked around.

“Now, do you see this salt shaker?” I said, holding it up.

They nodded. I laid a cloth over it and slammed my hoof down on it, and the cloth went flat. They stared in awe.

“Inspect the surroundings here, there's nothing fishy here.” I said.

They did. I smiled again as the sun danced behind me. Parlor tricks can be fun and keep them guessing. At the end of the day, back at HQ, Nightmare Moon looked at all of the forty ponies in the Nightmare Corp.

“On Monday, we will run training exercises through to the end of the month,” she said. “Get plenty of rest and no parlor tricks, or you can expect to be on the finest details I can find.”

We agreed.

8

Let's cut the fun training in the sunshine. We spent our time training at night, many times, Nightmare Moon brought in rain clouds and created fog. If you think your weather sucked, ours was worse.

Fog so damned thick, we didn't even know if we were standing on solid ground, rain that added it's own pleasure to our misery. To those out there, screaming at their computer screens that I am a thestral Alicorn, use your hearing, you obviously forgot the one basic principle of fog-sound bounces.

Of course, the ground beneath our hooves turned to mud and we were slipping and sliding while trying to carry our weapons and wear armor, which weighed an absolute ton. I swear my commanding officer was trying to kill us before we even saw combat.

“Keep on top of your surroundings,” I would constantly tell them.

They would return with “Roger, roger.”

However, Nightmare Moon was a lot more crafty than I gave her credit for. She once got us lost in the Everfree Forest. It took us seven hours and using me as a compass to get back to base. When your stuck in the middle of nowhere and need to use at what you have on tap.

Needless to say, we were very late coming back to HQ (and by late, I mean it was sunlight the next day and we were cut, bruised and looking like we had slept in a timberwolf's den. Of course, when we returned, she had us literally do push ups in our armor and with our weapons. 250 to be precise. By the time we finished, we ached and were sweaty.

“Hit the showers. After that I want Brighton and Skyla in my office,” she said.

As soon as she left, our teammates gave us hell for that.

“You probably stole Celestia's money,” Roseluck said.

“No,” Skyla said.

“Anyway,” I said. “Let's get a shower.”

After showering and smelling like we were fresh roses, me and Skyla trotted to Nightmare Moon's office.

Upon reaching the door, we heard a familiar voice.

“Dad?” was all that raced through our minds, as we glanced at each other.

Knocking, we were bid enter. Opening the door, we stood there as Shining Armor and Nightmare Moon sat and were discussing something. She looked up and nodded us to two chairs in front of her desk.

“You wanted to see us?” Skyla asked Nightmare Moon.

“Yes,” she said.

Once we sat down, she looked at me and Skyla first, then Shining Armor.

“Would you two care to explain one thing-why didn't you tell me that you two were the son and daughter of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armor?” she asked.

“We didn't think it was important, Ma'am,” Skyla said.

“Really?” she said.

“Actually, Ma'am,” I said. “We didn't tell you because we didn't want it circulated around. Easy targets for blackmailers, kidnappers and the like.”

“I can see that being the case,” She said. “Also, I called you two in here because Captain Armor wants to do an inspection of our guard force. You two are the only ones to know of this. The others are not to hear one word of this.”

“Yes, Ma'am,” we said saluting.

“What day is this to take place?” Skyla asked.

“Tomorrow, six am,” she said.

“Of course,” we said.

“Dismissed,” she said.

Me and Skyla headed back to our barracks. Once inside, the two of us cleaned our armor and went straight off to bed. The others stayed up chatting until around 11:30 pm.

At 5:50 am the next morning, me and Skyla were up early, in our armor and our beds were made to specifications. We stood by our racks, ready.

5:59:58. Two seconds to go until absolute comedy. The others snored and grunted. One second to go. Me and Skyla passed each other knowing glances.

“WAKE UP!”

The others jumped like mad. Some slammed into the ceiling, others fell off their beds and the rest were tangled in their bed sheets. Standing at the door was Shining Armor. Me and Skyla stood at attention, in our polished armor.

“Very good, two ready to go,” he said.

We saluted. Something told us we were going to have plenty of fun. When it came to training, the fun intensified. We carried out some midnight fog training. The moon was blotted out by thick fog and to add to the joy, Nightmare Moon enlisted the Weather Team to create a cold wind. I could sense Shining Armor's interest in the hard training that she put us through. It was tense to say the least, but now that we were under inspection, it became more and more stressful.

The others were bumbling around, the cold making the mud rock hard. Needless to say, me and Skyla had to carry the team, literally. Next time there's an inspection, make sure to be more dickish, please.

When we finished, I was so damned cut up I looked like a package of freshly sliced ham. Skyla looked like she had been in a construction site. Shining Armor was enjoying that while Nightmare Moon was taking notes on how we did.

“Hit the showers,” Nightmare said.

“Yes ma'am,” we said and trudged off.

The warm shower water felt so damn good as it drenched my mane and ran into the wounds and cleaned them out. Once cleaned up and after Skyla bandaged the wounds to make sure they didn't get infected, we made our way to the training quarters, where the captains were waiting.

“From what I saw,” Shining Armor said. “You're Nightmare Corp has strong points and weak points. However, I shall give you a pass. I shall carry out another inspection later on.”

“Yes, Captain,” Nightmare Moon said, saluting him.

We were dismissed to our quarters. Once inside, the others wheeled on me and Skyla and accused us of knowing about the inspection before hand.

“If we said we did,” she said. “Would we tell you?”

“No,” they said.

“And if we didn't, would we tell you?” I asked.

“No,” they said.

“Good,” I said.

We de-armored ourselves and crawled into bed. Sleep felt never so good. When morning came, we were woken up by “Reveille”.

“What is that?” Roseluck groaned, pushing herself upward.

“Reveille,” I said. “Popular way to wake troops up.”

“Tell whoever is playing Reveille that we want to damn well sleep,” Maelstrom hissed.

I said nothing and got up, put on my armor and headed down to the chow line, for some chow. If only I knew what Nightmare Moon had planned, I'd have dressed in my best DBA-Dress Blue Armor.

9

To say that Nightmare Moon's plans were slightly crazy would be a compliment. We were to train with the Royal Guard and work as private security to Celestia. It was a pain to do that as at any time, two of us had to be with Celestia, but we could not be seen by any of her guards or day court. Sounds like a bar scam to me, but whatever, it's their rules, not mine.

I was to work with Skyla in the first shift, which starts at 4:30 am and ends at 8:30 am, which lets the next two take over at 8:45 am until 12:45pm. It went on like that, each of us covering four hour shifts. It only reset itself after one rotation.

“Feels like the old times,” Skyla said.

“Yeah,” I replied.

We made our way to the castle under the cover of the 2 am moonlight. It was a tedious journey to say the least as we had to be flagged in by Shining Armor, and from there, were had to be briefed and we had to set up in positions where we could see her but she couldn't see us.

Since I was a gentlecolt, I took up position outside while Skyla posted herself inside. However, something in the back of my head told me that something was going to go wrong and in the most uninventive way possible.

That unineventive way came at 8.25 am, when we entered the day court room. Me and Skyla took position in the shadows and watched as Celestia was taking her seat in the high judge's chair to begin the rigorous dullness when she was approached. My neck muscles tensed as the pony approaching her carried a small leather bag on the end of a stick.

“How the hell did he get a sap?” I muttered, getting ready to launch.

On cue, said pony lunged and so did me and Skyla. I caught the weapon while Skyla tackled Little Mr. Offender to the ground. The thud was a signal for his confederates to come out. Me, Celestia and Skyla stared. Mothlings or Moth Attributed Changelings stood, glaring at us. The pony beneath Skyla's arresting hooves turned into a Mothling. Skyla kept a hold on her prisoner.

“So, we have interference with our plans? No matter,” One said. “Take them.”

Me and Skyla put up one hell of a fight. I was so used to dirty fighting, I used everything I could, even resorting to cold cocking some of the poor sods. Skyla, being more magically adept than me, used any and all appropriate spells to subdue them.

'If the calvary would damn well arrive in the nick of time, that would be a cliché I'd be glad happened,' I thought, knocking another Mothling out.

As that was going on, I heard some noises, which didn't sound like the rest of the Nightmare Corps.

“They've sent for backup,” I called to Skyla. “Let's get Princess Celestia out of here and on the double!”

She nodded and we took up positions around the Princess and made our way out of the court room and towards the basement. Skyla quick marched while I stayed beside Celestia to make sure we weren't going to be taken by surprise and from behind. However that didn't stop them from capturing us.

'Well, this is dandy,' I thought.

Many people thing being kidnapped, blindfolded and lead somewhere you don't know where it is sounds like fun, but it isn't at all fun. We were marched somewhere blindfolded and after half an hour of silence and waiting, we were taken somewhere else and after another twenty minutes, we had our blindfolds removed and saw everything upside down.

“Glad to see your awake,” a voice said.

Walking smartly into the room was a tall Mothling with a crown on the head.

“So, no comment?” the Mothling said.

'Male, overly cocky, and prepared for nothing,' I noted.

We watched as he circled around Celestia, who was glaring.

“Your just like your little sister,” he said. “Always putting the ponies first. Such a shame, as she had a great mind and a tactical prowess.”

My eyes locked on to him. I could hear Celestia clearly enough and wished I hadn't.

“WHERE IS MY SISTER?!”

“She's on the rock of lunatics and morons, where you shall join her, if she isn't dead,” he hummed in an almost psychotic giddiness that made me groan.

“Got something to say, bat brain?” he asked.

“Can I get fries with that?” I asked.

That got the Mothling King.

“What?”

“Can I get fries with that?” I asked again.

He couldn't figure it out. Deciding I wasn't worth a second thought, he walked away. Wiggling slightly, I moved one hoof left and slid it passed my other one and felt the tightness loosen. Making sure to keep silent, I slid my front hooves out and then dropped down. Not exactly sound construction and it made getting the other two loose a breeze and together, we slid into the darkness and made our way towards some stairs, which went down.

“Stay close,” I whispered. “These stairs are blind and lead down, in a spiral, which is ambush haven should our captor realize we fled the nest. Do NOT light your horns, as that will attract and and all unwanted company.”

I could hear them say they agree and we slipped down the stairs, trying to be as silent as possible when we heard noises. As we descended, it sounded like crying. I could feel my anger rising as the bottom came into view and there were rows of cells of little Mothlings, some looking rather ragged.

“Sweet hell,” I muttered and headed over to the cell and looked at the lock.

Looking around, I found some old prybars and even a couple of old tent spikes (the metal kind) and set to work breaking locks.

“Sky, take them out. Celestia, stay close to me,” I ordered. “This is going to get messy.”

On cue, he came charging down. I grabbed a shovel and swung. The satisfactory sound of connecting metal made me smile.

“Bingo, Ringo,” I said and looked at him.

“Now, you care to explain your actions with Luna?” I asked. “Or do I have to get nasty?”

He looked up, and gave a strangled gasp.

“What are you doing?” he hissed. “Those Mothings want PEACE!”

“Oh, so you can't stand peace?” I asked. “Celestia, go with Skyla. This pillock's mine!”

I returned and could feel the psycho coming on.

“So, tell me, little man, have you ever felt like you never belonged in this world?” I asked, licking my lips so happily, it made him cringe.

“What do you mean?” he squeaked.

Bully. He cowered as I stood up to him.

“Have you ever felt that you really don't belong anywhere in this world, as if you have no place here, at all?” I asked again.

He looked up.

“N..n...n...n...no,” he squeaked.

“Shame,” I said.

He looked up, I smiled and got close to his scared face.

“I will take you to the nearest planet and leave you to populate it alone,”I said. “You can have all your little beliefs and affect no pony but yourself. You can be happy and live to all your abilities, while making life happy.”

He said nothing. I picked him up and flew him to a planet that was habitable and then stopped off on the moon on the way back. Looking all over hell's half acre, I found a small Alicorn, with a crescent moon tattoo on it's flank.

'Bingo,' I thought and lifted said pony onto my back and slowly descended back to the ground.

Upon touchdown, I was greeted by several ponies in the same Nightmare Armor.

“Lance Corporal, where were you?” one of the ponies asked.

“Taking out the trash and bringing back gold,” I said. “Gold in the form of Princess Luna, in a weakened state. We need to get her in barracks now. Should the Captain need someone to take the heat, I will be the pay master here, as this is my plan. Do you copy?”

“Yes, Lance Corporal,” the pony said.

Together, we made our way to the barracks at the castle, where I laid Princess Luna on my bed and pulled a blanket over her.

“Rotational shifts,” I said. “I want Maelstrom to be on first watch. After an hour, get Battery Sergeant Major Skyla to assign the next guard. We'll do this until she is fit to go to Canterlot. As for telling Celestia, Do NOT tell her that we have found her sister. The last thing we need is an altercation that leads to who-knows-what.”

“Yes, sir,” they said and saluted.

I was out to the training fields, only to hear Nightmare Moon's voice.

“Lance Corporal, in my office.”

'Okay, we have the shit, where's the fan?' I asked.

I walked into her office and shut the door, then saluted her.

“Yes, Captain?”

“I heard you found Luna and gave orders to have the guard on one hour shifts to guard her until she's better and not to tell Celestia,” she said. “You want to explain yourself?”

Her glare was enough to freeze a Timberwolf's heart.

“I didn't want to leave her stranded,” I said. “Also, I didn't want to tell Celestia, because I didn't want to get her hopes up, only to have Luna die and break her heart and lead to all sorts of trouble. I really don't want to create unneeded trouble.”

Nightmare Moon's glare turned to a “tender glare of murderous sympathy” and she pulled out some papers and filled them out. She then looked up at me and pushed the papers over to me and set a pen down next to them.

“These papers are the files I keep saying that you are to take full responsibility of Luna's recovery and all the consequences of your decisions,” she said.

I nodded and signed away. Once I finished, I saluted and went to see how the shifts were going and who was on shift right now. Standing by the bed was a dark forest green pony with moth attributes and a light meadow green mane. On her flank were eight trees with what appeared to be a blanket weave.

“Name?” I asked.

“Private Forest Weave,” she said.

“What is her condition?” I asked.

“She's opened her eyes and held a small conversation with Private Sunset Shimmer,” Forest Weave said. “She's even eaten a couple of Lily and Tomato sandwiches.”

“Good,” I said. “That's a positive sign.”

“It is indeed, Lance Corporal,” she said.

“Return to your post,” I said. “I need to speak with the Battery Sergeant Major about our next move.”

We saluted and I found my sister in her office, getting an earful from a gamboge pegasus in Royal Guard Armor.

'The Floodgates hath opened to reveal thy contents,' I thought and waited outside until she was ready.

Once the pegasus departed, I went in and we planned out the next moves.

10

Luna's recovery was going well. On the five occasions I was in to see her, she was up and walking around. I didn't stay long enough for her to see me as I had to stay on top of other reports. Then again, being a Lance Corporal is a pain. However, I feel sorry for my sister, who's a Battery Sergeant Major.

She's getting the shaft alright. Paperwork, constant BS from the Royal Canterlot Guard and whatever else. The two of us would often eat dinner in her office and spend the time filling out papers, often times, transfer requests.

“Ever want to tell them to just piss off?” she asked me during one of our rushed dinners.

“Yeah,” I said. “Sometimes I wish the two of us were back on the ever familiar grounds of Templecombe, Binegar, Shepton Mallet or even Masbury.”

“True,” she said. “But that's not going to happen.”

“I know,” I replied. “Anyway, let's get this drudgery over with.”

We sat there and read through dozens of transfer requests, all of which we couldn't accept because our team was at max capacity, 40 members. After getting them filled out and send off to the other captains, we sat back and relaxed. Skyla put on some music and I cracked open a book I was in the middle of when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Skyla said.

Nightmare Moon entered, with Luna beside her.\

“Captain, Princess,” we said and stood to salute when Nightmare raised a hoof.

“No need to raise up,” she said. “We came to see you two because Luna wanted to see the two in charge of her return to health.”

“Not a problem, Your Grace,” I said.

“My grace?” Luna asked. “Ponies always refer to me as “Princess”, or “Your Highness”, never “Your Grace”.”

“That's a title from where I come from,” I said. “There's also “Your Lordship”; “Your Majesty”, but that's reserved for dignified royalty, like Kings and Queens.”

I saw her blink and chuckle.

“Unlike here, there were good and bad kings,” I said. “Same with queens, there are good and bad ones.”

Luna smiled.

“I wished to be a queen, alongside my sister, but our mother made us promise to never become queens, because of one queen we have here in Equestria,” Luna said. “It is a shame, but it is the way events have played out.”

“I understand,” I said. “It's not a problem. You are welcome to stay until you are recovered enough to travel back to Canterlot.”

Luna thanked us and pulled up a chair to sit and relax while Nightmare sat on the couch I had been crashing on during me and my sister's late night date with paperwork. Luna was talking to Skyla about the things she missed during her time on the moon. I went back to reading.

“Lance Corporal?”

I looked up, to see Luna glancing over at me.

“Yes, Your Grace?” I asked.

“May I ask you, what are your plans for the Summer Sun Celebration?” she asked.

“Just work guard position,” I said.

I saw Nightmare nod. Luna looked at me and Skyla.

“I wouldn't ask this of any pony, except my own guard, but would you accompany me?” she asked.

I could hear my sister say, “Yes, Your Grace.”

I caught Nightmare out the corner of my eye, standing up and coming to see us.

“I'd be remissed if I said “No” Your Grace,” I said.

By now, Nightmare was standing there and looking down at us.

“Battery Sergeant Major, Lance Corporal, who gives the orders?” she asked, hissing.

“You do, but in this case, Ma'am, we are being asked by the Princess of the Moon,” Skyla said. “When something comes up, like transfer requests, we bring it to your attention, but your orders were “When being asked by royalty, all other orders are to be nullified and we are to receive the orders of the royal we are being asked the favor of”.”

“I never gave such an order,” Nightmare growled.

“15th June, 1925,” I said. “3:20 pm, the chow hall. I was eating a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich while having a vegetable and scrambled egg stew. Battery Sergeant Major Skyla was eating an omelet with pears, lettuce, apricot jam, seasoned with Thyme, Oregano and black pepper. You were having scramble eggs, toast and a banana. As for drinks, I was having a non-alcoholic apple cider, you were drinking Earl Gray Tea and Skyla was on her 5th cup of coffee.”

“How'd...okay, where are your notes?” she demanded. “There's no way your mind would be able to retain that information! It's a blatant impossibility to retain such information and such trivial details!”

“Not really, Captain,” I said. “There are ponies who have photographic memories, which means they can recall every detail. Think of their minds like filing cabinets-Organized and full of every single detail.”

She stared. Luna, looking somewhat perplexed asked Skyla, “What is going on?”

“My brother, showing off his memory,” she said. “He's good, but I swear, he's freaky when he does that recollection of details in that monotone voice, wherein he makes it sound like he's some kind of recording device. It's also very unsettling.”

Luna, making sense of Skyla's words turned back to the scenario unfolding between me and Nightmare Moon.

“It's true, what you say, but...” she began.

“You had jobs for us on the day, correct?” I asked.

“Well, you were supposed to be Celestia's guards,” Nightmare pointed out.

“Well, I can't help that,” I said. “If I could, I would tell Night's Knight here to “Find somepony else to be your guard, we're protecting the Sun's Knight” but sense and honor dictate that being respectable comes first. Also, she's asking us to do this to repay us for looking after her while she recovered.”

“Fair enough,” Nightmare said.

I could sense she was deflated, so I looked at her.

“If you want, after the whole Celebration is over, you can hand out extra detail and cut my pay for a week,” I said. “Or longer, should you see fit.”

I should have seen the fit coming.

“I will not do such a thing!” Nightmare protested. “It isn't in the code of honor!”

“It's how the higher ups from where me and Skyla operate, screw over the lower ranks,” I said.

Nightmare eye ticked.

“If a Princess wasn't in the room, I'd tell you what I think of your commanding officers and the leadership in your military,” Nightmare grunted.

I ignored her grumbling and turned to Luna.

“Your Grace, I was wondering if you have a dress to wear to the celebration?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “Normally, when I attend, I don't wear a dress or anything fancy. It'll be a change to show up in something unique.”

Once Nightmare had agreed to the arrangements, I took Luna to the local shop, called Carousel Boutique. The owner came to the door once we entered and looked at us before blinking.

“I must say, darling, who is this you brought into my shop?” she asked.

“This is Princess Luna. I need you to make a dress for her,” I said. “Can you fill the order to her specifications? As for the bill, send it to me.”

The pony, a marshmallow white unicorn with three diamonds on her flank, stared.

“Are you asking me...to make a dress for Princess Luna?” she asked, at last.

“Yes, I am,” I said. “I trust there is no trouble in understanding my orders?”

“Uh...no, there isn't,” she said.

“Good,” I said.

The mare took Luna into the back room and began working. I sat in the lobby, reading the same novel I had been trying to finish when a white pegasus, chocolate mane, ice blue eyes, and dressed in Royal Canterlot Guard armor strode in.

I looked up as he glared down at me.

“Oh, a villain, ready to aide in Nightmare's plan,” he growled.

“Does my slouched, rather comfortable position say I'm here to cause harm?” I asked, returning my attention to a rather interesting paragraph.

The fact I had waved away his accusation and had basically showed that a book was enough to piss him off and make him stand above me. Luckily, a fight was avoided by having the store owner come and summon me to the back room.

Standing there was Luna, in a rather smashing dress. Dark midnight blue with white and midnight black streaks, with gold and silver bands around the middle of the dress and a rather fluffed collar.

“Your look absolutely...well, I have no words to describe how stunning you look,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said.

The shop owner came back and looked at me.

“How much?” I asked.

“22,000 bits,” came the reply. “It's a little on the expensive side, but since it is for a princess, I had to give it my all. I hope the price isn't going to be too steep for you to handle, sir.”

“No,” I said and opened a small portal to bring out a small bag.

Placing it on the table, I looked at her. “There's 40,000 bits in there. Added to the price is a 18,000 bit tip,” I said.

To say their eyes popped out of their sockets would be an understatement. The white mare fell over in surprise and Luna stared, wide eyed and her jaw muscles loosening.

“That's too generous,” they said.

“I wanted to show my appreciation for this unexpected turn of events,” I said. “Normally, I like to give advanced notice, but with a second Celebration, this time, to also commemorate the reinstallation of a new guard force, I wanted this to be a memorable event for Celestia, who hasn't seen her sister for years.”

I saw Luna smile and help the unicorn to her hooves. After that, we went about our business. Luna looked at me and after we alone in my quarters, she unleashed the pain that had been walled up behind her two dams that can see into the soul. I wrapped my wings around her and let her cry.

“It'll be alright in the end,” I said. “I'm sure Celestia misses you as well.”

She kept crying and I stayed up until she cried herself to sleep. Being careful, I undressed her and put the dress away and then crawled into the bunk and let her cuddle close to me. Skyla, seeing that, smiled.

“Looks like your going to take the older sibling role a little farther,” she whispered.

I nodded softly and even invited Skyla to join. She did so, allowing Luna to use her wing as a blanket. Smiling, Skyla coasted into sleep. I glanced at a photograph on my bedside stand.

“Thank you, 53810,” I mouthed and drifted off.

11

The next day, we woke up to see the others all talking.

“So, it looks like there's been a little mix up in who's dating the princess,” one said.

“No, looks like a proper love story,” another said.

I looked at them.

“How about you shut yer gob before I really show my explosive temper,” I growled.

They made mocking noises. I growled again, my eyes narrowing.

“So lover colt doesn't want to admit he's fallen for the...” a third said when the room went cold.

I looked towards the door, to see my commanding officer standing there.

“That is enough,” she hissed. “Rose Luck, Cloud Chaser, Coconut Cream and Sunset Shimmer, I want you four on scout detail. I have gotten hold of intelligence that states that there is to be a full assault on the Castle and Celestia. One of you shall report back, should there be anything suspicious. Lance Corporal Brighton Radstock Phoenix and Battery Sergeant Major Skyla are to stay with Luna and protect her from harm.”

They saluted and once the others were out, Nightmare Moon faced us.

“I have requested that Staff Sergeant Elite Sentry and Colonel Flash Sentry bring three more guards, privates, to help you with safe guarding Luna,” she said. “I am ordering that you all protect her.”

“Yes, Ma'am,” we said, saluting.

After she left, I looked at Skyla.

“I'll go for breakfast,” I said. “Be back in a few.”

Skyla saluted as did I and I ran for breakfast. 25 minutes later, I was walking back, with a small breakfast trolley. As I entered the room, I saw Luna sitting up and reading one of the books I kept in a drawer in my night stand.

“Good morning, Your Grace,” I said, bowing. “Breakfast is ready.”

I pulled the covers off the breakfast services. Pancakes, hash browns, coffee, juices, fruits, eggs cooked in different varieties, toast, jam, butter, marmalade, milk and cheeses. However, something felt off. I looked at Skyla and she ran a test on the food.

“Okay, some pony's spiked the food with love potions. Illegally gotten from the stores of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” she said.

I felt like wanting to strangle some pony right now. Of course, I returned the breakfast services and ordered a fresh lot made and stayed in the kitchen to watch them prepare it. I noted that there were bottles of love potion over by the exit and watched as one of the chefs reached for one. I cleared my throat.

“Oh, Lance Corporal, what a surprise,” the chef squeaked.

“Tell me, how did you obtain this love potion?” I growled.

“Uhhhhh....Private First Class Cloud Chaser obtained it,” he squeaked again. “Told Princess Mi Amore Cadenza it was to ensure that two ponies, who were secretly in love fell in true love.”

“Yes, and who are these ponies she said were in secret love?” I asked.

“You and Luna,” he said.

I grunted. After taking the trolley from him and putting a shield on it so it couldn't be spiked, then took it to our room. After shutting the door, I sat down and grunted in irritation.

“Those little so and so's,” I grunted.

“What are they up to now?” Skyla asked.

“Spiking our breakfast with love potion because they see me and Luna as secretly in love and wanted us to fully admit our love for one another,” I said. “Cloud Chaser obtained the love potion on that pretense. In other words, she lied to Cadence.”

“If she finds out, then we're going to all be in the soup,” Skyla said.

On cue, Cadence and Nightmare Moon stormed in, both looking like they were going to rip out a few souls and consume them after seasoning them and serving them on toast.

We saluted Nightmare and bowed to Cadence. Nightmare was the one who spoke.

“Your mother here has found out that she was lied to by some pony calling herself Cheesecake. Do you know anything?” Nightmare asked.

“Private First Class Cloud Chaser is the pony you want to ask,” I said. “She's the one who's bonehead idea it was to spike our food. I had to stay in the kitchen and watch them make us a brand new breakfast and then took it after a few...words. I am not exactly happy to hear that our own troops are blind to reality, and that's coming from a thestral.”

Of course, seeing mom pissed was beyond scary. You think Cadence slightly ticked off is anything? Wait until you see the perfect storm of rage in her eyes. It is downright terrifying. I could literally feel my soul running towards my stomach and zipping all exits shut.

“Mom, Captain,” I said. “If anything, we need to find a way to make sure this never happens again. I'm seriously going to have words with her and there maybe some unfriendly words here and there. I recommend staying here and soundproofing the door. I wouldn't want my...er...marefriend to hear anything unsuitable and unbecoming of an officer and a gentle colt.”

“Yes, Lance Corporal,” they said.

We saluted and after leaving, I found Cloud Chaser. It's kind of easy to miss her, because of her pale Persian blue coat. Cornering her, I was feeling my anger boil over.

“WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION?!” I shouted. “LYING TO CADENCE, SPIKING OUR FOOD! ARE YOU EVEN THINKING OF HOW DANGEROUS LOVE POTION IS?”

“Well, no,” she said.

Saying no more, I turned and stormed off. Upon reaching the barracks, I opened the door and banged it shut.

“Jackass,” I hissed.

“I take it everything went well?” Cadence asked.

“To tweak a quote from a series I watch- “Well then Clever Mares, who's bright idea was it to go and lie to Cadence”, and to add to that, we have- “It's not my fault!”. If you can't tell, I'm just so happy,” I growled, sitting down and breaking a chair in the process.

I didn't care that I had broken a chair, or that I had just let my temper run away. The only damn cares I had was that Luna and I were nearly forced into a false relationship and that my mother had been lied to. If anything, I would have drank bleach and then eat a match and basically blow up. Skyla, being the calmer mind in the room, cleared her throat politely.

“Excuse me, but I may have an answer to our problem here,” she said. “A “discharge” of me and my brother for “being in love with a princess” and then find another pair of ponies to fill our roles.”

While Mom, Nightmare and Luna liked it, mom made it better.

“Why don't you two take an “extended” holiday to Horseshoe Bay and let the others carry on without you two to guide them,” she said.

Nightmare and Luna agreed. However, it was Luna who came up with a much more fool proof plan. Me and Skyla were to stay in her office, having time off and we were not to be bothered with such trivialities. Luna was to be transferred to another place of residence until fit to travel to Canterlot, which was only in two days time.

We took her into Skyla's office and let her sleep on the couch. Skyla had ordered another couch and had it set up in another corner, but the couch had a hide-a-bed in it. After we got it out and did some moving around, Luna was moved to the bed and Skyla stayed with her and acted as a sister while I stayed up and filled out some delayed paperwork before crashing on the couch. I will say that sleep never felt so lovely.

Can somepony turn off the sun? Seriously. I have only had 2 hours of sleep over the entire week with all the paperwork needing filling out and it felt good to catch up. Then again, I had only been running on 2,458 cups of coffee and sparse amounts of food. Now I want to make up for lost normal routines.

Skyla and Luna were already up and eating breakfast. I yawned and joined them for apricot omelets, coffee and toast. To say it felt good to eat a full meal would be an understatement. My shriveled stomach started to expand back to it's original state. Honestly, if I wasn't an herbivore, I would have downed seventy five packs of hotdogs, sixteen steaks, forty five glasses of wine and whatever else I could get my hot little horn on.

Luna was chuckling as I downed my breakfast, ready for the day. After that, we went out to Ponyville. The shopping we did was a basic stock up for Battery Sergeant Major Skyla's cabinet. Luna enjoyed helping shop, as she hadn't done that for years. When we finished, we had fruits, vegetables, spices, eggs, breads, pasta, pasta sauces and many other office supplies, which filled half a cart. I then had Luna and Skyla climb in the cart and I hitched up to said cart and headed back to the castle.

Upon returning to the castle, we got to see the other guards in pure misery. I looked at Skyla as we unloaded the cart, then pointed to the others.

“Barma, Kitch,” I said.

Skyla laughed and we went into Skyla's office and put away the goods. However, sitting in the office were the ponies me and Skyla went to college with. I had to raise a brow until I cast my mind back and listened to the bantering. They had stayed out of it, but that didn't answer my question as to why they were there until Private Echo explained that Nightmare had assigned them to help us with protecting Luna.

“That makes it easy,” I said. “I'll have to thank her.”

“True,” Echo said.

“Oh and Inkwell's been promoted to Sergeant,” Echo said.

“He deserves it,” Skyla said. “He's been hard working and needed some promotion and yes, while doing oddjobs in the background, he's only complained once and that was because of the lack of intelligence the others showed.”

“Thanks,” Inkwell said.

The sergeant's badge shone on his chestplate. As for the others, their armor shone and made Luna smile happily.

“Reminds me of my old guards,” she said.

That got me to think about something I saw in the castle in Canterlot, in passing. The Night Guard were Thestrals. Something made me look over at her.

“Luna, were your guards Thestrals?” I asked.

“Yes.”

12

I was trying to piece together how to make things work out when we were interrupted by a knock on the door. Skyla bid enter and three ponies entered. One was a Gamboge pegasus, the other I recognized while the other three I barely knew. One was a deep slate gray Alicorn, the second a rich sky blue unicorn and the last being a crimson earth pony.

“Rank and Names,” I said. “For records.”

“First Lieutenant Shadow Sight,” the Slate Gray Alicorn said.

“Colonel Flash Sentry,” the Gamboge Pegasus said.

“Staff Sergeant Elite Sentry,” the White coated pegasus said.

I nodded and after noting them down in on some spare paper, I turned to them and asked that they got acquainted with the others in the office. I noticed Elite Sentry was acting rather rude towards the changelings in the group.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“You know how evil changelings are,” Elite said. “So why are there changelings in here?”

“Simple,” I said. “I know that there are good and indifferent changelings here. Just evil prevails like the smell of rotten food.”

“Nice choice of words,” Flash chuckled.

“Evil stands not with us, but behind, always ready to backstab after swaying us with the plastic rose of goodwill. Only good will use a hidden magic to pull from the wounds a real rose, of which the petal will heal the wound and raise our goodwill of the faded shadows that house those who do the good deeds that go unnoticed,” I said.

“Who...said that?” they asked.

“That would be Brighton's own words right there,” Tintin said. “He's been a bit of a philosopher.”

That got some of the others to chuckle.

“And he's young,” Luna said.

“True,” I said.

We began planning out how things were to go. However, fate seemed to want to screw me over.

“Nightmare Moon wants to see you in her office,” said Sunset, who had been granted permission to enter.

After excusing myself, I made my way to my commanding officer's office, where a couple of colts and mares in fine suits were waiting. After I was told to enter and after being offered a seat, Nightmare looked at me.

“Brighton, these Ponies are from the Railway Directorate,” she said. “And they want your help with getting the Summer Sun Celebration's “After Party” setup. I thought you would be the best choice to help get the loads running.”

“Ah,” I said.

“Do you think you can keep up with the timetables?” one of the ponies quizzed.

“Yes,” I said.

I was then taken to the Director's offices, where I was introduced to the other directors.

“Oh, more brains,” one said, with a relieved sigh.

“Leave me to the planning,” I said.

As we went on with planning and everything, the schedules were set for the running. I then went out to see what engine was available for the first passenger train and there, sitting in a siding was a steam engine that I had literally lived next too-SP4449.

'Why couldn't it be Mallard?' I thought. 'I would like to crack 130+ mph on 250 tare ton trains.'

Why? Because I just love the rush of air as I pull heavy passenger coaches up grades. If there is one positive to this engine, it has chain link couplings and buffers on the front and back and it's train was comprised of six teak coaches. And a massive change to it's look. It was painted in the LMS's own Crimson Lake livery, with German style smoke deflectors and instead of “Southern Pacific” on the tender, in big, block lettering, were the initials LMS. The only things that stayed the same were the basic shape, the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement and it's numbering.

“Think you can manage this load to the Crystal Empire?” one of the heads asked.

“Certainly,” I said.

Deep down, I was nervous. I only ever drove Black 5's, E2's and A3's and they were coal burners, not oil burners. Tintin could drive oil burners and even wood fired engines. I really wish she was here to teach me how to drive this engine. Last time I ever tried driving an oil burning steam engine was when the only preserved J3a Hudson was converted to oil burning-I ended up overflowing the feed pipe for the oil and caused it to burst. So, I'm not exactly enthused about driving this engine.

However, I put on a brave face and climbed into the cab. Once inside, and the door shut, I somehow managed to fill the boiler without blocking or overflowing the feed pipe and got it moving. As the train moved towards the station, there was a loud rattling noise from the front.

'That's only right when something's going to go horribly wrong,' I thought.

I was sorely right. The line out of Canterlot was on a steep grade and it proved a challenge for the locomotives. To my knowledge, this line had double heading locomotives on the heaviest trains, including the premiere express train on the line.

Six coaches should be no problem, but Karma is nothing more than an evil bitch.

As we climbed towards the next station out, the rattling got louder and more persistent. With no firemare or firecolt to call me crazy, I had to cut the speed and power. I glanced at the station board-Maresford.

“BANG!”

“SHIT!”

I hit the brakes hard and the train slid hard forward, the coaches banging hard into each other and into the engine. I threw it in reverse and threw the regulator wide. After getting the train stopped, the guard came up.

“Put down detonators and warn the signal colt that the line's blocked!” I shouted. “We need our train protected!”

“What about the down goods?” came the reply.

“Damn!”

I jumped down and was flying as fast as I could. One problem presented itself-where was the goods train? I began to panic. If I couldn't find that train, it would be certain disaster. A shrill whistle and sound of pistons firing sounded. I glanced down to see a transparent outline of a locomotive. It seemed to be following me.

'What?' I mentally asked as the driver made a signal-follow me. Dropping to be alongside the loco, I saw that it was a J39 0-6-0 tender engine. The driver pointed ahead with a beefy hand. I turned my attention and saw a signalbox. I jumped at the opportunity as the engine snorted through. Landing, I barged in and gave the signalmare there a scare.

“Set your signals to danger! Road's blocked!” I yelped.

Hearing that, she hit a lever and I saw a signal go red. Now, the agonizing part of this-the nail biting wait. Soon, I heard whistles and the scream of brakes and the train drew to a halt. After the crew came in and I explained, I joined them and we proceeded cautiously up the line, where another train was waiting and passengers were shouting rude remarks.

After it was deemed to safely move the engine, I shunted into a siding and cleared the road for the other trains. I began to inspect the coaches to see what damage was done. Damaged buffers and dislodged dining coach supplies. However, a bigger question is-How did that J39 appear and why it chose to come when things began to scare me.

I kept that on the back of my mind as I looked and noticed the cylinder looked fatter than normal on the 4449. Two hours later, some workponies came up and helped me dismantle the cylinder. It had failed masterfully and now we had to wait and find and engine to rescue the train. Luckily, a former Southern Railways U boat mogul was coming up the line with a small goods train and after it was flagged, the 4449 was moved onto the goods train which was only four wagons and a brake-van. The U Boat took the coaches onwards, while I took the goods train up and then brought down the return coal train. If any of my human world American friends ever heard I failed 4449, then I'm a dead colt walking.

As for the scenario playing out here and now, I couldn't really care, as I had no choice in the matter here. It was do the jobs or get shit on by the board of directors and Nightmare Moon. Then again, I would need something strong to help me “fix” my mind.

When I nursed the engine back to the yard, it was immediately taken to the sidings and inspected. As for me, I ended up having to play tape recorder and repeat the events over and over. Of course, the fact that there was a ghost spooked them and when that reached my commanding officer...well, I'll tell that story when it comes up.

As for the crippled engine, I was told to shunt around the yards and prepare trains for the other engines.

“But shouldn't it be taken to the works?” I asked.

“It'll be a two week wait before we get it there,” one of the yard ponies.

“Damn it,” I said.

With that, I left the offices and went back to shunting the yard. As I marshaled some wagons into a siding, I caught sight of a familiar and well loved tank engine, a 14xx #1401. A friend had purchased said loco from scrap and passed into my ownership. I hadn't seen it ever since my little fiasco, involving a fish train, a passenger train, fog and dimly lit signals.

Being confined to the yard wasn't that bad. At least my friends were around to see the almighty son of Cadence being demoted to nothing more than an errand colt. If anything, I was used to shunting and being confined to yards for other reasons, like being new and even getting into a few minor fights.

During the two week delay for the loco repairs, I arranged trains for other engines and other ponies. I didn't mind it and actually had great fun pushing trucks and coaches around. Once the engine was taken to the works, I went back to the castle.

Evidentially my mishap reached the castle before me and the first thing I heard was...“You killed the 4449, you British twit!”

“How nice to see you Tintin,” I said.

The only response was her cuffing me around the left ear. Once I was back in my sister's office, with Luna and the others, the only response was, “Just as expected, fucking up the simple job.”

Luna was confused.

“How could he make a mess of a simple job? He was praised as being an excellent railway pony,” she said. “He has no flaws in that area as I saw. He's knowledgeable and very keen to please.”

“Except there is one problem with that statement,” Tintin said. “And one that he's admitted is hard for him to come to terms with-He cannot drive oil burning engines. He doesn't have the skill to do that properly. He's a visual learner and with a coal fire, he can see if he needs to add coal or not. With an oil burner, he doesn't have that keen eyesight, which is why I go along.”

“Does that make it hard for you two?” Luna asked again.

“No,” Tintin said. “In fact, his driving is superb. Not as good as experienced crews, but up there. I will give him the proper congratulations on these points-he's a capable goods driver, his eyes and ears are tuned to the locomotive and if it's talking is a bit off, he knows something is wrong and he's vigilant. However, he's not Little Mr. Perfect. He still makes mistakes.”

“True,” Luna said.

It seemed hard to believe, but we got over my screw up in time to get a caller-Celestia. Oh...shit.

Author's Note

This is the locomotive

13

“Hello, Princess,” I said, bowing.

“Lance Corporal, I hear you have my sister here,” Celestia snapped. “I demand you move aside so I can see her.”

I obliged. Once Celestia was in, I heard Luna squeak in surprise. Celestia, still in a mood of ire, looked around.

“Who ordered her to be kept secret?” she demanded.

“Brighton,” Came the unanimous answer.

Since when did I become freshly washed laundry that needed to be hung out to dry. Celestia wheeled to me and I saw the fire in her eyes.

“I can explain,” I said.

“Let's hear it,” she said.

“I had found her on the moon and she was in a weakened state,” I explained. “I knew that she meant a lot to you, and to give you your weakened sister back disgusted me, so I took it upon myself to see her return to full health and to her former splendor.”

“And you did a great job,” Celestia said.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You were like a big brother to me,” Luna said.

That statement put the entire room in silence. To break the silence, Nightmare Moon walked in.

“It's good to see you two are reunited,” she said.

“I could say the same,” Luna said.

“Begging your pardon,” Tintin said. “But you three seem to be acting different.”

“We're sisters,” Luna said.

“How...wait....wha....?” was all that was heard.

Celestia explained that their mom and dad, the King and Queen of Equestria gave birth to four Alicorns who tended the farms and the guard forces. The farmers were Luna and Celestia while Nightmare Moon and an Alicorn named Solar Eclipse were in charge of the guard forces. When Dorset asked about Solar Eclipse, Celestia seemed to drop into a depression.

“During a freak storm, she was flung somewhere and hasn't been located since,” she said.

Call me a plot convenience here because I had a sinking, yet floating suspicion that something screwy was going on and we're miles from St. Louis. I asked if there was a photograph of Solar Eclipse.

Celestia said for me to wait and flashed out of the building. After thirty minutes, she returned with a small photo album and her mother. After I dismissed the others, except Nightmare Moon and my entry into Equestria episode gang. Skyla got permission to enlarge the photograph and did so, but something seemed off in it. There were more ponies than what Celestia let on. In front of her mother and father were eight ponies, not four and that four out of the eight were colts.

“Can somepony answer as to why there are eight ponies here?” I asked.

“Oh, those are our sons,” Nebula said. “But they left for Manehatten to make it big in the entertainment industry with Astronomous.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Hmmmm...Now, my next question, about your sister, Solar Flare,” I said.

“Go ahead,” Nebula said.

“In regards to the storm,” I said. “When it came around, which way did the wind blow?”

“What does that have to do with her disappearance?” Celestia asked.

“What I'm thinking is...with her being an Alicorn, maybe her wings were spread out to fly one way and she was taken the other way,” I said. “It's happened once to a pet canary I had in the human world.”

“Oh,” Nightmare said.

I continued with my theory.

“If we can apply what happened to a small canary, and using my knowledge of powerful winds, it is likely a large gust caught her unaware. Winds, even controlled by pegasi can still be unpredictable at the best of times,” I said. “So using an example of Skyla, Tintin, and the Ponyville Weather team, say they create a ginormous gust if wind. Even if they were to stop instantly and Skyla was to use her magic, the winds would still act unpredictable.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, now with much more powerful Alicorns, like say, Queen Nebula, then yes, she could halt the wind,” I said. “But at the time of the event, there were many other events going on, so Queen Nebula and you three were busy with delegations and royal duties. So, it came as a shock to you.”

“True,” they said.

“However,” I said. “This is speculation. Not one hundred percent substantiated fact, so as of me saying this, it's a pure runaround.”

“Runaround?” Luna asked.

“Deceptive or delaying action,” Tintin said. “In other words, it's a pure detour of finding out where she could be.”

“Ah,” they said.

“Yes,” I said.

“So, with the news, we can organize search parties while the royal family spend some time together,” I said.

“Thank you,” Nightmare Moon said.

After they left, I talked with the others and made plans. Prepare for runaround.

14

To say we had runarounds would be an understatement. Running all over Equestria to find an Alicorn with Sun Orange coat with a gray mane and a flaming sun Cutie Mark was proving to be difficult. Running ads in the paper didn't help and felt like giving up.

“Hopeless,” I said. “This venture is hopeless.”

“Not at all.”

I looked up. It wasn't one of the group, because they were out running around and I looked around until I spotted a figure I recognized only from old photographs-my grandfather, in his Crew Chief's uniform, sitting in the chair on the other side of my desk.

“Grandpa; I'm getting no answer, my teams are coming back empty, any ponies who were questioned either know nothing or stay tight lipped, any ponies that saw her lie through their teeth and assholes, and to top it off, I get complaints every ten minutes from the police about this investigation,” I said.

“Have you tried any new lines of inquiry?” he asked. “Like maybe asking in places she would likely frequent now that she doesn't have her sisters and brothers to pester her.”

“That's a good idea,” I said.

“Another thing is set up a stake out in said places to spot her,” he said.

Again, I conceded he had a point. Once he reassured me that things would pull through, he faded into the shadows.

“Time to go Nero Wolfe,” I said.

If you do not know what that means-it is basically taking all the overlooked items and finding value in them when others don't. It makes things easier when you have a new avenue to look down. Sometimes it confuses those around me, but I don't care.

When the others came back, I made the suggestions my dead grandfather made and even volunteered to run along with them.

“So there's answers in the places we've never looked,” came my sister's all too familiar irritated voice.

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, let's get looking,” she said. “And brainless, your coming with me.”

I followed my sister out and from there, we split up and played private detectives. The advice seemed to pay off as ponies we questioned now said they saw her in the crime ridden part of town. After thanking them, we went in there. To say it was the undesirable part of town would be a lie. It was a rat infested town that even the rats refused to stay in.

“Come on, lets find her and get out of here,” I said. “Knowing the type of ponies that hang around here, we'd be in a fight in no time.”

The others agreed and we set to work combing the buildings. Each one stunk of garlic, onions, chili cheese fries (and six year old batches at that). Add to that stairs creaked with every step and paint that was peeling, as well as wood rot, mold and trash piled up in the halls.

“Wow, the daughter of Nebula has to pick a shithole,” I said.

Continuing on, she was eventually found by Dorset, sleeping on the floor, in a rat infested apartment near a closed down railway station. To say she looked a shambles would be an understatement. She was a downright mess.

Her coat was so thick with dust and grime it wasn't funny. She had an eye patch over one eye, one of her wings was bound to her body, her horn was cracked and her left ear had a large nick in it.

“Sweet Brunel!” I choked out. “What happened?”

“Slum life,” came Dorset's reply.

“That won't do at all,” I said. “Come, let's get her out of here and back to the castle so we can fix her up.”

“Please,” came another voice.

We looked at Solar Flare. She looked up.

“Please,” she said again.

“Come on,” I said.

The landlord, a disgruntled, grizzly, cigar smoking Unicorn that smelled of a cheap clone of Jack Daniels (finest Irish Lager) faced us.

“And where is she going?” he growled.

“Home,” I said.

“Hmmph. That's what you think,” he growled again.

“And what does that mean?” Dorset hissed.

“I...own...her,” he spelled out.

“Think again,” I snarled. “I was hired by her mother to find and bring her back. If you want to complain, take it up with Queen Nebula.”

“That bitch doesn't exist,” he snarled. “Now leave the phony pony here.”

I pushed Solar Flare towards the door telling Dorset to take her back to the castle and leave me here to fight this crook.

“If I come back in a coffin, then I'll be fine,” I said.

Dorset wasn't happy at that, but I gave him no choice in the matter. I found Nebula's daughter and damn it, I wasn't going to let some dime store sap hurt her more. Once they were out, the manager and I turned to pure fighting.

He threw a left hook. I dodged and gut punched him in the stomach. He reeled back and then tried to straight shot my face and caught my on the left side of my nose. I roundhouse kicked him on the left side.

“Cheap bastard,” he growled.

“I say the same,” I said.

He snarled and lunged. I dropped and rolled off. He slammed into a wall and dropped down. I saw he was breathing, but out of it.

“Here's a tip-don't piss off a detective,” I said and left.

The fight, despite being short, left me with a bloody nose. I stopped off in a bathroom and cleaned my face up. No way in hell was I going to look like a messy little so and so before reuniting a family. I should be a real gentlecolt and nothing less.

At least, I should have been back to oversee this. However, I was hauled in on assault, aiding and abetting, conspiracy and missing payments. The inspector, a surly unicorn named Inspector Cigar Stub, took very little pity on me.

“You better be grateful that these are the only charges,” she growled. “otherwi...”

“You know, you remind me of a deranged maniac,” I jabbed.

“Shaddup,” she huffed. “You know your in the soup, right?”

“With that crook? Who was abusing Celestia's sister?” I quizzed.

“Alright, I want your side of the events,” she snapped.

“Fancy dress or plain?” I asked.

“English,” she snorted.

So I gave it to her straight. No skirting the facts, no omitting fact, no changing of minor details. She was glaring at me, but by the time I finished, she was making notes and shouting for a lieutenant. She then turned to me.

“Stay here,” she said. “I'm going to find this Celestia and if she has a mother, find her and this Solar Flare, then we're going to get to the bottom of this. If you are lying, then you'll be sleeping on a cot in a rat infested cell.”

I chuckled and sat there, reading a book on the shelf. After an hour of waiting, Dad, Celestia, Nebula and Solar Flare entered with Cigar Stub, who was giving me the dirtiest look.

“You know, your one of the dirtiest ponies I've ever met, having royalty as witnesses to collaborate your statements,” she snorted.

“Then again, why would I have a reason to lie?” I asked. “I may send you on a game of “Run, Sheep, Run” but I wouldn't directly lie to you.”

She chuckled and said that she would enjoy having me make wise cracks as well as somepony who helps solve crimes. I chuckled and said I could try to fit it in with my guard details.

“Of course,” she said.

We left, and Dad asked me to stay behind and looked down at me.

“Alright, Brighton Radstock Phoenix, we have to have a serious chat sometime, about your stunts,” he said. “Cadence isn't happy with this either and she's of the opinion you might end up...gone.”

“Dad; Me, Mom, Skyla, Celestia, Luna, their siblings, and Nebula have immortality. It is considered a curse more than a blessing,” I said. “So make of that what you will.”

Shining looked at me before sitting down.

“Brighton, despite sitting on this, at times, you seem to despise me and Cadence,” he said. “Do you have something against us?”

“Cadence is an Immortal being that could be considered God, and my friends who read this go about whining that some cheapskate little piece of shit like me gets to be Cadence's son. Some have even accused me of actually being either Luna or Celestia's son!” I snapped.

I collapsed onto the floor and looked down.

“I...I...I don't know how to feel anymore,” I mumbled weakly. “What do I do?”

“Just live,” Shining said. “Let them complain about this. If I may, can I let you in on a little secret?”

“Yes, dad,” I said.

“Cadence picked you because of how multitalented you are. None of that silly Mary Sue or Gary Stu trash. Honestly, if they believe that your perfect, then they are clearly unable to match your versatility. Going back over your past, Cadence saw how well you went from the fast, heavy jobs to some of the most tedious, nasty and downright disrespectful jobs,” he said. “Having worked with this engine called a Black Five, Cadence thought that the Alicorn status fit you because she said that Equestria has never had an Alicorn do a wide range of jobs. Most are...as you would say...allocated to princessely duties. As for Skyla, a pony that is Merchandise only fit your sister. Cadence has a plan, despite no-pony knowing it at all.”

I chuckled. At that moment, Shining left and I glanced back to the station, where another phantom engine sat in one of the sidings. Instead of the engine being a J39, it was a Black Five. Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Do these ghosts mean something or is my imagination going haywire?

16

Nightly guard duties were some of the best fun we had. I ended up paired with Malestrom and the two of us took Manehatten. Despite the town being huge, it was easy for us to cover, due to our wings. However, while Malestrom had superior hearing, I had superior sight pictures. It seemed that covering each end of the spectrum was what Nightmare Moon had intended.

“Keep your eyes peeled for any danger. Should something need both of us to handle, then find me, or if it's on my end, then I'll send a flare up,” I said.

“Understood,” Malestrom said.

We split the town in half and patrolled it in the most methodical way we knew how. This meant we worked at certain corners and met in the middle. The town was a tight bit hard to navigate with all the tall buildings and crappy lighting. By crappy lighting: I mean that the street lamps were so grimy the bright shine was dull, some of the lights were either stolen or burned out, vandalized and destroyed.

“Talk about the happiest place on earth,” I said.

Surprising, the scumbags seemed to disappear whenever I came close. I couldn't help by smile at that little thought, but it didn't last long. Turning down 5th and Mareison, I saw a pair of dirt bags aiming to hurt a couple. I sent up a flare and landed quietly behind the scumbags.

“HALT!”

Malestrom, you inglorious guardscolt. The assaulters stopped and turned, then tried to attack us. I dodged and nailed one of them in the back of the head, causing him to go crashing into trash bins. Malestrom roundhoused the second one and pinned him against the wall.

“Bastard,” the pinned scumbag hissed.

Malestrom slammed a hoof in the scumbag's mouth.

“There's a lady here!” he hissed.

I pinned his compatriot to the ground with magic and held him while I frisked his body for weapons. Finding a few weapons and even a list of ponies to rob. I lifted him off the ground and after the police arrived, we left the criminals and escorted the mare home.

After that, we went back and had to fill out reports, including the use of violence. Of course Nightmare Moon wasn't too bothered, but all the same, she sent us a letter, telling us to watch our strength.

“Stereotype 101-the male is a brute,” I said.

Malestrom chuckled. “Of course, dragon ponies are known for being brutish when pissed off,” he pointed out.

I had to chuckle at that. Of course the two of us would be chewed out, but we didn't care. Returning, I worked the ground while Malestrom took to the air. It felt good to pound along, using the sights to tell me all that I needed to know. Walking around, I noticed that the town seemed to quieten down after the run-in with the scumbags.

The next night, it was the same and so on down the weeks and months. There were times when me and Malestrom stood around eating chili cheese fries, drinking sodas and sometimes hovering in the air and patrolling. Even the prowl colts were impressed.

“For Nightmare Guards, you sure give us a run for our money,” they would say.

Malestrom chuckled at that, but I didn't. Quite frankly, I'd rather stick it out as a guard, not a cop. That way, I'd be able to get a little more physical and menacing. Granted, the armor being heavy gave us better advantage, but slowed us down.

One night, early in March, I perched on a rooftop and watched the quiet city streets. I swear, I felt more like a superhero than a guard. Malestrom would do a couple of circles before I took flight. The quiet of the moonlit city seemed to be something out of a dreamworld and not here in reality.

Maybe while we have this quiet period, it will give me time to answer a question I've been asked-How would the Many Worlds Interpretation affect My Little Pony?

The Many Worlds Interpretation states that there are worlds similar to ours or to the world we see in television.

An example would be this world I am in right now is a believable world, as there is are elements here which could happen in the show at any given time-Nightmare Moon being a hero and sister to Luna and Celestia, Cadence and Shining Armor adopting foals as well as being married and having a foal of their own, Celestia and Luna having siblings and a living parent and even other events that are bound to happen later on in this story.

Another example would be a world where Cadence and Chrysalis are married while Luna and Shining Armor are married. As for the human world adoptions, those range from abused children to fantasy fliers.

And to those who get their sweet jollies off, I have to mention the universes where the ChangelingxPony ship exists with sweet bondage fetishs up the Grand Canyon does exist. So to those who wanna have their Cadence bondage good times in the dead of night-have fun.

As for this universe, I'm waiting to see what going to happen between Mom, Dad, Chrysalis and the other Changelings, plus the other Hives. Hopefully things balance out to make Equestria better than it is in the show.

Anyway, Malestrom had come to find me and tell me that my mother and soon to be father had requested me and my sister.

“What for?” I asked.

“Nightmare Moon didn't say, she just sent her courier, Freezie Flora out here with the letter saying you are to go back to the castle,” he said.

Feeling my curiosity become more like a house, I flew back to HQ. Reaching the door, I was greeted by two Royal Guards who showed me in. Once in the castle's foyer, I found a couch and sat down. Twenty minutes later, Skyla appeared. After forty more minutes of waiting, Nightmare Moon, Cadence and Shining Armor appeared.

“You requested our presence?” Skyla asked.

“Brighton, Skyla, me and Shiny are getting married and we've talked with the other royals and it was agreed that you two be crowned at the same time,” Cadence said.

Me and Skyla nodded. I would say “It's about time for this to take place”, but I'm not exactly looking forward to that. I mean, me and my sister would be crowned Prince and Princess, which doesn't exactly fill me with happiness. Being crowned does bring out a bigger workload and can really stress a pony out.

Congratulations, Brighton, your swimming in the biggest ocean of stress and death you've ever seen, you snow white Thestral Alicorn dunce. When can I check into a mental institute?

17

Well, I can't check into any mental facility. They're full and I'm clinically sane. So now, onto all the hell in Equestria starting with the marriage. It was planned six months in advance, following the news we had a sister in college mom hadn't bothered to tell us about until now-Flurry Heart. Yeah, yeah, I know, but hey, it's the way things are here, not in the TV Show. Things have to make sense in fiction, but not in reality and since this is a reality I'm recording, expect things to not make sense.

Enough on that, onto getting into deep and boiling oil. It was a summer night and we had been stabled on rotation with the Solar guard, who were giving us no end of trouble. That morning, I received a letter saying Flurry would be coming to visit us. Of course, we hadn't provoked these idiots, but they decided that because they are superior because they're solar guards and picked by Celestia herself.

“You have no skills in being a guard,” a peon named Golden Rayz snorted, looking down.

“Also, quit playing at being an Alicorn, batboy,” another snorted.

I was about to retort when Celestia walked in.

“Enough,” she said. “I chose you to be Solar Guards because of your physical prowess and talents, not your egos.”

They grumbled under their breaths as another figure appeared. I saw it was yet another Alicorn (surprise surprise) with a light pink coat and a crystalized rainbow mane and a very soft smile. Celestia turned.

“Oh, hello Flurry,” she said. “You here to apply for the guard force?

“No, I'm here to visit my siblings,” she said.

Celestia nodded. Flurry trotted over to me and Skyla.

“Hello you two,” she said.

“Hello Flurry,” Skyla replied. “How's college?”

“Kicking my ass,” she said. “then again, when your a studying Pharmacist, you'd be expect to have a load of homework.”

“True,” Skyla said. “Western Brass over there is a home call Doctor and she was in med school for a good 8 years.”

“Yeesh,” she said. “Mom and Dad are deeply considering moving me over to being either a lawyer or a business owner.”

“I don't blame them,” I said. “They want what's best for their family.”

“Pussies,” another Solar Guard snapped, apparently overhearing the conversation.

Celestia turned and faced the guard. What I wouldn't pay to see the death glare coming from her eyes. I could see the guard diving under an imaginary table.

“I will see you in my office at 9:00 tonight, Captain Solarstorm,” she snarled.

I watched her walk away, leaving everyone bewildered.

“This I did not expect,” Arachnus said.

I chuckled. Flurry just shook her head. The rest were in a deafening silence.

“Well, where can I stay for the night?” Flurry asked.

“Borrow my bed,” Arctic Blast said. “I won't be using it as I'm going to be swimming in paperwork.

She bid him farewell. I showed her to the room and she laid down in the bed. I returned and assigned everyone into pairs-One Solar and one Lunar Guard to make sure everything worked smoothly.

“You have confidences that things will go well,” A NCO named Reflective Light said.

“No, I have every confidence things will blow up in my face,” I replied. “Usually it'll be prefaced with 'It's all going right'.”

He chuckled. I also chuckled.

“I can't wait to see this in action,” he continued. “It sounds like a party in the barracks.”

The image of everyone here partying here in the barrack had to make me laugh. Once returning to my normal serious demeanor, I gave orders and let them go to town. Once they were out to time the rotations, I went to my office with Reflective Light.

“I want to apologize for those recruits and newly recruited members behaviors,” he said. “They do not reflect the values of the sol.....” he began, but I waved it away.

“I don't want to hear an apology,” I said. “What they need is a good amount of shit detail and other unpleasant duties to drill it into their skulls that you don't do something stupid. One advice I can give is that does not go onto their permanent records.”

“Why?” he demanded.

“Do you want to ruin careers and make enemies?” I asked.

“You are delusional,” he snorted.

“No, a realist,” I said.

He growled and stormed out. I sighed.

“Young Idiot,” I thought.

Tomorrow's a new day.

18

Things haven't ever really settled down after the Solar Guard moved in. Reflective Light was putting any and all offenses that each Solar Guard committed into their permanent file. I had to spend my nights rectifying it and trying to keep all the “By the Book” hounds at bay.

“Should I get dad?” Flurry asked one night.

“If you think that'll sor.....” I began when a firm knock was heard.

Flurry opened the door and in stepped Captain Armor.

“Well, shit creek's arrived. Where's the paddle?” I asked.

That got a real chuckle out of Captain Armor. “I know I'm your father and your commanding officer, but there's no need to make such a statement,” he said.

“Well, that's the issue dad,” Flurry interjected, stopping my reply. “Ever since the Solar Guard came here, they've been either little angels or little troublemakers and their NCOs only care about getting a promotion by sinking as many of their underlings as they can. Phoenix has been trying to sort out the mess they don't want sorted out.”

Shining's eyes narrowed. I waited.

“Is this true?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “It is.”

He became as solid as a stone wall and the only words from him in the next five minutes were, “Bring me to the NCOs and the Solar Guard.”

I obliged and took him to the office of the NCOs and went back to my office. Sorting out the paperwork and cleaning up everyone's files, the explosion could be heard from miles away. I had to refrain from abandoning my duties to enjoy the show.

“Who knew dad could blow up like that?” Skyla said.

“Well.....,” Flurry said. “He's brought up in the old style, where they tolerated stupidity of the troops.”

“Ah,” Skyla said.

“Yeah,” Flurry replied.

“Ladies, do you mind, take your talk somewhere else,” I grunted. “I'm ready to throw something and I don't wanna do it and have dad jump down my throat with Polygrip and Gravel when a copy of the Dictionary comes flying through the air, hits a wall and have him believe it hit you.”

They chuckled.

“Why don't you relax and I can cover the paperwork,” Flurry said. “I trained in the Manehatten Royal 12th division Fusiliers.”

“Being a Fusilier and a regular office rat are two completely different things,” I pointed out.

“I was an office rat,” Flurry retorted.

I chuckled.

“Knock yourself out,” I said. “Remind me, I owe you one.”

“Nah, We're square,” she replied

I found my bed and after telling Skyla to send in the Marching Band, fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first intimation that someone unauthorized was in my room was when a feather tickled my nose. I shot up to see Luna standing there.

“Good evening,” she said.

“Oh, hello your Grace,” I said. “What time is it?”

“Midnight,” she replied.

“Oh, so I've only slept for ten hours,” I yawned.

“Try twenty four hours,” she deadpanned.

I chuckled, yawned again, and stretched out. I then turned to her.

“So, what brings you here?” I asked.

“As your sister would say, Are you free Friday night?” she asked.

“Yes, Your Grace, why?” I asked.

“Would you mind going out with me for a date?” she asked.

I stared. Okay, it's only the 18th chapter and already, Luna's asking me on a date. Did I do something wrong?

“Sounds good,” I said.

“See you at 8:00 pm?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “Here, I'll show you out. The NCOs here are a bunch of book heavy types who if you have no reason to be here would throw the book at you.”

“So your my excuse for being here?” she asked.

“Excuse is one way of saying it. I would have stated it as this-“I am the official you have scheduled an appointment with to arrange an event on Friday night”,” I said.

She nodded. I saw her out to her chariot and once it was safely off, I turned and went back in. Making my way to my office, I was stopped by Reflective Light, who was shaking his head.

“A date with the Princess of the Night,” he growled. “That's a court marshal offense.”

“Court marshal him and Captain Armor will have your head,” a voice said.

“Shut it pest,” he growled.

I lost my temper and punched him hard enough to knock several teeth down his throat. From there, we fought in the hall until we were separated by several larger Solar and Lunar guards.

“Enough.”

We looked to see a large and rather burly looking Earth pony storm up.

“Hello,” I said.

“Who are you two?” he asked.

“Lance Corporal Brighton Radstock Phoenix,” I said.

“Gunnery Sergeant Reflective Light,” came the growl of Reflective Light.

“Ah. I see. Well, I am Platoon Sergeant Golden Midnight Stars,” he said. “I am to oversee and make sure things flow smoothly. As it stands, I will be relieving Gunnery Sergeant Reflective Light for the time being, pending an investigation of the Military Training he received.”

“YOU CAN'T DO THAT!” came the explosion.

“I can, Gunnery Sergeant,” he said. “Signed Authority orders from Brigadier Dragonstorm of the Solar Army and Field Marshal Dangersignal of the Lunar Army. Signed off by the three princesses and General Shining Armor of the Crystal Guard.”

I smiled as the Gunnery Sergeant's metaphorical gun ran out of ammunition. Once Reflective Light was shown out and given his leave papers, I showed Platoon Sergeant Golden Midnight Stars what to do and the force he was in charge of.

“Thank you for this,” he said. “I'll whip them into shape.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said, saluting.

He saluted back and I left him to tend to the paperwork. Now, to do some weapons training. I absolutely despise the fact that nobody gave the low down on weapons training. Nightmare had told us once that weapons training wasn't necessary as there was no need for weaponry. Telling the team, their first reaction was to complain.

“You can turn me into a sieve later,” I chuckled.

“Two words-Go die,” Malestrom huffed.

“I would, but I'm already dead,” I said.

“And yet, you keep coming back to us like a badly forged bit,” Lyra huffed.

I gave them the most dead chuckle I could muster and showed them to the weapons storage. Once they picked up their weapons, I took them to the training rooms tied to their weapons and went out to let them get organized. Once ready, I went through and helped them as well as watched them. It would be a waste of time and space to detail every minute of the training, so suffice it to say, it was about as smooth as a pothole filled road.

“We have archers, close quarters combaters and no strategists,” Cloud Chaser stated, raising a brow. “Any plans o fearless leader?”

“Wing it,” was my answer.

“We're toast,” Inkwell huffed.

“Look, we need to work with what we have,” Echo put in. “Sometimes we don't need a dedicated strategist.”

“And how would you know?” Inkwell asked, a brow raised.

“Simple, my family's got a military history of winging it,” she chuckled. “Also, sometime, you and I should go out.”

He smiled softly. I let them alone and scanned the others.

“Well, that's enough for today,” I said. “Since Tomorrow's Friday, you are allowed one day of leave.”

“Thank you,” they said.

Echo and Inkwell took that as their day to go out for a first date. Stripping down, we hit the showers to clean up and made our way to the chow hall. Tonight's dinner was Swill Slop and Gruel, a spicy chili.

“Okay, that's cruel,” Western Brass moaned. “First teased that we'll be eating Swill Slop and Gruel and now eating the stuff, whatever other tortures are there here for us?”

Never ask that question. Trouble always comes to the one who asked the one who asked the question.

19

Well, Friday night was there and upon the lands. Inkwell and I were smartened up and dressed accordingly. He waited a good ten minutes for Echo, who was just as smart looking as him. I opened the door and found a chariot awaiting.

“Take care you two,” I said, bidding them farewell.

“We will, sir,” they said.

“Drop the sir, we're on leave,” I said.

They chuckled and boarded the chariot and it pulled away just as Luna's Chariot arrived. I was shown in and once in place, we were taken straight to Manehatten. The city lights dances around, like starlight lovers in the purplish-black skies.

“That's pretty,” Luna awed, softly.

“It is,” I confirmed.

She smiled and kissed me on the cheek.

“Luna?”

“Yes?”

“Aren't you mom's adoptive aunt?”

“Yes.”

“So why are you asking me out when I'm your adoptive niece's son?”

“It's because....I.....love you,” she said.

I blinked.

“You.....love me?” I asked. “Don't you think that it's backwards?”

She giggled.

“No,” she said. “I talked with your mom and she said it's okay.”

I smiled, albeit very weakly. If anything, I was half expecting to hear that Luna had plans to share me with Celestia, but that'd be farfetched at best.

“Come, we must partake in this.....what was it again?”

“Dinner and a show,” I said. “Tradition on most dates is dinner and a show at a movie theatre, but with a stage play in town and me managing to secure box seats, we should take full advantage of the local customs.”

She nodded. We were soon out of the chariot and heading to a hidden restaurant, where she had made reservations in advance.

“The Golden Orchids?” I asked, reading the name.

“Yes, a well to do restaurant,” she said. “I had many a heartbreak in here.”

“Then we should go somewhere so your not reminded,” I said.

She smiled and told me it'd be okay. I was skeptical of that statement, but said nothing as we went in and were shown to a booth. Once seated, we waited for our menus to arrive. I saw that Luna was reaching into a small bag and pulled out a small box and pushed it across to me.

“Open it,” she said.

I did and saw an engagement ring.

“Oh, Luna.....” I said. “I possibly couldn't refuse your request.”

She smiled softly and leaned in to kiss me. I leaned in and accepted it. It felt....odd, kissing a princess.

“Mmmm...that was sweet,” she said, pulling back.

“Yes,” I said.

She just giggled softly. I smiled. It seemed that all I could do was the dimwitted things of smiling or just saying “yes” like a puppy on a leash.

“Any plans for the rest of the evening?” Luna asked.

“No,” I said.

“If your superiors do not mind, I would like to talk with you about some arrangements,” she said.

“Sounds good,” I replied.

We ate in quiet and once outside, Luna came with me and after doing some talking (threatening to remove them from their perch of power and stick the on remedial tasks) she and I returned to the Castle at Canterlot, where we were taken to her room.

“Okay, so what's your plan?” I asked.

“How do you want to start the family?” she asked.

Okay, did the gas pedal stick and this relationship hit max speed? First of all, we're engaged and she's now thinking about the family? Gee, I wonder if this is how fast all royal engagements happen-one second your engaged to a princess, the next, married, and the second after that, the babies start arriving.

“Uhmmmmm.....Luna......we're not even married,” I said, trying to be careful.

“I know, but I'd rather plan out the family so I can put money aside for them,” she said.

I smiled and we laid down to plan out the family. And by plan, I mean we laid out where we would send them for school and college. As to what would happen, that's another story.

20

The date for the marriage was picked and we were soon out to do our normal duties. However, life wasn't without events, Inkwell and Echo were engaged and the wedding date for those two was picked.

“Well, you two are screwed in more ways than one,” I pointed out.

“How?” Inkwell demanded.

“Well, you and Echo both work,” I said. “How exactly are you going to explain to your kids that your never around.”

“Well, we're talking to Shining Armor about that,” Echo pointed out. “After all, you're dating a princess, so don't complain.”

“I'm not,” I deadpanned. “I'm explaining the problem I see.”

“Oh,” Echo giggled.

I wanted to facehoof and facewing badly. How can you miss that I'm trying to explain shit?

“Don't worry,” Inkwell said. “We're always able to miss the obvious.”

I agreed. As for what was to happen would forever be funny. When me, Inkwell and Echo returned from our dates, we were summoned up to a staff general who we had not put in place by any of the sane minds. The three of us grunted and trudged up to the office, where a sour looking Hypogryph sitting there. On the desk sat a name plaque which read “Stratus Skyranger”.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello,” Echo replied.

“I heard you three were out on dates,” he growled.

“Yes Sir,” Inkwell replied.

“Against regulations,” he said.

We sat down and he proceeded to rip into us for every violation we had under our belts. If Nightmare saw this, she'd flip her dome.

“What is the meaning of this outrage?”

I caught a glimpse of an armor I wish I couldn't see right now. King Sombra, head of the Crystal Empire and head General of the Crystal Forces.

“King, what are you doing here?”

“I got word from my daughter that you came in from your post in Manesford Heights,” he said.

“Your Daughter?” Skyranger asked.

“Princes Mi Amore Cadenza,” Sombra replied

“Oh, her,” Skyranger snorted. “Wittle Mommy has to sic her big bad daddy on me to protect her babies.”

Echo bounced up and smacked the desk.

“Their mom wants to make sure they aren't having to clean up your bureaucratic mess!” She snapped. “And Captain Armor puts people in charge who have common sense, which isn't common in your tiny mind!”

“Know your place,” Skyranger hissed.

“Alright, keep your heads on,” Sombra said. “Echo makes a good point, you do need to use common sense.”

“How you became a king I'll never know, since you use that evil thing called common sense,” Skyranger hissed.

I said nothing and watched as Echo, Skyranger, and Sombra went two against one in the argument.

“Enough,” Inkwell said. “We need to step back and look at how objective the dates are. What purpose would these dates serve?”

“I don't know,” Skyranger said.

“Simple, the dates are to see if we love each other enough to start a family,” Inkwell pointed out. “It's something you need to try at one point.”

Skyranger chuckled. Sombra smiled softly.

“I can suggest two who work in my castle, Secretary Tempest Shadow and Head Royal Foalsitter Radiant Hope, who are looking for dates,” Sombra said.

Skyranger gave Sombra a dirty look.

“I am not in the armed forces to get a date,” he hissed. “I'm here to make this army perfect.”

“Perfect by what standard?” Sombra asked.

“Perfect by the modern standards,” came the reply.

At that, Sombra began to laugh. At first, it was normal, then it turned into a bellowing roar of joy.

“That's rich,” he said. “All rules and any regulation that is on the docket has to be approved by all the Ruling leaders.”

“What do you mean?” Skyranger snarled.

“Simple,” Sombra said. “You can't put a rule into action until it's been approved by Me, Cadence, Luna, Celestia, Princess Skystar and Queen Novo.”

I watched as Skyranger was ready to flip out. Sombra sent us out and told us not to worry, the disaster would be tended to.

“We got lucky,” Echo said.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

21

Well, luck is a double edged sword. My luck with Luna was golden, but my luck with the Headless Quarters of the Army was shit. They seemed to be more interested with their own career then they did the practical defenses of Equestria. Their motto-Fuck the troops and get ahead.

“Should we complain to our captain?” Lyra asked.

“Nah,” Cloud Chaser said.

I had been waiting and listening, when we were summoned up to see the royals.

“Well, looks like we're airing our grievances whether we like it or not,” I said.

We made our way up to the Day Court room and there were the royals and the staffers of HQ. Once the door was shut, Sombra spoke up.

“We are holding this to improve the forces,” he said. “Speak up, and le.....”

“YOU TALK TO US!” One of the generals thundered, thumping the table.

He was ignored.

“Come now,” Luna said.

Lyra started and as she finished, another one picked up and it continued. The Air Conditioners started to bitch and moan, trying to shut us up. We watched the faces of all the royalty began to harden into rage. When we finished, they sent us out and told us to go to on vacation.

“We should thank them sometime,” Maelstrom said.

“Agreed,” we agreed.

For holiday, we went to Horseshoe Bay. Let's just say, it was a relaxing period of time. When we came back, we stared at the town, smouldering and tons of buildings looking like a bunch of deranged wildlife went at them with a fury unseen.

“What happened?” Cumulus asked.

“Parasprites happened,” Applejack replied.

I looked at the mess and then over at a ball of pocket lint with large eyes. It smiled, trying to win over the gang. Skyla and Flurry looked over at an instrument clad Pinkie.

“Gonna detail your plan?” Flurry asked.

In response, Pinkie took and began to play, leading the pests out of the way. I turned to see the rest of the mane six.

“Okay, there better be a good explanation for this,” I said. “Because if there isn't one, well, we're screwed.”

“Talk to Fluttershy,” Rarity hissed.

“Lemme guess, she found one, and called it cute?” Skyla quizzed.

“Yes,” came the sore retort.

“Okay, I can't blame her,” Flurry said.

“You've got some screws loose,” Rarity huffed.

“And your head's not screwed on properly,” Skyla shot back. “Fluttershy saw them as cute and since your library has no information on them, she wasn't to know about their peculiarities.”

“Golden Oaks has a book with one page on them!” Twilight shot back.

“That's not enough,” I countered. “In order to fully understand them, there needs to be at least 17 books on the subject.”

“That's too much!” Twilight jolted.

“Not really,” Flurry pointed out. “The College library I practically live in has well over 90 books on Parasprites and their peculiarities.”

Twilight's face became one of cartoonish delight. Her eyes went wide and her jaw hung low. Flurry giggled softly.

“No need to look like something out of a cartoon,” she said. “Come on, we'll fix it.”

Twilight had to be carried back to her library. Once inside and getting a good look, I could see just how tiny it was. Another thing is that the library is in a giant tree and all the health and safety committees would have a field day.

“Well, rest up and wait,” Flurry said.

Twilight nodded. We went out and set to work fixing the mess. Supplies had to be brought up by rail and from there, we had to use tools and magic to get the town repaired before any Princesses, Prince or King visited.

I spent the day completely overhauling several houses and paying for new furniture while the others handled refurbishing businesses and public places. Of course, it couldn't be helped that the group I was with was agitated. This on top of the idiots in high commands (Barring Sombra, a sane mind) was enough to bring out the worst in everyone.

“How close to done are you?” I called over.

“Nearly there!” Flurry yelled.

“That doesn't help!” I called back. “I need a time? Or are you not going to give any ETA's on how it's going?”

“Try two and a half hours!” came Skyla's reply.

“Thanks, Two and a half!” I called back.

I smiled softly and finished working on the projects I was assigned to. It seemed to be forever but I soon had the finishing touches done. Suddenly, the sun was blotted out and we looked up to see three chariots.

“Well, we're toast,” I heard someone say

They landed and the top brass royalty stepped out and began to inspect everything. Celestia smiled and turned around.

“I must say, I am rather impressed,” she said. “They have skills that I wish we possessed ourselves.”

I raised a brow until it was explained that the royal courts forbid any of them to do anything outside their duties.

“That's kind of dickish,” Tintin pointed out. “Versatility is a great asset.”

“But they don't recognize versatility as a good thing,” Luna pointed out.

Okay, that's the most dangerous mindset to ever have. Saying Versatility is evil or something disgusting is like saying having a specialist is a bad thing. So instead of complaining about it, we shall move on to my new uptake-Training crews on how to work on a steam locomotive.

Luna and I walked down to the yard, where I got the world biggest heart attack-A LNWR G2 “Super D” 0-8-0 stood there. I smiled and watched several Ponies, Diamond Dogs, Gryphons, Hippogryphs and changelings complain about not being able to drive the loco.

“Shall I?” I asked Luna

She nodded. The two of us walked over and climbed into the cab. A Changeling joined us to fire on the test journey. I chuckled and wound the reverser backwards.

“You've put it in reverse!” he snapped.

“Just wait and see,” I said.

I “shut” the regulator and the loco moved forward, the traditional off clanking and beat of the Joy Valvegear ringing out.

“How....” Luna began.

“These engines are very peculiar. One, everything is backwards on these locos; two, they have different sized injectors, making the task of getting water into the boiler a painful task. The reason for the different size injectors, they were designed by Francis Webb.”

“Damn,” was all the Changeling could say

We worked the engine to the iron ore mine outside Dodge City and return the train back to the iron ore smelting pit, where it would be cleaned and the impurities shipped off. Once done, the Changeling gave me the dirtiest look ever.

“You are the damnedest prince out there,” he snarled. “You don't tell us about this engine, and then show us up!”

“It's not my fault,” I said.

He snorted and stormed off. Luna just stared as I chuckled. On cue, Inkwell and Echo came up and had to raise brows.

“The less you know, the better,” I said.

“It takes a lot to piss off railway crews,” Echo pointed out. “Yet you did it.”

“So how'd you manage that?” Inkwell demanded.

“With this baby, the London and North Western Railway G2 0-8-0,” I said at last.

They stared before laughing.

“That's gotta be funny,” Echo giggled. “A steam engine pissing them off.”

“You'd be pissed off if you tried to drive this thing and found all the controls were backwards!” snapped a changeling.

After some more feelings were smoothed over, we went our separate ways, hoping to see what the next day brought us.

22

The next day passed uneventfully. Everyone assumed normal duties and carried them out with no issue. The day after that, I was called down to the medical bay, where a gryphon was on a bed, bandages around his pelvic region.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He wanted a more practical test of the loco's vacuum pressure,” a nurse said.

I groaned.

“Stupid,” I muttered.

After making sure he was alright, I returned to Luna, who was looking rather bashful.

“Something up?” I asked.

“Erm....don't take this the wrong way,” she said. “But....I found somepony better.”

I raised a brow.

“Who?” I asked.

“Summer set,” She said, trying to pronounce it as it sounded.

“Wait, your in love with him?” I asked.

“Well, he's way to cute when confused and even blushes in a cute way,” she giggled.

Well, how do I like them pies? Outed because she found a Changeling cuter than me. I'm not that broken, as things may look up.

“Hope your not angry,” she said.

“Nope,” I replied. “It's good you found someone better.”

She smiled softly.

“I'm grateful for your help,” she said.

I agreed and walked out, sensing a pair of eyes watching me closely. Once far enough away, I wheeled around to see a gold streak coming at me. I rolled and caught her in my hooves.

“Gee, spying on me?” I asked.

“Yes,” Came the reply.

I managed to get a better look at the pony. A pegasus with a familiar coat. I had to raise a brow as the cutie mark came into view.

“Really, Blaze?” I asked.

“What can I say?” she quizzed.

“You can explain how a Lieutenant in the Wonderbolts is running around like a high schooler who's desperate for some,” I demanded. “That behavior isn't becoming of a Wonderbolt.”

“Simple, I find you attractive,” she replied.

I raised a brow. I'm no chick magnet. I have to basically beg, plea and wave money at my date just to go to a movie. Now I'm getting a Wonderbolt to chase me. I sighed.

“Look, I would go out with you, but Spitfire's here and she has daggers right now,” I said.

Blaze turned and jumped 9000 feet high. (No memes for the readers).

“I will see you in my office Blaze,” she hissed. “As for you, stay away from my team.”

I nodded. Just then, Echo walked up and struck Spitfire. Something I thought out of character, until...

“Curb your ego,” Echo snarled. “You demand everything of them and they have to leave their true personality at the door. Maybe you need a wake up call and a severe one. If I were you, I'd listen to a song right now and one from the human world called “Wolf In Sheep's Clothing” by the band called “Set It Up”. It has all the words I want to say to you, but don't. If Blaze loves him, fine, let them get married and make more Wonderbolts. If that doesn't suit your fancy, I'm sure the Railways here and even the Railways in the human world would love their hard work ethics.”

“You don't intimidate me!” Spitfire snapped.

“I don't, true,” Echo said. “But I'm sure a few Kings would have more than a few words for you.”

Echo walked back to us as Spitfire began making threats. I sighed.

“I should have stayed at Perranwell,” I grumbled.

“Take no notice,” soothed a voice.

I turned to see Sombra standing there. I went to bow, but was stopped.

“I was visiting and heard the argument,” he said. “It's better to do what you want.”

I thanked him and Blaze joined me while Sombra went to have words with Spitfire, who had no shortage of calling him fool no more than 965 times in the span of ten minutes. We never saw the punishment, but from what Soarin told us some days later, Sombra put her on a probation list and had three guards of his watch her.

Of course, Echo got into deep trouble to. Granted she was in the right for smacking Spitfire, she should have restrained that tendency and walked away. Her punishment was to do janitorial work around the castle for a week.

As for me and Blaze, we were able to hit it off and managed to have a happy date. However, I shan't spoil anymore here, otherwise I'll ruin what's to come.

23

Things that anger you always show up in ways that you either expect or are waiting for. One such event was when three certain little bullies decided to bully a young filly. This filly was a small, dragon winged changeling from the loving parents of Roseluck and Forge Blade, a Dragon Winged Changeling in dad's royal guard detachment.

I was with Blaze and we were walking towards the train station to make sure the kids caught the train home to their parents, except for those who's parents paid for me and Blaze to foalsit them. I was on a three month relief, following two medical surgeries to correct several screwed up muscles.

How I screwed them up is a story for a later date, but right now, hell was coming forth. The two of us reached the platform just in time to catch the bullies shove the filly off the platform and into the path of the passenger train bearing down. Blaze dove off the platform to grab the filly while I proceeded to chase down and grab the bullies.

“What were you hoping for?” I snarled.

“Her to die. She's wor....” one of the bullies began.

I hauled off and slammed the bully into the wall.

“Worthless is the word to describe you!” I bellowed in her ear.

Her cronies cringed. I rounded on them.

“And your no better!”

“Proof?” they sneered

“You were all guilty of shoving her off the platform. There's surveillance cameras all over this station,” I snarled.

They gulped. I eyed them up as two guards came up to haul them off to jail. I took the filly, who's name is Mystic Flames. As we made our way to the platform, we turned in time to see another group of bullies charge us. I shoved Mystic Flames into Blaze's hooves and told her to take off and find safety.

“But dear!” Blaze protested.

"No buts!” I retorted. “Get going!”

She flew off fast just as they came up. I stood my ground and began fighting. At first, I was holding my own, but soon more joined and I began getting my ass handed to me throughout. In taking beatings, my head was being bashed around.

Red liquid began to fill my eyes and lightheadedness started to take over. I gave a quick, choked call for help before blacking out.

~~~~~~~~~

I woke up and found myself standing in something that looked like a field. I looked around, trying not to panic. Just then, a figure walked up to me.

“I see you are new here,” The figure said.

“Who are you?!” I demanded, feeling intimidated.

“Queen Shadow, Changeling Dreamwalker,” she replied.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“Your in my field,” she said.

“Where's my body?” I demanded, now scared.

“In my medical ward,” she said.

I said nothing for the longest time.

“Your parents know,” she said. “They're concerned that you're dead.”

“Dead?!” I squeaked, feeling tiny now.

“Yes,” She replied.

“I'm not!” I protested.

“I know that, my doctors know that and you know that,” she replied, calmly. “But they don't. I will talk to them later to see if they want to come down to visit, once your ready.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

“Oh and before I go, I should mention you managed to take quite the beating before giving in. Impressive, for a prince,” she said, smiling.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“Almost makes me wish I could have a family, instead of being a queen,” she mused, walking away.

I watched the field sliding into the white void. A bluish white bolt of lightning cut across, then everything went into a black that could only be described as being stuck in an ink bottle.
~~~~~

My eyes flew open, surrounded by a deep bluish purple liquid, which smelled oddly like freshly planted roses. Straining, I heard voices.

“He's healing better than expected. However, releasing him in his state might make things worse than they are. He's got ailments that we're trying to treat-Asthma, high blood pressure, upper respiratory infections and a load of ripped muscles.”

“He's a guard, a Prince, a regular work colt and a soon to be father.”

Ah, dad, bringing in logic and pointing out some of the best obvious points.

“If I were you, your grace, I'd remove at least two of his duties. His heart's in such a state that should any more stress be laid upon it, it'll fail and he'll die.”

“Thank you for your concerns.”

I glimpsed outside whatever was holding this liquid in and saw, not only mom and dad, but my friends and two sisters.

“Dad,” I heard Skyla say. “Isn't there anything we can do? Like....some way to help him carry out all his duties without him having to sacrifice them. Blaze can't carry the family alone and with her being a Wonderbolt and all.....”

“I know, Sky, I know,” dad told her. “But what can we do? I've faced nothing like it. Neither has Luna, Celestia or even my father in law.”

I saw their faces turn down, as if giving up. At that moment, Flurry jumped up.

“I've got it!” she squeaked. “We work in rotational tandem with him!”

“Of course!” Tintin replied, smacking her head. “Why didn't I think of that!”

“What does that mean?” mom asked.

“It's simple, Dad, what's his rank?” Flurry asked.

“He was to be promoted to general,” dad said. “He's a captain currently.”

“Ah, promote Skyla to Captain as well and she can work with him in the office. Let her do all the shouting, since nothing's scarier than a female captain of the guard.”

Skyla chuckled sweetly.

“And keep him in the back, processing orders, but make sure it's not too much,” Flurry continued. “As with the railway and odd jobs thing....all the rest of us can take it in turns. When it comes time for him to be a parent, while this is a little forward, Mom, Dad, can you teach him to be a father?”

“Of course, sweetie,” Mom said. “That's sweet of all of you to help.”

“Princess,” Somerset said, in the softest tone I ever heard him use. “We wouldn't be friends if we didn't believe in each other.”

24

Being allowed to work with friends is always a joy. However, it was still disheartening to be relieved of what made me....well....me. Having to reside in a castle or the in company of others made things almost unbearable for everyone in the castle.

I stayed away from the others. If I had to attend dinner, I stayed silent and ate with a calm air of being alone. After that, I would take my dishes to the kitchen and then go back to my room and sit, reading. Hopefully that would help put my mind at ease.

It didn't help and even conversations with mom or dad fell flat, often times ending with “I don't need help, I need to be alone”.

That did little and tensions began mounting. Mom and Dad were becoming short tempered and so was everyone else. Everyone else except for Flurry and Skyla. They were determined and to anyone who has siblings who want to make them better, they can be rather persistent.

Often times, I found myself having to use counter charms and spells to keep them out, but that didn't stop them and half the time, the journal I wrote down how I was feeling was gone.

“Damn them,” I hissed. “Don't they understand privacy?!”

As a result, I began spending time away from everyone. Going into the Everfree Forest to sit by the lake or any secluded area. However, something caught my eye, a figure would disappear everytime I turned to a 45* angle.

“Who's there?!” I demanded.

Nothing. I kept myself positioned to catch whoever was spying on me. Soon, the shape showed up again. Butter yellow coat with butterfly cutie mark.

“Fluttershy, flutter off,” I huffed.

“Feeling incomplete?” the voice asked.

It definitely wasn't Fluttershy. It was much more out there, optimistic and somewhat cheerful. I glanced at the figure and got a shock. It looked like a cross between Fluttershy and Nightmare Moon, except for one difference, she had royal guard's armor instead of nightmare armor and her eyes were a soft cream color.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Queen Everfree Vineyard,” she said.

She moved close and laid down next to me.

“Something troubling you?” She asked.

Hesitantly, I explained everything. She smiled.

“It's hard to give up your duties,” she said. “But your duties don't define you, you and your skills define you.”

“I know that,” I said. “But what good am I if I can't use my skills?”

“Your still great. Greatness is what you make it,” she said.

I sighed, still feeling defeated.

“I take it your other jobs were something more,” she said.

“They were,” I said. “They were my way of showing society I'm more than just some royal, pampered prince who's nose is always up in the clouds and who looks down on the lesser fortunate ponies.”

Everfree Vineyard gave a soft smile.

“I want you to take care,” she said. “I'll write to your family to let them know you're safe.”

“Don't,” I said. “Tensions...are.....high right now.”

“They care for you,” she replied. “I know they do. I'm a mother myself.”

I merely looked up at her.

“It's true, but surreal at the same time,” she chuckled.

“Yeah....I......guess,” I said, not knowing what to make of it.

She stayed beside me, trying to cheer me up. It only worked when she said something funny. At last, she spoke.

“Do you know who my dear, sweet husband is?” She asked.

“No,” I said.

“It's Sombra,” she replied.

“My grandfather?!” I yelped.

“Interesting,” she said. “All I know is that me and him had a daughter-Cadence, and she married a colt named Shining Armor”

I explained everything. She nodded softly.

“I see,” she said. “I just want to know what your going to do for your time alone”

“Wal....” I began but the ground around the lake began to give way, violently.

Everfree Vineyard got free in time. I wasn't the lucky little mister. My left rear hoof was caught in the falling rocks and collapsing trees. I gave one last shout of surprise before everything disappeared from sight and all around me was nothing but rocks. The ground, now coming up fast, scared me. I tried, desperately, to stop my fall. That failed and I ended up breaking a leg.

All that was left after the last bits of debris crashed down was deafening silence. Looking around after lighting my horn, I saw I was in some sort of cavern. Looking up from where I came, I couldn't see light.

Puddles down there reflected the light. I managed to get up and struggle to a relative lone point, some distance from where the cave-in had happened. As I sat down, I heard something.

“Who's there?!” I barked.

The “something” subsided into nothing. I really wish I had some kind of weapon right now. I tried to look around, but with a broken leg in the way, that was proving to be impossible. After turning back to be in a less damaging position, I heard the something again, closer and words were able to be made out.

“Look, it's an Alicorn.”

“And a Thestral one at that.”

“I hate you two jackasses. He's injured, scared and in need of help and you can only think of what you want to do with him.”

“Hey, don't judge us! You want him for something.”

“I want him as a friend, smart one. Not some damn maid. Honestly, you two are lazy, conniving and just playing stupid.”

I listened a minute more before calling out again. This time, I got a reply.

“Hey there, you okay?”

“No,” I said. “A broken leg, some cuts and bruises and possibly more injuries.”

The figure walked forward. I stared at a medium sized changeling in forest brown colors. His eyes, of a shaded green color, looked on with sympathy.

“Come on, we'll get you help,” she said. “Anything left untreated can be fatal.”

I thanked her as she braced herself against me to aide me. Her horn lit up a camo brown color and several rapid noises were heard. Some 45 minutes later, as we arrived in a cutting, a swarm of medics were waiting. Once there, the medics swarmed me and had what was broken and the cuts covered in a healing goo. I was then placed on a stretcher and told to stay as still as possible.

I sighed and wondered what would happen

*******

*Shining Armor POV*

I'm now starting to feel more concerned for my son. After getting the truth out of his friends and my daughters, I want to just put aside all titles and be with him, father to son. However, his closed off nature made it hard and it started to rub off on me. One night, while with Cadence, she sat on the bed.

“Dear,” she said. “Talk to my father. He's the best source we have.”

“I'll do it as soon as I can,” I promised, kissing her. “It's hard though, having to tie your self worth to your jobs and not your personality.”

“I know,” Cadence replied. “I've known ponies who've done it before. To them, a Cutie Mark is life and if they don't get one before leaving elementary school, they refuse to do anything in society.”

“Still,” I replied. “I hope I can break through to him.”

“I wish the same,” Cadence sighed. “But Tintin's right, he's stubborn and doesn't listen when he's finally gotten into a rhythm he likes. I've been there, and it's stressful.”

I was about to say something when a knock sounded. I unlocked the door and cracked it to see my father in law there.

“Sombra?” I asked. “What's up?”

“It's your son,” he replied. “I got a letter from my wife saying he fell into a cavern.”

“What?!” I nearly broke down. “What's she going to do?”

“She's going to mount a rescue,” Sombra said.

I heard Cadence give a shaky, almost tear ridden sigh. Sombra said he would also mount a rescue.

“I would invite you along,” he told me. “However, Cadence needs you. I'll find him.”

“One question,” I asked. “Did your wife say anything.”

“Yes, she said he was starting to come to grips with his lot in life,” Sombra said. “Also, he didn't want her to talk to you due to the high stress.”

“I see,” I said. “Thank you and I'll thank her when I see her.”

Sombra nodded, smiled, kissed Cadence, promised to return with Phoenix and then left.8

*****

*Phoenix POV*

Soon, we arrived in a large medical ward. It was just like every other medical ward or hospital I've been in-white and bland. The stretcher was placed on a large metal stand, before I was transferred to the bed next to the stand. Once moved over, a nurse ran off fast.

“What's with her?” I asked. “She's gone running off as though she just robbed a bank.”

“Your wanted, by our King and Queen,” came the reply.

“For what crime?” I asked.

“Not for a crime, but because your Dad's been concerned. In fact, your dad isn't here, but your grandfather is,” the Doctor said, entering.

“Sombra? Really? I thought he lived on paperwork and “the Book”, not family,” I said, having only ever seen him enthralled in his paperwork.

“That doesn't mean I don't care for my family,” he said, entering. “Also, I heard from your friends that you've been tying your selfworth to all your jobs. The more jobs, the better.”

“Because,” I said. “That's how I've worked.”

“Then, if you'll pardon me, your the biggest sap here,” he said. “Your personality defines you, not your duties. I care for you, as your the most faithful and caring prince I've ever seen. If you weren't, would Blaze go out with you?”

“That's a fair point.” I conceded.

I took to noticing something about him. Instead of any royal dress or guard's dress, he was there, as plain as plain got. Walking over, he did something I swore would have been out of character, had he not explained, in short, sweet terms, he put family over duty-Pulled me into a loving hug.

Then again, he's not a tyrannical dictator hellbent on total domination. He maybe a king, but not every king is evil, so why go along with some crack brained notion? I left that question as I heard him softly sob, not wanting to lose me.

“He cares. I've been an ass here. I now need to put this right.”

Context time. I have a deep sense of pride and should I hurt someone who cares, and looks out for me, I must put things right or spend days alone, thinking of ways to fix it, even if it puts me in hospital. Reacting appropriately, I returned the embrace.

“I don't want you to pass on this young,” Sombra whispered. “Cadence is my only child and to lose somepony she loves would be unbearable for all concerned.”

“I...understand,” I replied.

Sombra pulled back.

“I want some time here, with you,” he said. “I want to get to understand your mindset.”

I wanted to protest, but he is my grandfather, as well as a king. However, he was pushing that to the side.

“Grandfather?” I asked.

“Yes?” he said, glancing at me.

“Why aren't you pulling rank?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused.

“Your a king, I'm a prince,” I said. “You could have pulled rank and ordered me to talk.”

“That draws resentment,” he said. “I tried it once with Prince Armor and he just bit my head off every time we were in the same room.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Yes. After I pushed all aside, we became close,” he said.

I nodded, and he continued.

“Now, can I ask, what made you assign meaning to your work and not to your personality?”

Doesn't waste time, does he.

“Well, it's just that....” I paused, “Where I come from, one's self worth is judged by where you work and how many jobs you can hold. The more jobs, the better.”

“Isn't that a recipe for disaster?” he asked.

“If by that, you mean the fact that my medical condition got to a point where I had to be pull off all other duties,” I said. “Then yes.”

He chuckled.

“Your just like your dad when he was your age, a sarcastic smart alek,” Sombra said.

We talked for hours before the doctors chased him out, saying the usual things about needing medicine, x-rays, examinations and bed rest. I laid down and let the doctors swarm all over me, drawing blood, doing preliminary checks, and so on down the typical doctor's checklist.

“Please let this day end. I want tomorrow to bring a new day, a new slate. Renewed faith in those who care.”

That night, as I slept after all the rushing around, I heard some footsteps walking up to the door and open it. I could barely see anything. Any light that I had was given off by the medical monitors and the like. The figure turned. I couldn't see the face.

“Keep the faith.”

25

After several days down in the medical ward, I was released and walked with Sombra to a large door, which opened onto a steep spiral upwards.

“A chariot will be collecting us,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said, registering what was said.

He turned to me.

“Phoenix, I wanted to ask you something,” he said.

“Shoot,” I said.

“How did you come to meet your current friends? The friends you came with,” he said.

“We met over a race,” I said.

“What kind of race?” he asked.

“A Railway race,” I said.

He raised a brow. I chuckled.

“You don't know about devices called computers,” I said, hiding the fact that he was clueless.

He chuckled the familiar chuckle of being had.

“I know about computers,” he said.

“Remind me to put vinegar in your tea later,” I grumped.

He chuckled softly and gave me a light nudge with his front left hoof.

“Your Somerset is rubbing off on me,” Sombra said. “He's in fact been helping your dad understand you. While Skyla tried, she kept stumbling over her words and he cut through all the stumblings and gave us the facts.”

“That's good,” I said.

Sombra nodded. We soon arrived at the top, where a chariot waited. Everfree Vineyard and two guards were also stood there.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yes,” Sombra said. “You should consider coming back some time. Cadence misses you. As for her husband, he has yet to meet you.”

She nodded softly and climbed aboard. For a Royal Carriage, it was as cramped as a broom closet. To paint that for you, Everfree Vineyard had her front left hoof situated in front of my chest while Sombra's entire body rested against us and the back wall. With such arrangements, trying to move was impossible. Oh and did I mention, we were in for a 15 hour journey back home? We were, so try to imagine being being in the position of a statue for that long a journey, with no stretch breaks.

“I think we should invest in a bigger carriage,” I heard Sombra growl. “This is ridiculous.”

“I know dear,” replied Everfree Vineyard. “However, this was a repair job on the old chariot.”

“I see,” he said.

We rode the rest of the way in silence. The scenery flew by and the carriage bounced roughly a couple of times, as it hit clouds. The jolts were painful to say the least. Every bump caused us to bounce around and slam into each other.

“ Can't these royal carriage bearers dodge clouds?” Everfree asked.

“They can, but they choose not to,” Sombra grumbled. “They think that it'll be quicker.”

No more was said. The carriage bounced on some more clouds and jolted as it scraped a tree top. I grunted as we banked sharply left.

At long last, we reached the Crystal Empire's castle. Once safely on the ground, Echo opened the carriage and Inkwell dragged Sombra out, trying hard to not injure him. After he was out and stretching, Inkwell pulled out Everfree, then I was pulled out.

I stretched and cracked all my stiff joints. To say my Grandparents were disgusted would be an understatement. They looked ready to empty their stomachs.

“Sorry, when stiff, every joint needs cracking,” I said.

“Oh,” Sombra said.

I nodded and after stretching out some more and getting limber, we walked in. Somerset and Luna were walking side by side and talking about something. I didn't catch it as I was lead straight into mom and dad's quarters. As I entered, mom lunged over at me, wrapping a smothering hug around me.

“mmmpphphpom!”

It didn't seem she heard me and I thought she would never let go. It wasn't until I managed to push her off and catch breath

“Mom, you don't need to kill me,” I said.

“Sorry,” she said. “It's just....”

“You were worried?” I said.

“Yes,” she replied.

“I needed some time to clear my head,” I said.

Cadence chuckled, then gently nuzzled me. Once done, she wanted to know how I met my friends.

“Wait until tonight,” I said. “It's best to have them around.”

They agreed. After dad returned, he and I walked through the garden.

“Your just like several colts I knew in the Academy,” he said. “They were all about their duties being the key definition of their existence.”

“What happened to them?” I asked.

“Worked themselves into their graves,” he said.

“Oh?” I said.

He nodded. I tried to not look down and show the fact I messed up royally. He noticed.

“It's an honest mistake,” he said. “Try to understand something, please.”

“I'll try,” I said.

“We all make mistakes,” he said.

“I see,” I said.

“However, that doesn't mean that we don't love you or even find you and your friends' crazy antics funny,” he said.

I chuckled.

“Thanks,” I said.

“You ought to have seen Cadence,” he said. “She wanted to hire Somerset and Dorset to kidnap Twily for a mock horror scenario.”

“What horror scenario?” I asked.

“Something called “Saw”,” he said.

I rolled my eyes.

“Jumpscares and cheap scares,” I said. “I prefer the old Black and White psychological and classic monster horror movie scares. Give me Dracula and Frankenstein any day.”

Dad just chuckled. He and I walked through the grounds, with Sombra catching up to us. He and Dad talked about military tactics while I hung back to give them time to talk about training maneuvers. While it interested me, I was no longer working as a drill sergeant, so I had no need to hear this information. After they finished, they turned to see me hanging back.

“Aren't you going add anything?” Sombra asked.

“No,” I said. “I have nothing to add.”

They nodded. Dad changed the subject.

“So, I heard from a little birdie that you're dating a Wonderbolt,” he said.

“That's true,” I said, trying to hide the blush.

“It's okay,” Dad said.

“I suppose you heard the events surrounding his little lovefest with Blaze?” Sombra quizzed.

“Yes,” Dad said.

I tried to crawl under a rock. Dad didn't sound too happy. Sombra just chuckled as Dad turned to me and proceeded to tell me exactly what he thought of that stunt. I nodded and said I understood.

“As long as it doesn't happen again,” Dad stated.

I agreed.

“Anyway, we heard you play games with your friends?” Sombra said.

“Yes, we do have get togethers,” I said, perking up.

“What kind of games do you play?” Dad asked.

“Generally we play card games and computer games,” I said.

“What kinds of computer games?” Dad asked.

“Generally, multiplayer games,” I said. “We already know each others strengths and weaknesses, so we can fill each others roles.”

“Ah,” Sombra said.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Are you guys a danger to each other?” Dad asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“This we'll have to see later,” Sombra said.

1

To say that me and my fraternity mates were stuck would be an understatement. No power and our car was in the shops so we had next to nothing to do while the thunder raged on outside on this miserable Summer Storm in Oregon. Britain can suck it. As least their rainy summers are fun. Oregon rains are more like the clouds sucked up the whole damn ocean and decided to drop it on us.

“Anyone want to play Monopoly?” A blond haired 17 year old teen asked.

“Somerset, we've played Monopoly until our brains have fallen out,” another boy, who looked exactly like him.

“Somerset, Dorset, should we find another game?” a girl asked. She had red hair, slightly smaller than them.

“Tins, please? We've not played Monopoly that much, only 450,258 times, but not all that much,” they pleaded.

“No,” “Tins” said.

“Thanks Tintin, we owe you for sparing us,” another girl said.

“Any time, Skylar,” she said. “Anyway, how are those drawings coming along?”

“Well, they're done,” she said. “All of our ponysonas with me taking up the character of Skyla. I know, obvious, but it's all I could do.”

“We'll call it square and move on,” Tintin said.

We agreed. Another burst of lightning and thunder bellowed out as if it was a hunting bear. Skylar pulled me close. I soothed her and said that everything would be alright. The battery powered clock chimed out that it was six pm.

“Dinner time,” another boy said.

“I'll go,” I said.

The others bid me farewell for the hour trip to the local supermarket. Luckily, it's a 15 minute walk there and 45 minutes back because of all the groceries. Halfway along, I saw a stray lightning bolt strike a large lamp post. I was caught by the large lightbulb and shot into a near by tree. I felt the tree give way under my 215 lbs.

“Ow,” was all I could say, but it hurt like hell and after the lightbulb fell away and rolled clear, I fell face first in the mud.

I heard noises and they were confused. Unlike most HIE's where the person is fully unconscious or a small child, I was a college student who was in pain, but conscious. Looking up from the mud, I saw six winged unicorns or Alicorns. My mind went into overdrive and eventually reasoned out that I was in ancient Greek Mythology, where Alicorns were used as pure farming ponies and nothing more.

“Is...it alive?” one asked.

It? I'm not an it! I'm...never mind. Getting bent out of shape over words isn't worth it. Instead, I got to my feet, not withstanding the pain that felt like someone dropped six tons of steel on my and then ran me over with a steamroller. Staggering onwards, I made it to the market and made my purchases.

Upon exiting, I saw them again, but this time, there were two more Alicorns there. Writing it off as hallucinating, I limped home. Opening the front door, the house seemed to be both dead and alive. Dead in the sense that the power was off and the darkened clouds above made the house uninviting. Alive because me and my dear friends were inside and ready to go to town.

Luckily, making sandwiches from cold materials requires no electricity, just skills. Only one word can describe the thought that ran through our minds-DINNER!!!

Single file line and buffet style certainly beats going to an actual buffet. Why? No noisy crowds and rude customers. In fact, we had nothing to really talk about or at least, we thought we hadn't until someone mentioned My Little Pony.

“Oh, that reminds me, were there ever six Alicorns at any given time in any MLP episode?” I asked.

“No, only three-Cadence, Celestia and Luna. After Season 3, we gained Twilight Sparkle,” Dorset said.

“What about Nightmare Moon? Or if we include the comics, Lyra, and Trixie? Maybe include the delusional Sunset Shimmer?” Somerset quizzed.

“Your crazy,” came another voice.

Before the conversation dropped to bickering, Tintin stopped it and looked at me.

“Why'd you ask?” she quizzed.

I explained everything and the others all looked at me, then at each other. We were getting ready to dismiss it, when more thunder and lightning came out for more fun and as it flashed out, we all saw a certain Alabaster Alicorn. Something told us we weren't dreaming, but another flash of thunder and lightning seemed to say otherwise.

“What...the...actual...hell?” was all that was heard.

“Okay, who bought beers?” Another girl asked.

“I didn't!” I protested. “We have the rule of no Alcohol in the house and I haven't brought any in.”

“Hmmmm...interesting,” another boy said.

More lightning flashed and thunder crashed. Just then, the lights sprang back to life and the television flashed on and the episode “The Cutie Re-Mark” flashed on screen before Starlight pulled something new out of nowhere...she stared right at the television screen and pointed to us. What was going on?

“I want any and all ponies for my perfect world!” she snapped.

Okay, we need to stop watching MLP or anything horror related. As we tried to reason out why things were happening, lights began to dance as if we were at a rave party. My stomach felt like a concrete pillar. Normally I couldn't be bothered to care, but this was not normal.

Suddenly, the room was plunged deep into darkness, as if it was cut out of the house and plunged into a bottomless pit. I tried to find the others, but darkness was all that was there.

“What happened?” I groaned.

Looking around, I saw changelings, moth ponies, unicorns, earth ponies, pegasi, thestrals and one Alicorn. What had happened?

“Okay, so where are we?” I asked.

“I don't know,” said Dorset.

I examined the other ponies with the care of a detective. One of the pegasi had strange looking wings. Upon examination, I saw that the wings were cast titanium. However, the pony said they were lightweight and easy to use.

As we looked at our surroundings, we began to notice how cartoony everything looked. Glancing around again, a breeze whipped up and danced around us. As that was happening, the sun sank beyond the horizon and the moon began to rise slowly, as if being dredged up from some kind of ocean.

“Come on, we should find some sort of shelter,” Tintin said.

Agreeing, we walked towards the forest exit. Upon reaching the exit, we looked upon a tiny town that would have fit inside a British Railway Mark 1 coach. Looking around at the town, we noticed how 18th century the buildings looked. None of the signs had any words, which made it difficult to figure out where the hell we were.

“So, is someone going to direct us to the town hall?” another member of our team asked.

The question was answered by crickets. We looked around and stuck together as if we were one block of wood. Looking up, down, left and right we saw shadows moving in the shadows and heard voices that weren't there. I felt something but up close to me and saw it was the only Alicorn.

“It'll be fine,” I said.

“Thanks, big bro,” the Alicorn said.

I paid no attention to the pony's words and instead focused on finding shelter. Hopefully, we'd find a hotel or someplace where we can stay until morning, where up on we can find out who brought us here.

“Does anyone here get the feeling we're not alone?” I heard another member of our group ask.

“Yep,” I said.

Suddenly, there was a clanking that sounded very unfamiliar rang out. We all saw the same thing, an Alicorn in royal jewelry and headdress coming our way. Wanting to not stay there, we turned tail and bolted. The woods parted to make way for a town board that said “Welcome to Appleloosa”.

Okay this has to be some sicko's prank, but whatever, it got us out of the woods and into civilization. Finding a local inn, we realized one tiny important detail and that was that we didn't have the local currency. In fact, we didn't have any money on us and trying to lodge for free would lead to more hell.

Deciding on the best move for the moment, we found an out of the way and run down cottage to utilize. After shutting, locking and barring the door and windows, we fell asleep on the uncomfortable floor.

Author's Note

I come with Patreon. Support me and I can continue to bring you fascinating content as well as reviews on stories and characters I write and have Created.

4

Classes were nothing short of difficult. The improvisation Theatre class was fun. Our instructor, a Moth Pony Colt named Boom taught us how in one of the most interesting way-by letting us put the lesson into action.

Our other teachers (barring four) were nightmares. Mrs. Algorithm, our Lunar and Solar Calculus class loved to role out 20 hours of homework every Monday. I hated the Wine red pegasus with a black mane, because she took a dislike to me because I asked too many questions.

Mr. Invisible Ink, our writing teacher, was even worse. The silverish gray unicorn loved assigning us homework without teaching us. It made every assignment ten times harder and all he did was give us pop quizzes on everything we had to read in the textbook.

Ms. Fume Hood, our Chemistry teacher, gave us a pop quiz on the first day of class, in which the entire class failed because it was on material we hadn't covered. She and Skyla always went round and round about safety and the proper way to do things.

Mr. Framerate, our Film instructor, was actually really damn forgiving. The Vampire Changeling assigned no homework and any projects we took home, he wanted them as perfect as we could make them, so he didn't care if the project took six weeks or longer. Every project my team turned out was gold.

Mr. Sharp Arrow, a former Changeling King of the Crystal Hive, who taught Biology of Love, didn't mind questions. In fact, he was fond of saying “If you are ashamed of asking questions, you are ashamed of learning”

Our shops teacher, Mrs. Diamond Blade, a salmon pink colored dragon winged pony told us whether we were doing things wrong or right. The Earth Pony mare was one who preferred safety to dangerous stunts. She cared for her students and made sure the rules were followed.

Ms. Potters Wheel, our ceramics teacher, was known to just leave us to our devices after teaching, which worked for me. It allowed me time to perfect my projects. That also gave me great props for my projects form Mr. Framerate's class. That Unicorn was nothing short of special

Mrs. Sawdust, a dragon winged changeling, was unbearable. If the wood wasn't properly ripped, she made you do it over and over until she got it right. I swear she's gotta be Stanley Kubrick's ponyized. Sometimes she made me or one of the class mates rip the wood at least 127 times.

The last teacher, Mrs. Tectonic Plate, a thestral who taught geology, was one of those who didn't give two damns if you showed up or ditched halfway through the class. You better show up for the midterm and final or your grades get screwed.

The classes ran Monday through Wednesday, leaving Thursday through Sunday free to study and get things done. The college apparently had Celestia as a student and she aced all her classes and was even in many after college activities. Somehow, I doubted that but on to the most uneventful thing ever.

It was Monday and we were in Biology of Love, our class before lunch. Mr. Sharp Arrow was smiling as he entered with Cadence and Shining Armor, who were going to help him demonstrate natural love vs love that has magical interference. I felt myself going down to the size of a mouse. Skyla, sitting next to me, saw me going into a notebook to write down everything said.

“You okay?” she whispered in my ear.

I saved my response and waited until the bell rang and departed as fast as I dare go with the class all filing out around me. Once clear, I looked at her.

“Sky, do you think I want to be around when....” I began but cut it off when Cadence appeared.

Once again, feeling tiny, I walked alongside her and Shining Armor as we made our way to the commons. At the last minute, Sharp Arrow came up.

“Princess Cadence, Captain Shining Armor, care to join me in a private dining room, where the three of us can talk?” he asked.

“Can the students of “Crystal Weave Room 4” join us?” she asked.

“Not to be rude, but may I ask why?” he quizzed.

She whispered something into his ear, getting him to stand straight as a ramrod.

“You don't say,” he said. “While it is a private dining room, for me and my guests, I can make this exception.”

She thanked him and we joined them. Once inside, he faced me and Skyla.

“So you two are Cadence's soon to be adopted son and daughter eh?”

That got a rise out of Inkwell and the two thestrals. Skyla nodded in affirmation while I stayed silent. I could feel Shining's glare melting into my cranium. Sharp Arrow chuckled.

“I guess this took him by surprise,” the Changeling said. “I'd react the same way if I was in his place.”

“True,” Cadence said.

Over lunch; we talked about the classes, the teachers, all the homework, how we were handling ourselves, all the comedy and even talked about the upcoming events. Cadence had to roll her eyes at hearing about the other instructors who were absolute pricks.

“Anyway, what's your next plan of attack?” Shining Armor asked.

“Get through this hell and them move onto looking for a job,” I said. “Unless something absolutely strange comes up.”

“Like what?” Western Brass asked.

“Nightmare Moon returns, has a small army of ponies, comes to our dorm room and whisks us away to be used in her army and then give us the oh so simple task of kidnapping Celestia so Nightmare can banish the solar princess to the moon forever more,” I said. “Then again, that happening is a shot in the dark.”

That got them to laugh. After lunch, we split up and went off to class while Cadence and Shining Armor disappeared home. Of course, our secret was well kept and no pony was any the wiser. Classes continues much the same and when finals came, we were eager to get them done with and get our grades.

Let's just say, I never worked harder for two D's, one F, two B's and five A's. All the others got straight A's or A's B's and C's. At least I can say, being an Alicorn isn't all it's cracked up to be. At least our next term would be easier than ever or so we thought.

15

“Your required by the railway again.”

I groaned at hearing those words. My versatility was now being turned into a joke. When I had the thought of being an Alicorn, I was in the mindset of having a pony of all three types would be a boon and not a joke.

“What is the problem this time?” I asked the one who asked.

“The yards at Equestria Canterlot Terminal Depot is a mess and your presence is required to fix the mess,” said...take a wild guess.

After another infuriated groan, I left my armor behind and donned my now rusted out shunting skills. Sometimes I believe that my versatility is being stretched beyond realistic measures. To be versatile means to be able to be adapted to many forms and functions. In other words, versatility means you can do any and all jobs as requirements desire.

Now, I hear you all scream “GARY STU!” To that, I say “London Midland Scottish Railway Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 tender engine” or for short “LMS Black Five”. These engines earned the “Go anywhere, do anything” moniker because of their ability to literally go anywhere and do any job handed to them, as well as being liked by virtually every railway crew member and passenger.

However, that doesn't mean you ignore all faults or have a complicated and tragic backstory. Mine is more or less basic-Moved to a new town to go to college and make new friends. However, for all that I am, I still have my faults. But that's not going to help here. After giving a very dejected sigh, I took off to the yard.

To say Chaos reigned would be an understatement. It wasn't just chaos, it was an utter mess. Trucks were in the wrong sidings, some were off the rails, wagons were mixed in the wrong sidings and even some were blocking bay platforms. I found a small tank engine, a Dock Tank from the LMS and began to shunt and sort the yard.

Backwards, forwards, left, right, up, down, diagonal, inside, outside, over and under, I ran around collecting wagons and sorting them into their proper trains. To anyone who complains that shunting is dull, I am going to have a pure breakdown of logistics on how important this tedious job is.

Normally, I'd be whistling a tune to the shunting, but I had so much to put right it wasn't funny. Delayed goods trains from the Gryphon Empire, Dragon Kingdom and Changeling empires near and far, as well as goods meaning to go to them.

“Remind me to lecture these lazy halftwats,” I muttered, as I shifted a rake of empty coal trucks into a siding.

No sooner had I arranged the trains, they were gone. Even A4's were pressed into service to help make up lost time. That didn't mean I could slacken in work and began to push harder, forcing me to get more trains made up and more trucks properly arranged. Soon, it boiled down to me missing meals, skipping sleep and even skipping my breaks.

“He's going to work himself to death,” I heard one shunter say to a yard pony. “Despite being an Alicorn, I actually feel bad here. He's helping us and the on duty ponies are sitting around, taking advantage of him.”

“True,” the other said. “But what can we do?”

Several weeks later, there was a meeting in the head office. A dark red Alicorn, wearing a director's uniform was glaring at all of us.

“This is not a game!” he hissed. “Brighton is not here for your beck and call and he isn't your skivvy! He's here as an heir to the Crystal Empire throne, not a maid!”

“Well, he's an Alicorn, so that's all the reason we need,” one of the ponies said.

I saw a vein start to throb as he glared.

“What...was...that?!” he snarled.

I flattened my ears and held them down hard. After forty solid minutes of yelling, I was sent back to HQ with orders that I was not to be disturbed for a week and I was to catch up on missed meals and sleep. The yard would be tended to by better ponies, which was a relief. When I returned, I made my way to my room and crashed on the bed.

“Sleep, wrap me in your comforts and peaceful dreams,” I mumbled as I drifted off.

I will say it felt great to relax. The others complained but I didn't care. When I returned to duty a week later, Nightmare Moon looked at us.

“We're on night guard duties on the towns,” she said. “Details and orders are being worked out.”

“Yes, captain,” we said.

Once out of the offices, I looked at the others.

“So what's the deal with night time guard duties in the cities?” I asked.

“Nightmare Moon talked with Celestia and the other town politicians about us working in pairs, guarding each town,” Coconut said. “She hopes these will be lucrative contracts that bring in money.”

“Ah,” I said.

“As for the partnership, that is up to us,” Prism Glider said.

“Ah,” I said again.

“Yep,” she said.

Well, we need to wait until the contracts come in.