The Golden Armor Part II: Lost chapters

Chapters

Rules of Engagement
Awkward Questions and Answers
As Good As It Gets
Bad Fruits
Weakness
What I Meant To Say
Take The Long Way Home
Welcome Home
Lost And Found
Revelations
That Awkward Moment
Angel's Beat
Mixed Signals
The Best Laid Plans
Sisterly Love
Like Mother, Like Daughter

Rules of Engagement

"I didn't say that!" came an obnoxiously loud shout from down the hallway. The stone walls seemed to amplify it, despite the layers of curtains and rugs. Comet, now a white pegasus with deep blue eyes and a blonde mane, cocked his head a bit and twitched his ear to face the direction of the shout. Normally, he would chalk it up to Princess Luna's normal way of addressing her subjects, her infamous Royal Canterlot Voice, but the lack of Old Equestrian in the statement told him it wasn't the Princess of the Moon.

Instead, Comet listened harder for anything else. Since he was standing outside the royal bedchamber of Princess Celestia, he had to remain vigilant. The wondrous white alicorn had not yet raised the sun, which led to why Comet was at her doors. All of his elite corps, the Goldencloaks, were fast asleep, just as Her Royal Majesty was. Members of the Zodiac, the elite Night Guards, were usually posted around the sleeping princess, but tonight there was not a pony in sight. As the white pegasus strained his ears, he heard some faint whispering he couldn't make out. It was hushed, rushed and short. After some incoherent whispering, Comet swore he could make out hoofbeats trailing off. His pulse rate and slight twinge of fear tapered off as he let out a breath he was holding.

It didn't last long, though. His guard sense told him he wasn't alone. He felt a set of eyes crawling over him, slowly and deliberately. Comet tried to ignore the sensation since he was used to thousands of ponies seeing him guarding the princess, but it wouldn't subside. A new sensation washed over him as his guard sense blared louder. It wasn't just eyes anymore, something or somepony was approaching him. Comet refused to turn his gaze to see what it was, but the dark sensations rising in his chest were slowly overpowering his will. Something bad was about to happen to him.

Breaking his code of a guard to ignore everything until something happened, Comet turned his head.

A pair of wicked green eyes appeared from the other side of the room. The enchanting eyes stared out at him from a swirling mass of black against a wall with a smile underneath. The smile wasn't ordinary either since it contained two overly large fangs at the front. Slowly, a hoof extended from the black, followed by another. Soon, a head of shiny black containing the wicked eyes and smile emerged along with a mane of sickly turquoise green split in the center with a horn that looked like a leaf bladed dagger.

"So, captain now?" came her voice. It was smooth and seductive, the voice of a seasoned escort. Her body was shiny and gleamed like it was wet, but her most prominent feature was the holes in her body. They littered everywhere around her, from her hooves to her wings. She was rather tall, about the same size as Princess Luna, so it took her only a few strides to reach the white pegasus.

Comet, for his part, was simply frozen. He neither responded or reacted to the pony that approached him from the magical portal in the wall. Instead, his eyes were fixed upon hers. The pony, a changeling princess, continued to grin at him and moved her face closer.

"Now you're my captain," she whispered to him seductively, "All mine."

Comet wasted no time in connecting his lips to hers. The two of them closed their eyes and passionately kissed, making some rather odd noises. When they parted, the changeling princess gave a small gasp and her eyes fluttered open. She took a couple breaths, but smiled again.

"Oh yes," she cooed as she slowly pushed Comet onto his back, "All mine..."

"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" Angel shouted as she woke. Her covers thrashed around her and her wings flapped violently, making a rather large ruckus. As she scrambled in her bed, the sound of ponies moving came from outside and her door burst open, blinding her with a brilliant golden light.

The bat pony mare hissed loudly and wound up falling over the side of her bed, landing on her left shoulder. The pain graced her for a few seconds as she grit her teeth, but it stopped as soon as she forced herself up.

"Captain Angel!" came a worried shout, hurting her ears, "Is everything alright?!"

The mare grumbled as she untangled herself from her sheets and mumbled, "Everything's just great..."

"What was that, ma'am?"

"I said 'everything's fine'!" she nearly shouted back, "Just bad dreams."

"Oh. Well, if nothing is wrong..." The guard spoke quickly and the two turned to leave. The door shut, plunging the room into total darkness again and Angel grumbled to herself.

"Stupid dreams," she muttered, "Why can't you just let me sleep?"

Angel hadn't been sleeping too well after the attack she, Comet and Valyrie had fended off a year ago. Now and then, dreams of the evil changeling that had seduced Comet popped up, causing her to become incredibly irritable and angry when she woke. Every time she dreamed of her, Angel felt powerless and vulnerable afterwards because, no matter what she could do in the dream, Comet seemed to accept the changelings advances. Angel was by no means insecure, but a nagging thought lingered in the back of her mind.

Was she not enough for Comet?

After the attack and the harsh realization he had gotten more physical contact with the changeling princess than with her, Angel had felt inferior to her. Comet had already sworn that he couldn't remember anything about his time with the princess, but Angel didn't buy that. His reactions spoke volumes to her, especially the momentary disappointment that crossed his eyes every time they kissed.

Comet always denied that moment, going as far as kissing her multiple times to prove she was all he wanted. Angel, however, knew that even though he wouldn't admit it, some part of him, deep down and far away, wished it was the changeling or Valyrie. Angel dug her hoof into the pillow, pretending it was the changeling's face. She bared her teeth a bit, but didn't push much harder. Determined not to let this rob her of yet another good day's sleep, Angel planted the side of her head on the pillow and shut her eyes. After some fitful moments of unrest, Angel groaned loudly and rolled over again.

Unable to sleep, she stared at the stuffed Princess Luna that Comet had won for her on their first date. It was by far her most prized possession and, feeling a little lonely, she reached a hoof out and brought the doll to her. Angel smiled at it and hugged the doll tightly, purring a bit as she did. Even when she had those dreams, this little toy comforted her. Comet had only won two of these, a Celestia and a Luna, and had given them to the most special ponies in his life. The fact Angel had one was enough to calm her down a bit.

Comet, for his part, stood outside the doorway of a room. He really wished he was back in Philomena's tower, but the familiar voice of a pony Comet loathed rang out.

"Oh, Captain?" came the fake dainty voice, "Could you please come in here?" Comet ground his teeth, but turned and marched in.

Inside were paintings of excruciating horridity. Paint was splattered incoherently on large white canvasses, making all sorts of nasty combinations. One in particular was a canvas containing a multitude of colors covered by an explosion of brown, reminding Comet of what he threw up when he last had the stomach flu. Standing before them was a white unicorn with a blonde mane, not quite as bright as Comet's though. The pony seemed to be examining the paintings with intensity, something Comet almost snorted at.

"Captain," he spoke in an official tone, "I require your opinion on something."

'Yes, you should let me go do my job.' Comet thought. "Yes, my prince?"

"I want a new look for my room. Should it be a neo-modern theme, or a traditional art deco with a slight modern twist?"

'It should be the local dump.'

"Captain?"

"I would suggest a vintage look with an art deco overtone," Comet spoke, wondering just what the hay he was suggesting.

"Ah," Prince Blueblood responded, seemingly losing himself in thought. Comet remained silent, but secretly wished he could walk away. The prince had been deciding for two weeks now on what his room should look like and had insisted Comet be his guard after the last one, a Goldencloak named Holly Stalk, suggested to him that he keep it the way it was. Blueblood was so appalled by that, he had recommended to Comet that he should dismiss her from being a guard. Comet bit back many insults at that and kept his composure. Holly was a rough guard with a callous exterior, but she was one of his best. The thought of dismissing her because she suggested what Comet thought was the most prudent choice was absurd.

Luckily for Comet, a guard popped his head into the room behind them and said, "Captain, you have been requested by Princess Celestia."

Comet sighed to himself, closing his eyes and thanking his lucky stars. "Excuse me, prince. My liege requires my presence."

"Hm?" Blueblood responded, "Oh, yes, fine. Away with you."

Comet ground his teeth, but thanked Blueblood and took his leave. It didn't take him long to fly to the magnificent golden doors to the throne room. Towering well above any conceivable creatures height, the gilded doors sparkled brightly today. Comet nodded to the guards stationed outside the doors and one proceeded to push the right side open slightly. The door, which weighed an estimated one thousand pounds, swung open smoothly and effortlessly thanks to the magical hinges forged specifically for Princess Luna's sleep schedule. Prior to her return, the doors rumbled to announce a visitor, but with the Moon Princess's return, Celestia ordered new hinges be made so her sister could sleep peacefully. Comet inhaled sharply and held his breath without puffing his cheeks. With all his dignity and confidence, he strode in.

Once inside, Comet expected to see the familiar sight of the Solar Princess sitting majestically on her dais, gently smiling down to him as he proudly walked in. Instead, he found a sight that troubled his mind. Her Majesty wasn't smiling. Rather, a look of concern was about her beautiful features and her wondrous magenta eyes focused on three figures standing before her.

The figures were tall, two about the same height as Comet and one wearing some strange armor stood even taller. All three had their backs turned to Comet despite his arrival and stared up at the great alicorn seated before them. Several features of them stuck out, two quite literally. All three of them had large wings, each one with a span longer than Comet's own set and feathers to match. Just below the imposing wings was a long tail, ending in a tuft of fur, leading back to a lion's body.

Comet didn't need to think about what they were. He had a gryffon for a friend.

As Comet approached, he cleared his throat and cut the silence that hung in the air. At once, the one in armor spun and tensed at the sight of Comet. The gryphon, a tall and muscular brown feathered male, glared at the guardspony with piercing pale green eyes and scratched his talons on the stone below. He had a rather long scar, starting from just above his right eye and snaking its way down to his neck. His beak was fixed into a snarl as he spread his wings menacingly, as if implying he was the dominate male in the room.

Comet, on the other hoof, merely straightened his back a little more and regarded the gryphon as if he was unimportant. Appearances were important in these kinds of situations.

"That's enough, Grimtalon," came a stern and gruff voice from next to him. The figure in the middle turned his very light gray feathered head to gaze behind him at Comet. His naturally deep sea blue eye lazily flicked towards Comet, but just as quickly left. He clicked his black beak and spoke in his overly tough voice again. "He's clearly no match for you."

It was Celestia's turn to clear her throat and her serene face became a scowl, something rare for her.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't insult my personal guardian. You are a guest in my court."

The light gray gryphon nodded his head and replied, "Of course. I meant no offense, your highness."

'Yeah, right.' Comet and Celestia thought at the same time, but neither voiced or reacted to the thought. Celestia let her scowl fade into her passive face and watched the three gryphons blankly.

"It matters not whether our guard is better than yours," the third one spoke up with a lighter, but still macho, voice. He seemed to be older than the rest since the tips of the feathers atop his head were changing from a glorious gold to silvery gray. He took a step forward to the dais and spoke with such conviction that Shining Armor could take notes. "We are here to ask you to return what is rightfully ours."

Celestia sat silently and her gaze drifted towards her hooves. "You mean the gryffon, Valyrie?"

The silence in the room caused Comet's stomach to turn to stone and fall down an endless pit.

"Yes," spoke the older gryphon, "My daughter."

Comet had to gnash his tongue to keep silent, but couldn't suppress a nervous twitch, something Grimtalon snickered at.

Midnight felt a tickle under his nose just before he sneezed violently. The sound was explosive and he woke with a start, along with another bat pony. After apologizing and hearing the whines of a full grown stallion, Midnight rolled over to see a pair of big golden irises staring into his own. Before he could utter a sound, a set of beaks was forced onto his lips, causing him to fall silent. It lasted for about ten seconds before the beak pulled away and the golden irises reappeared.

"What are you doing here?" Midnight hissed, "We could get in serious trouble for this!"

A small chuckle floated over to him as an invisible set of claws gently raked the side of his head. They drifted up into his slightly shorter mane, but the tips began to gently scratch his scalp, sending waves of pleasure down his spine. Midnight sucked his teeth a little and a new voice spoke up.

"I love seeing you relaxed like that," came the whisper of a female with a slightly nasal voice, "You look like an angel then."

Midnight swatted away the claws with his hoof even though his body protested and stared into the round pupils inside the golden irises. "Valyrie..."

The sound of his covers moving was loud to him, but his bunk mates just kept snoring. A large weight, along with a body, seemed to sidle and squeeze next to him despite Midnight's flinches.

"Valyrie!" he whispered sharply, "Stop this!"

The irises reappeared and stared at his eyes. "You didn't protest last time."

"That's because you were drunk. Again."

"But you still liked sharing a bed with me."

"That's because you... Well, you... and I..."

"And you loved every second of it."

Midnight couldn't argue that point. That night often invaded his dreams and he always woke up out of breath and wanting to see Valyrie afterwards.

"Okay, so what if I did? This is still against regulations!"

At that, Midnight felt a series of soft and firm feathers caress his face. Despite his protests, an intoxicating aroma of fresh cut wood, citrus fruit and chocolate wafted into his nostrils and Midnight Glow lost his train of thought. Valyrie had a distinct aroma about her at all times and Midnight couldn't get enough of it. He felt her back press up against his chest and Midnight slowly wrapped a hoof around her.

"Okay, you win." he sighed, "Just don't get me in trouble."

"Shhhh." Valyrie cooed, "You should get back to sleep. I will make sure you won't get caught."

Midnight didn't protest that as he yawned and buried his snout into Valyrie's wings again. He would fall asleep to that scent and hug his gryffon closer as she slept next to him as well. His dreams were permeated with random bits of laughter, a set of golden irises he seemed to fall into and that smell. When he woke, Valyrie was gone, but a note was left for him. She always did that when she snuck into the stallion's bunks, but why would Midnight protest? He had the finest mare/gryffon in the entire castle all to himself.

Awkward Questions and Answers

Angel trotted along dejectedly through the opulent hallways of the castle. Her head hung low and the silence did little to ease her mood. It was well past midnight, which meant Comet was asleep. She had wanted to talk to him, but she had to follow Princess Luna to a restaurant earlier that evening. It was supposed to be a nice meal for her, but it ended like most of the others did: ponies quivering with fear as Luna angrily stomped out. Angel then had to do her best to console the downhearted princess who promptly shouted her ear off while bawling about not being evil anymore.

So, yeah, not a good start to the night.

With her ears still ringing and her mood ruined, the last thing Angel wanted to think about was her dream of Comet earlier. However, her mind had other plans. It shoved the images of Comet with the changeling princess to the fore of her mind, making her mood worse. She cringed as she was forced to see the scene replay in her mind. When the princess pushed Comet onto his back and smiled greedily, Angel lost control.

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!" she shouted into the empty hallway and attacked the nearest thing, which unfortunately was a suit of golden armor.

"Stupid! Coltfriend! Dreams!" she shouted as she kicked and mercilessly stomped on the glittering metal, "Why! Won't! They! Go! AWAY!"

Unbeknownst to the rampaging bat pony mare, another guard was standing at the other end of the hallway, watching the scene with a blank face. Unfortunately for Angel, it was one of the few ponies who could make her mood worse.

After stomping part of the enchanted armor into a semi-flat hunk, Angel let out some deep breaths, trying to calm down. Once her speeding heartbeat had stopped pounding in her ears, Angel realized she felt weird. Not weird as in 'Oh my Celestia, I just destroyed a suit of armor for no reason!' weird, but more of an 'I want Comet NOW!' weird. She thought he was cute and silly, but now she wanted him in a not-so-innocent way.

This new feeling made her curious. Comet was handsome and sweet, caring and strong, but she had never thought of him this way. Yeah, she had teased him in the past, but it was just for fun and he never seemed to notice. Now, she had a strange series of images flitting through her confused mind, ranging from Comet and her out on a sweet date to him standing over her in a bed and smiling down at her, looking amazingly hot. All in all, the images each conveyed a similar message; she wanted Comet. Still, it took her to smash a suit of armor to tell her that, which was weird in and of itself.

As she pondered how smashing a suit of armor made her want her coltfriend in a more primal way, the bat pony behind her cleared his throat and talked.

"Gold isn't my color either, Commander," he said with a hint of sarcasm.

Angel's wings snapped up in alarm as she stood straight up. She leaped a foot into the air and spun around, her dark fur giving way to a bright red blush. Her gold eyes locked directly onto the pony and it took her a few seconds to realize who it was.

"Hi half-sis," Midnight Glow said as he smiled at her, "You having some problems with the decor here?"

Angel scrunched up her face, looking like she just smelled something putrid and turned her head away from him, clearly embarrassed. Midnight gave a small chuckle and took a step forward.

"I can't say I like it too much either," he mused, looking around, "Too many pastel colors here."

Angel kept silent and refused to look back at Midnight, wishing he would just go away.

"I mean, who uses pastel lavender puce with scarlet red?" Midnight continued, evidently not noticing Angel's unhappy state, "And then gold suits of armor? It's like some artist thinks this is for little colts and fillys!"

"That's not the problem," Angel muttered quietly. Unfortunately for her, Midnight decided to pay attention to her right as she spoke.

He tilted his head and asked, "That's not? Then why did you go all ninja pony on that poor suit of armor?"

Angel refused to look at him, but her thoughts of Comet being seductive popped back into her mind and she blushed harder. Midnight looked from the crumpled armor to Angel's seriously vibrant blush and something clicked in his mind. He mentally facehoofed for his boneheaded comments on the decor and smiled to Angel.

"Oh, is this about your coltfriend?" he asked with absolutely no tact at all.

Angel blushed harder as more images of Comet burst into her mind. She was mentally trying to block them out, but she couldn't due to the overwhelming amount of them. She needed to do one of two things at this point: get angry at Midnight for asking dumb questions and leave before he suspected anything, or ask him why she couldn't stop thinking about Comet like this.

To her, the choice was obvious.

"Yes." Her mouth rebelled against her chosen option.

"Ah, I see," Midnight mused, looking over his half sister, "Are you fighting?"

"No," Angel replied, unable to stop herself from speaking even though she was horrified she wasn't doing the smart option.

"Then what's up?" Midnight asked.

Angel took a deep breath, all the while mentally pleading with her mouth to stop talking.

"I can't stop thinking about him."

Midnight raised an eyebrow at that and asked, "What does smashing a suit of armor have to do with you thinking about your coltfriend?"

"I don't know!" Angel hissed back, feeling herself get abnormally angry again, "I was angry at something else and I lost it! I smashed a suit of armor for no reason and now I can't stop thinking about him!"

Midnight stared at her as his fathers' words echoed in his mind about never fully understanding mares. Then, oddly enough, something else clicked in his mind. Midnight had a social problem in that his mouth started to move as he thought.

"Are you in heat?" he asked, lacking any semblance of tact, subtlety or common sense.

Fifteen minutes later, Midnight sat on the cold marble, rubbing a rapidly swelling cheek and gingerly moving his right rear leg. He knew Angel was a good fighter, but he never had seen her attack anything like she just did to him. While he knew it was deserved for his idiotic comment, he still felt she had overreacted.

Angel, for her part, was still breathing heavily, expecting flames to come out of her nostrils at any second. She had a rather intimidating snarl etched on her face and a very pointed look in her eyes that seemed to form a razor sharp tip in the space in front of her nose. Midnight was unprepared for her assault, but barely managed to get away from her before she really got violent.

It took a few seconds of Midnight nursing his new swollen cheek before Angel's breathing began to soften. She was still angry, but it seemed she was getting her temper under control. Midnight chanced speaking to his irritated half-sister.

"Ouch, Angel," he hissed, "I think you knocked a tooth or two loose."

Angel replied with an unimpressed 'hurumph' and turned her nose up.

"Well, you needn't have been so tactless, soldier."

Midnight rolled his eyes and gave his best retort. "I'm sorry. It comes from my mother's side."

As soon as he finished speaking, his vision exploded with yellow stars and he fell to his right. His mind reeled and, as the side of his head started to throb with pain, he saw a gray hoof retract. He rolled his eyes again and picked himself up to face an utterly fuming bat pony mare.

"Look, I know you're in heat and--" Midnight started before Angel slugged him again in the stomach. Midnight grimaced, but he kept his composure. He had dealt with mares in heat before and found bat ponies were unusually violent in that state. Ironically, he remembered his father had told him his birth mother was just as rough with him before Midnight was born. Internally, Midnight chuckled at the unwitting Angel, who he imagined was just like her mother.

"--I know how to help you get over it." he wheezed as she pulled back. Angel reared up again to hit Midnight to make him stop talking, but paused at his final words.

"What do you mean by that?" she growled, hoping he was not suggesting what she thought.

Midnight took two deep breaths before continuing. "You can't stop thinking about your coltfriend, can you? If you can't, then there's only one way to stop."

"Which is?" she pressed.

Midnight didn't respond, but instead raised his eyebrows twice at his half-sister. Angel looked at him with a confused expression for a couple seconds before catching his meaning.

"WHAT?!" she hollered at an obnoxiously loud volume, "WHY WOULD YOU IMPLY THAT?!"

Midnight recoiled a bit from the sound, but responded, "You mean you haven't done it with him yet?"

"NO!" Angel continued to shout, "HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ME AND I WOULDN'T TO HIM! COMET IS A GOOD PONY AND I--"

Angel stopped her shouting as she realized she had just shouted her coltfriend's name at the top of her lungs, knowing that anypony remotely close heard it. Her eyes shrunk and she began to back up slowly, ready to run off. It was against regulations for her and Comet to have such a relationship within the Royal Guard, especially at their ranks, and they had worked to keep it their secret. Only Valyrie had known of them being together and agreed to keep it under wraps from everypony, including Midnight. Now, Angel's mind kicked into overtime, trying to come up with some plausible reason to escape this argument.

Midnight, however, continued to rub his ears and looked at her with one eye half open.

"Well, then I guess you'll have to wait this out or find somepony who will," he heard himself speak over the ringing in his ears, completely oblivious to the fact she had shouted her coltfriend's name.

"Wait it out?!" Angel responded in an exasperated tone, "How long does it take?!"

Midnight shrugged and said, "It's your problem. Shouldn't you know by now? I mean, this can't be your first time being in heat, is it?"

Angel was about to say something, but caught herself before speaking. She had episodes like these where she was stallion crazy, but it was never this strong.

"I, uh," Angel mumbled as she searched for the right words, "I, well, I..."

Midnight raised an eyebrow to her and said, "This can't be your first time, can it?"

"No!" Angel nearly shouted back, now completely red in the face, "It's just, uh, never... been this... strong before."

Midnight chuckled to himself before speaking again. "Then it's about time you found out what being in heat is about."

"What do you mean by that?" Angel asked without wanting to.

Midnight stood up, wincing a bit at the pain in his rear leg, but said, "I'll let you figure that out."

Angel stood at her post near Luna's Observatory, mulling over her conversation with her half-brother. The still and clear night made it all too easy to think, and Angel didn't necessarily like what she was thinking of. The images of Comet were becoming even more vivid in her mind and Midnight's words echoed as they appeared.

'You mean you haven't done it with him yet?' seemed to be the most popular phrase in her subconscious. It made no sense to her how earlier this day she was worried Comet didn't like her as much as he said, but now she was mentally picturing some very intimate things involving the two of them. She shook her head repeatedly, trying to get rid of the images, but they refused to go away.

That was when a new line of thought crossed her mind, one she would've never thought of in her normal state of mind.

Why hadn't they gotten more intimate?

Angel tried to quash the thought, but it seemed to get stronger the more she fought it. She and Comet had been dating for a year and had progressed very little in terms of a relationship. He was always secretly taking her on dates, giving her gifts and doting on her like a dream coltfriend, but he hadn't done much more than that. He acted shy at the topic of him and Angel moving onto a new level of their relationship, often deflecting the conversation away from that.

Why hadn't they done more? Why was Comet stuck at the little kid stage where he was her coltfriend, but in the sense of passing notes and holding hoofs. Why hadn't he gotten to a more mature stage with Angel? It wasn't like she was going to argue at this point...

Angel squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head violently. She didn't need him to be more mature or whatever she was thinking. He was perfect the way he was and she liked the way he treated her. Unfortunately, the image of the changeling princess reared its ugly head in her mind, smiling greedily at Comet laying on his back.

Angel froze at that image and her mind went blank. That stupid bug had more intimate time with him than she did.

"That's it!" she growled in frustration as she ran back into the castle. She weaved her way through the corridors, attracting some unwanted attention from her special unit, the Zodiac, as well as the regular guards. As she reached her office, Angel nearly slammed the door shut and locked it. Once she was sure the room was secure, she then pulled out a piece of parchment and began to scribble on it.

Her mind was cloudy at the time, but she knew one thing. Comet was hers, and it was high time he rightfully claimed her.

Midnight sat in the infirmary with a bag of ice pressed to his cheek, reducing the swelling. He had given some ridiculous story of the doors to the throne room magically swinging open as he passed, causing two poor unicorns to lose a good night's sleep to investigate why the doors had malfunctioned. He felt a little bad for them but refused to rat on his half-sister, who he felt even worse for. Mares back in the colony had very unusual heats, some becoming maidens who desperately tried to get themselves into trouble so a stallion would rescue them and some, like Angel, who became incredibly violent and angry.

It was just as his father had said, "Mares are a mystery nopony, not even the smartest stallion, can figure out."

As Midnight mused at the thoughts of his father's wisdom, he saw an odd sight walk out of a room not too far from where he was sitting. A gryffon marched down the hallway with his back to Midnight, head held high and a proud aura around him. Midnight thought it was Valyrie at first, but noticed the gryffon was taller and more muscular, with golden feathers on his head ending in silver tips. His hide, the furry part, was the same chestnut brown as Valyrie's and his claws were black, just like hers.

As the gryffon marched, he noticed a small bandage wrapped underneath his left wing. Midnight Glow almost called out to the gryffon, but stopped himself as it rounded the corner. He caught a glimpse of his face, though. He had a proud look to him with a sharply curved black beak and irises as golden as his feathers.

Once the gryffon had left, Midnight chuckled to himself. He would have to tell Valyrie she wasn't the only gryffon in the castle anymore.

As Good As It Gets

Angel peeked out the door for the fifth time in the last three minutes. Her gigantic golden eyes peered into the same marble hallway again, scanning the same red tapestries before making a noise of disgust. She pulled back and shut the door, sending the room into almost complete darkness. In the pale light being cast from a window on the east side of the room, Angel could make out enough shapes, though her nose was going crazy with the scents here. The desk in the center of the room stood out most, both being in the light and reeking of scents that drove Angel crazy, mostly those of Comet.

She fidgeted with her hooves, wondering if her half-baked plan would work. Surely Comet was awake by now, especially if he bought the story. He would be charging here any minute, determined to rescue his dear marefriend, and be right where she wanted him. However, things could go wrong and Angel knew anything relating to her or Comet could and would go wrong. Comet could ignore the note until morning, leaving a frustrated Angel alone for hours or he could hurt himself on the way there, meaning Angel would have to explain how she escaped capture by a known enemy of Equestria.

Angel shook her head, her mind still foggy. This would work; it had to work.

"Commander?"

Comet's ear twitched at the voice, but he didn't open his eyes.

"Mmmhm?"

"Message for you, sir." the voice spoke again.

Comet groaned at that. He really hoped it wasn't from Celestia, which would mean he would have to get up. "Can't it wait?"

"Commander Angel was quite adamant that it was urgent." the voice responded.

Comet's eyes snapped open. He expected a random note about an inebriated guard he would have to chastise later or something from Shining Armor, but not from his marefriend. Spinning back over to face the door of obscenely bright light, he was able to make out the silhouette of a Zodiac member standing in the doorway.

"Let me see it, soldier," Comet commanded, hiding his shock rather well. The guard trotted up to him and dropped the note off at the bed before walking out, much to Comet's relief.

Once the door was shut, Comet extended a hoof to his nightstand and touched something. Instantly, his room was flooded with enough light to make him recoil. The magic lamp on his nightstand had never worked properly and he grumbled as he rubbed his eyes. What could Angel want at this time of night? She knew he needed to sleep and had even agreed to a pact of sleep schedules. He wouldn't wake her unless it was critical for the Zodiac's intervention on a matter and she wouldn't wake him unless the Goldencloaks were needed to pacify a threat or restore order.

Pulling back his orange hoof, Comet's fiery red eyes started to scan the note. His eyes were bloodshot and itchy, telling him he needed to sleep. However, ignoring his own discomfort, Comet started to read the note. Hopefully, this wouldn't be something bad.

A few minutes later, Comet's eyes were the size of dinner plates and a look of utter fear was all over his face.

Without thinking, he tore off from the bed, ignoring the fact his sheets were still wrapped around his waist and bolted out the door, straight past a now flinching Night Guard. As the orange pegasus tore off, his door slammed shut after making a nice sized dent in the stone wall, catching his sheets in it. Comet didn't realize this until he felt the wind get knocked out of him and was pulled backwards, landing squarely on his back and luckily not smashing his wings.

As he pulled himself up, he frantically shook the sheets off as the Night Guard ran up to him.

"Sir, are you alright?" he tried to ask, but never got the full question off as the orange pegasus bolted off again. Curious, the guard looked back at the commanders' room and wondered just what made a sleeping pony tear off like a bunny being chased by a timberwolf.

As the orange pegasus ran and flapped his wings, he grew slightly frustrated about the layout of the castle. Why the heck it was on the other side of the castle, he never figured out. It normally wasn't a problem since he wasn't particularly fond of being cooped up in an office, but now it was a gigantic pain in his flank.

According to the note, someone had infiltrated the castle and captured Angel. The note was fairly simple: either he came to his office now to meet with whoever this was, or Angel would be hurt really badly until he decided to. however, the note itself wasn't what scared him. The signature on it was stuck in his mind as he weaved throughout the castle, making his heart pound in his ears.

... and if you don't, I assure you that your precious marefriend will endure more pain than you will.

Sincerely,
Nova

Angel sat in the office, playing with her hooves as she waited for her coltfriend. She had found the odd noises her hooves made against the cold stone made for some pretty amusing entertainment. It didn't last long, though, as the door flew open and a blur of orange bolted inside, scaring the bat pony mare. She paused for a second, trying to remember what she was supposed to do before collecting her senses.

Comet, however, was scanning his office for anything unusual when the door slammed shut behind him. With his nerves already on edge, the pegasus spun and leaped to the door, ready to attack what he thought was a pony he shouldn't have let live. Instead, he proceeded to grab onto a much smaller pony. Before he could react, a hoof smashed the side of his face, causing him to let go and fall to the cold and rough stone below.

Before being able to roll away, his attacker jumped onto his back, pinning him to the ground. Comet, however, surprised the pony by pushing himself straight up and throwing it from his back. He darted forward in an attempt to escape, but instead ran headfirst into the wall. Comet's forehead burst with pain as he staggered back, right into his assailant's hooves.

Angel, who could see much better in the dark, almost squeed as Comet backed into her. She immediately pounced onto the orange pegasus and tried to pull him towards her.

"Come on over here, cutie," Angel cooed with a wink that Comet didn't see.

Reflexively, Comet tried to scramble forward, but to no avail. Whoever was holding onto him had a firm grip on his waist. As he pushed, he felt a hoof start to wander on his body. Immediately, he yelped and bucked his rear legs, determined to get the pony off him.

"Get off of me, Gorgon!" he almost shouted.

At the mention of the name Gorgon, the attacker loosened its grip and Comet bucked again, loosening himself. The next thing he heard, though, made him freeze.

"WHO DID YOU SAY I WAS?!" the eerily angry voice of Angel shrieked.

Comet spun around to see the silhouette of a bat pony leap up in the moonlight. The extremely familiar golden eyes of Angel glared down at him as the figure approached. Comet wanted to react, but felt his legs refuse to work. Together, the two ponies collided and wound up flipping over the desk.

As the two flipped landed on the other end, papers proceeded to fly everywhere. The sound of a commotion could be heard as their voices started to fill the air.

"Comet, stay still!" Angel commanded.

"Angel?! What are you doing?!" Comet replied.

Some more struggling noises came out from behind the desk as the papers started to settle, with Comet's shouting becoming much more flustered.

"Angel! What the hay are you--? Hey, stop that! Angel, that's not somewhere you should--!"

His cries were cut off and silence reigned in the room, making the scene feel much less chaotic. After a few moments, it was Angel's voice who broke the stillness.

"There, now will you stop protesting?" she cooed.

"Angel..." Comet started to say before yelping again.

"Angel, stop doing that! Hey, that's not for you to--"

After the sound of more struggling and furniture moving, Comet started pleading.

"Angel, please stop! We could get in a lot of--"

The desk lurched forwards and both Comet and Angel gave a rather abrupt yelp, one of both shock and what seemed to be... pleasure.

"Angel, what the hay?" Comet asked, breathing heavily.

"Don't... argue..." Angel grunted back.

The door to Comet's office flew open, bathing the room with light. In the doorway stood the silhouette of a Night Guard, whose green eyes scanned the room, wide with panic. Papers were scattered everywhere and furniture was pushed around, the obvious sign of a struggle.

"Commander Comet!" he almost shouted into the disheveled room. He took once step forward before a voice answered him.

"What?!" came a surprised cry as an orange head shot up behind the desk. The guard tensed quickly, a reflex to a surprise, before registering the face. The orange pegasus he had woken about twenty minutes earlier stared back at him with his blazing red eyes, a blank look gracing the rest of his face.

"Commander, are you al--" the guard said as he stepped forward before being cut off.

"I'm fine!" Comet almost shouted in return, stopping the guard and he shifted uncontrollably.

"Sir?" the Night Guard asked.

"I'm *ahem* I'm fine, soldier." Comet replied in a much more cool tone. He tried to smile, but the guard sensed something was amiss, especially when the commander's ear started to twitch.

"Uh, sir, I found this note in your room," the guard said as he pulled out a scrap of parchment from his armor. Comet's pupils shrunk as he watched the guard look back to him.

"Stthir," the guard spoke with the parchment in his mouth,"Thhitth ith not good. Itthh thhomepony thhhreateningh you?"

"Uh, what?" Comet responded blankly.

The Night Guard spit out the note and stared straight into his commanding officer's red eyes with his green ones.

"Sir, what does that note mean?" he asked with a little force.

Comet grinned sheepishly and before he said anything in reply, he jumped a little, as if a bug had bitten him.

"I-i-it's nothing, soldier," he replied with a grin, "Just a harmless prank.'

The guard narrowed his eyes and took another step forward.

"Commander, I know something is wrong. Please tell me before--"

"Soldier!" Comet almost shouted, stiffening up a bit himself, "What was that noise?!"

The Night Guard snapped his head around and replied, "I didn't hear anything, sir..."

"I thought I heard Princess Luna! Where is she?"

"Sir?"

"I think the writer of the note may be distracting you from your duty! Check on your post!"

The Night Guard turned a confused face to the orange pegasus, who was squirming oddly now, before replying, "My post is the Royal Wine Cellar..."

Comet stared blankly back at the guard, utterly lost for words. Just before he spoke again, the Night Guard spun his head and stared out the door.

"What was that?" the guard asked suspiciously. He extended a hoof towards the door cautiously, but jumped when a black figure ran by.

"Stay here, Commander!" he shouted over to the pegasus behind him before bolting out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

In the now dark room, Comet blinked slowly at the door. As he stared blankly at it, a small voice spoke up.

"Don't ever bring this up again," Angel grumbled.

Comet looked back down as a set of gray hooves shot up and grabbed his neck. He didn't resist as they pulled him back down.

Ten minutes after that, Comet wobbled out of his office, legs stiff and a very weird mix of facial expressions gracing his face.

"My legs feel funny..." he mumbled as he walked off.

A minute after he left, Angel stuck her head out of the door, grinning happily to herself. After making sure the coast was clear, She emerged from the door and closed it, humming happily to herself. She felt good with her annoying thoughts gone with the itching. In fact, she felt more than good. Her and Comet had just cemented the next step in their relationship.

However, Angel suddenly felt hungry as she trotted off to her post. Unable to resist the thought of fresh picked fruit and the sweet juices they contained, the bat pony stopped by the mess hall for a few minutes before trotting off, chewing on a portion of a pineapple.

Bad Fruits

Celestia's throne room was not one for loud noises. The spacious room made of marble echoed any kind of sound, often making it hard for guards to whisper to one another without somepony else hearing it. For instance, a rookie guard made the mistake of making a comment about how amazing Celestia looked sitting on her dais to another right as his commanding officer entered the throne room. The commander wasn't happy about it, but the brilliantly white alicorn blushed the rest of the day, even going as far as to converse with the audacious pony.

That pony eventually went on to become Captain of the Guard and married Celestia's niece.

However, the noises the room was echoing now was not praise for the alicorn. Instead, they were shouts of anger.

"I'm not going back with you!" came the shrill yells of Valyrie.

"It doesn't matter what you want!" a voice roared back, "You will come back home now!"

Standing at opposite sides of the red carpet that led to the dais, Valyrie glared wickedly at a tall gryphon with amazing gold feathers who wore a scowl just as nasty as hers. Valyrie flexed her claws menacingly on the marble, as if to warn the other gryphon of what she was capable of, but they did little to give her an edge. The gryphon easily stood two heads higher than Valyrie and had claws twice as long as hers. Their golden irises were locked onto one another, not willing to blink or even look away for a second.

Around the two of them, several ponies and a couple gryphons stood, weapons at the ready. Behind Valyrie stood Comet in his armor, along with three of his Goldencloak warriors, each wielding their halberds in a threatening way. On the other side stood two full grown gryphons, each wearing a shining set of steel armor and bending down slightly, like a lion does before he pounces.

On the far side of the room, Celestia stood silently, wishing this proceeding would not come to blows. She had known this would be a sticky situation, but she didn't anticipate the hatred that seemed to fester between Valyrie and her father. However, she had her personal guardians, the Goldencloaks, there for another reason. Pony and Gryphon relationships were notorious for going sour since the gryphons had a deep dislike of the magic ponies were able to harness, especially that of the unicorns. After many efforts to try diplomacy alone, Celestia had learned that it was most prudent to have her guards on hoof around the warrior race they called neighbors.

Not wanting to have an international incident in her throne room, Celestia cleared her throat, drawing the gathered company's attention.

Midnight woke with a start when a figure crash into his bed, followed by his wings getting damp rather quickly. He yelped and flailed as a set of claws wrapped around his belly, followed by a series of sobs and a beak nuzzling his neck. Spinning around, he found himself tightly gripped by Valyrie as she cried into his neck. Bewildered, Midnight wrapped his own hooves around the gryffon and hugged her gently as the sounds of Valyrie's crying filled the room. It took several angry shouts from the other Zodiac members for him to leave with her, but once they were away, he continued to hug her and whispered consoling words to her, trying to calm the gryffon down.

"Valyrie, it's okay," he cooed, "I'm here. What's wrong?"

She sniffled several times before looking up at the bat pony with red, wet eyes.

"I h-h-hate him!" she managed to work out before burying her head into his neck again.

Midnight's eyes widened, but he kept his calm voice.

"Who, Valyrie?" he asked.

Valyrie only cried harder, making Midnight more upset internally. He had never seen Valyrie cry, so whatever this was about must have been serious. He noticed her use of the word 'him', which made Midnight narrow his eyes. Evidently, somepony had harassed Valyrie, causing her to get upset. Whoever this pony was, the bat pony decided he was a dead stallion. Midnight had no tolerance for anypony who hurt his friends feelings, especially Valyrie's.

"Who was it?" he asked again, a hint of anger in his voice.

"M-m-my dad!" she wailed at him.

Midnight's eyes widened at that.

"Your dad? He's here?"

A teary eyes gryffon looked up at him, a mix of a scowl and sadness on her face.

"Y-yes! He's come here t-to collect me!" she wailed.

Midnight blinked a couple of times before recalling what he had wanted to tell her.

"You know," he began, "I saw a gryphon last night. It was a tall one who looked a little like you."

Comet rubbed his forehead with his hoof, dealing with the mild headache he had recently acquired. The rough revelation of who Valyrie's father only served to worsen his headache. Comet had heard about him in his time where he and Valyrie had a mild relationship going, but he never imagined he was just as bad as Valyrie had described him. Then there was the issue of his guards carrying weapons into Celestia's throne room, something that long ago had nearly started a war between the gryphons and ponies.

Despite his best efforts to concentrate on any of those things, though, his thoughts were somewhere else. Comet hadn't slept well the night before, for more than one reason. Different things tormented his mind, causing him to shift uncomfortably more than once in twenty minutes. His recollection of what transpired in his office was at the fore of his mind, as well as a craving to see Angel again. The scent of her mane, the soft embrace of her hooves and the small noises she made the night before with him were just as fresh in his mind as when they happened.

Comet shook his head, trying desperately to banish them. He would have to speak to Angel about that later, but as of right now, he couldn't afford to reflect on that. Glancing to his left, he saw another Goldencloak standing in rigid attention on the other side of the door he was guarding. Holly Stalk, the tough and serious mare who he had recruited, stared straight forward, her blue eyes glaring from under her red mane. Being a socially inept pony for most of his life, Comet stumbled upon himself as he tried to work out a sentence to her.

"Hey, uh... I mean, Holly, er, Corporal Holly Stalk," he half mumbled, half spoke.

A blue eye turned to him before she spoke.

"Sir," she replied curtly.

Comet tried to grin at her, but instead looked as if he was uncomfortable.

"You know, uh, I don't know much about... uh, you."

Holly tilted her head at that statement, but kept her hard gaze.

"What do you mean by that, sir?" she asked in her naturally forceful manner.

Comet gulped, wondering why he had even tried to talk to her. It wasn't she was mean, but she took her job just as seriously as he had when he was first recruited.

"What I mean is, uh, I don't know a lot about you, er, personally."

"What?" she asked, turning her head to him. Comet flinched a bit as she did, but kept his composure.

"Well, uh, where are you from? Got any family?"

"I hail from Coltsburg, where my father, mother and four brothers live," she deadpanned back.

"Oh, Coltsburg? I heard that's a nice--"

"It's not," she stated flatly, cutting him off.

"Oh," Comet replied sheepishly, "Uh, do you get along with them?"

"'Commander," she stated, turning to him, "I fail to see why this is relevant to what we are doing."

Comet blushed a bit and scratched the back of his head before continuing.

"Oh, you know. I want to get to know my troops and I figured I would start with you."

Holly narrowed her eyes at him and stared for a few second before turning her halberd to him, causing Comet to yelp.

"Holly, what are you--" Comet nearly shouted.

"What is our secret designation as Goldencloaks?" she asked pointedly.

Comet blinked twice before answering, "Justicars."

Holly stared at him for another second before pulling her halberd back, allowing Comet some time to breathe.

"Sorry, Commander," she stated flatly, "You were acting strange. I felt it prudent to make sure you weren't a changeling."

"Acting strangely?! How?!" Comet nearly yelled back.

"You have never asked any of us any personal questions before, Commander. Also, you never stammer when speaking to us on matters, both of which you were doing just now. Enough to make me suspicious, sir."

"Really?" Comet asked. He found it odd that he had never asked about his soldiers personal lives in the year he had lead them. A quick, suspicious glance back from Holly was all that was needed to make him stop his line of thought. Silence quickly resumed around them as they stood, guarding the doorway. It was uncomfortable for Comet, which was very unusual since he loved silence.

"My family lives back in Coltsburg. My father is a shopkeeper and my mother is a schoolteacher," Holly stated, breaking the silence. Comet turned to her and gave a questioning look when she sighed. "My four brothers are all older than me and two of them are in the Royal Guard as well. The other two help my father run his shop."

As Comet spoke with Holly, Angel was on the other side of the castle, rubbing her stomach as she dreamed. Her face was contorted into an uncomfortable look as her stomach twinged and stung, causing her to wake up. She groaned loudly and tried to stretch before her stomach twinged again, causing her to curl back up.

"That pineapple must have been bad," she mumbled to her pillow. Forcing herself up, she easily made her way out of her quarters, moving towards the restrooms. She didn't feel sick, but her stomach felt funny, like it did when she ate some rotten fruit back home. It didn't help that she was also incredibly sleepy. Last night was one of the most active nights she had ever had since the Gala one year back.

She sighed happily as she recalled what had happened. It was not ideal for any couple to have that happen, but it worked for her and Comet. After their little romp in his office, Angel had gone back to her patrols only to hear of the rumors that there was an intruder in the castle. She had put the notion to rest by stating that Princess Luna was doing some flying around the castle. The one guard who had seen the shadowy intruder, the same one who interrupted Angel and Comet's evening, claimed the shape was smaller than Luna, but Angel countered by asking how well he saw the figure. When he sheepishly admitted he didn't see it very well, the rest of the Zodiac and Lunar Guard let the issue drop.

Once in the restrooms, Angel washed her face, hoping the cold water would make her mind stop focusing on the pains her stomachache was giving her. It took a couple of tries since Angel started making funny faces to herself as she rubbed the water on herself, but she noticed the amusement had made her stomach stop twinging. Satisfied, Angel trotted back out of the restrooms, humming a song to herself. It was the same one she had hummed last night and whenever she was happy, a lullaby known only to bat ponies. She went back to her room and jumped in bed, snuggling up to her pillow. She almost fell asleep, but her stomach twinged once more. Rolling over to the other side of her bed, Angel pouted to herself.

"Stupid bad fruit," she grumbled to herself, "I knew I shouldn't have eaten that pineapple."

Weakness

One Week Later...

Leaving your friends is a difficult thing to do for anypony. Seeing their sad faces as you tell them you won't be coming back for a while stabs ponies to the heart in a land built on friendship and harmony. Valyrie, who had lived in a country where such things were only as valuable as you could make them, found that out the hard way. Gryphons were not as deeply rooted in friendship as ponies were, and as such was stunned to hear their responses. Both Comet and Angel were extremely upset at the news she would be leaving in less than a day, Angel going as far as to hug the gryffon tightly and cry hyseterically into her shoulder, begging her not to go.

While leaving her two best friends was painful, Midnight Glow was even worse. Angel's sobbing had hurt Valyrie, but Midnight's face stung her more. His warm golden eyes suddenly went from happiness at seeing her to glossy orbs, straining as hard as he could to hold back tears.

"A-Are you sure you have to go?" he asked, his voice quivering.

Valyrie, the normally headstrong, tough-as-nails gryffon, suddenly found herself unable to look at her coltfriend. Instead, she found interest in staring at the stone floor, trying to hold back her own emotions.

"Yes, Midnight," she spoke morosely, "I-I'm sorry."

As she finished speaking, a strong set of hooves wrapped around her and hugged her tightly, trying to both comfort her and keep her there.

"Valyrie, I... I don't want you to leave," Midnight stammered, the hurt evident in his voice.

Valyrie returned the hug, tears stinging at her eyes.

"I don't want to go either," she whispered to him, "I want to stay here. With you and Angel and Comet, too."

The stallion tightened his hooves around her at that.

"Then don't leave," he said, his voice full of determination, "Stay here with us. Surely Celestia can find a way for you to--"

"She already tried!" Valyrie burst out, burying her white-plumed head into Midnight's shoulder, "I begged her to stay, but she couldn't let me!"

"Why not?" Midnight asked, his voice edged with a little bit of anger and sadness.

"The agreement was I could come here instead of being banished permanently! Celestia said she would only keep me here as long as I was supposed to, and once it was up, I was to be returned to my homeland!"

After saying that, Valyrie started sobbing into Midnight's shoulder as he hugged her as tightly as he could. He ground his teeth as he felt a few tears escape his eyelid's vice grip, feeling the enamel chip away.

"There is one way for you to not leave," he spoke, his voice shaking, "You could run away with me. Yeah, we could leave here now and go live somewhere else, like my colony!"

Before Valyrie could respond to that, the door to the chamber they were in burst open and a shout of anger echoed into the room.

"Valyrie!" came the gruff voice of her father, "It's time to go!"

A deadly pause filled the room as she lifted her head and looked Midnight in the eyes, wishing she could say something.

"What are you two doing?!" her father shouted again.

In the few conversations she and her father had that didn't involve threats and shouts, Midnight Glow had never come up. Valyrie had never told him she was in a relationship with a pony to protect Midnight, due to her father being extremely against pony and gryffon relationships. He often called such relationships unnatural and disgusting, sometimes implying that there was some mental or parental problem leading to it. Valyrie had agreed with him once, long ago before she met Comet and Midnight, but now she totally disagreed with him. As the two looked at each other, there seemed to be no point to keeping it secret now that she wouldn't see him again.

Without any fear or shame, Valyrie closed her eyes and pushed her beak into Midnight's mouth gently. Midnight, slightly stunned by this, returned the kiss. For two blissful seconds, it seemed Valyrie and Midnight were all alone, just like their first date when they had a small picnic on one of the rooftops in town under the moonlight.

A loud roar of anger came before Valyrie felt a strong set of claws grab her, hard. A force much stronger than Midnight's hug pulled her away and she flew backwards as she was tossed into the hallway, crashing into the marble walls lining the other side.

"What do you think you are doing, you stupid girl?!" her father shouted, his anger causing his voice to shake.

Pain shot across her cheek as she felt the back of her father's claw strike her, his warm breath coming down into her face. Valyrie recoiled at the pain and started to curl up as her father kept shouting about how disgusting it was she would do that.

"Do you have any idea what you just did, you pathetic pile of feathers and fur?! What the hell is the matter with you?! I know I raised you better than that, you disgusting, ungrateful piece of--!"

"Hey! Shut up and leave her alone!" Came Midnight's voice, shouting over her father's ranting.

Valyrie whimpered as he rubbed her cheek, tears still flowing down them. She opened one eye to see her father's back turned to her, facing the bat pony. At opposite ends of the hall, a small crowd had gathered, some watching and others calling for the Royal Guard, even as two gryphon guards blocked any of them from interfering.

"What did you say to me, you impertinent sack of filth?" her father asked in a deadly tone.

"I said, 'leave her alone'," Midnight growled back, baring his fangs.

"Do you even know who you're talking to!?" the gryphon roared to him, spreading his wings to make himself look bigger, "I am Samson Coldclaw, destroyer of the great wyrm of Felltop Mountain!"

"And I'm Midnight Glow, guardian of Princess Luna herself!" the bat pony yelled back, clearly unafraid.

As Midnight stared into the old gryphon's gold feathered face, he saw a smirk begin to cross it.

"What does it matter if you protect your pathetic little princess from a butterfly?! You are nothing to me!" Samson shouted back.

Midnight growled again before speaking.

"Don't you dare insult my princess or strike my marefriend, you arrogant idiot!" he snarled back.

"Or what, you'll bite me?" Samson replied in a mocking tone.

"Oh, I'll do way worse..." Midnight threatened.

As Midnight finished speaking, three razor sharp claws raked the side of his face, going from the base of his jaw up his muzzle. Midnight yelped in pain and clutched his face as the flat side of another claw hit his other cheek with incredible strength, sending him flat onto the ground. Midnight tried to get up instantly, but a claw descended on his face and pressed his head into the coarse stone, making his face hurt more. He yelled in pain as a small chuckling escaped the gryphon, who pressed harder.

"Pathetic inbreed," he spat at him, "I could kill you now if I wanted."

"Father!" screamed Valyrie as she leaped onto his back trying to dig her claws into him, "Let him go!"

A swift kick stopped Valyrie as she leaped, knocking the wind out of her and Midnight to yell louder as he struggled to get free. She landed on her back, luckily avoiding crushing one of her wings, and looked over to Midnight. He thrashed around, desperately slamming his front hoof into Samson's leg while his wings and hind legs struggled to pull him back. A shout of pain escaped him again and Valyrie quickly rose to her feet.

Before she could do anything, however, a dark shadow zipped across her father's back and he shouted in pain. The shadow skidded to a halt as a bat pony in full armor spun to face him, golden eyes glowing dangerously from underneath the helmet. Samson released Midnight and turned to shout at the shadowy pony, but not before a steel blade shaped like the sun hooked dangerously around his throat. The blade was attached to a wooden pole, held onto by a pegasus in a full gold helmet with a blue plume, a sparkling gold cloak covering the rest of his body. Through the eye slits in the helmet could be seen a pair of fiery red eyes.

"Don't. Move," came the scariest rendition of Comet's voice both Midnight and Valyrie had ever heard.

"You dare threaten me?!" Samson yelled back while remaining resolutely still.

"You hurt one of my guards," came the cold voice of Angel, "We shouldn't even be threatening you."

"Then do it," Valyrie's father challenged, "I will break you all before you even hurt me."

Silence reigned as the gryphon stared down at the bat pony in armorl. Comet never moved, but kept the gryphon still as the halberd sat dangerously close to his arteries. After a few tense moments, the halberd left Samson's throat.

"Get out of here," Comet spoke coldly, "Don't ever return to Equestria again."

"With pleasure," Samson spat at him before turning towards Valyrie, "Come, daughter. We will discuss your actions later."

"No," Valyrie said before he struck her cheek again.

"I said, 'we're leaving'. Now."

With tears in her eyes, Valyrie slowly stood up and began to walk away, glancing over to her friends. Midnight held his face as tears gently rolled down his cheek while Comet had his head turned away from her, unwilling to watch her leave. Angel gave a small sniffle as the two walked away towards the carriage waiting for them.

After they had rounded the corner with their gryphon guards, Midnight let out a choked sob as Comet examined his injuries.

"Angel, get him to the medical wing. These look bad," he swiftly spoke.

Without any protest, Angel came up to Midnight and slowly led him down the opposite hallway as Comet removed his helmet. Sweat beaded his forehead as the rest of the Goldencloaks emerged from the crowd, along with members of the Zodiac. Comet sighed to himself, knowing that regardless of what the gryphon had said, he wouldn't be able to fight the sheer numbers of guards who were waiting to intervene.

"Commander Comet!" came a swift shout of a voice he had hoped not to hear. The pegasus spun to see Shining Armor trotting over to him, a look of both anger and sternness on him.

"What the hay is going on here?" he asked.

"We had a small incident involving the gryphons, sir," Comet replied with a salute.

Shining narrowed his eyes before asking, "What kind of incident?"

"One of the gryphons attacked an unarmed member of the Zodiac unprovoked, sir. Both Commander Angel and I intervened as he kept on hurting the Zodiac guard, sir!"

Shining stood there in silence as he looked at Comet, unsure of his story. While he trusted his commanders, he was sure there was something else that happened. A shout from farther down the castle affirmed his suspicion as a pony came running up.

"Captain! Commander!" the guard shouted, his bulky armor getting in the way of his running, "One of the gryphons just passed out!"

Shining wrinkled his nose at that before turning to Comet.

"Gather Commander Angel and report to my office immediately," he spoke in a deadly serious voice.

An hour later, Comet and Angel stood in Shining Armor's office, standing rigidly still as the Captain shuffled through some papers. In the air hung an uneasy silence, one that threatened to destroy the room should it be broken prematurely. Angel, being the overactive bat pony she was, shifted her weight from one hoof to another, causing a slight jingle to escape from her armor. Comet's eyes shrunk a little at that while Shining Armor looked away from his papers.

"I suppose there's no sense in prolonging this," he mumbled as he pushed himself away from the desk, "I want to know what the two of you were doing in that hallway with a whole contingency of both Solar and Lunar guards waiting to attack an unarmed civilian of another country. And, more importantly, I want to know why you, Commander Angel, attacked him."

The Captain narrowed his eyes at them and Comet cleared his throat. Before he could talk, however, Shining Armor raised his hoof.

"Before you begin, I do know of your friendship with his daughter, the gryffon Valyrie. I also know of your relationship to the pony Midnight Glow, Ms. Angel."

"Captain, sir," Angel began before Comet could speak, "Then you surely know what happened to Midnight and why we intervened."

"I am well aware of Lieutenant Midnight's condition, yes," Shining said, levitating a piece of parchment, "Three lacerations to his right cheek, as well as scrape marks on said wounds and pressure applied to his head."

The note fluttered gently to the desk as Shining continued.

"I also have witness testimony that Samson Coldclaw struck him first without any actions on Midnight's part. Your actions, however," Shining accentuated as he pointed a hoof at Angel, "Were without provocation."

"Sir, if you are aware that Midnight Glow is my half-brother, then you know that he is a member of the Zodiac as well. An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us," Angel spoke unwaveringly.

"He was off-duty, Commander," Shining pointed out, "The Zodiac's very presence there meant you suspected an attack might happen and failed to notify me of such a threat, marshaling your own forces without authorization. That is a very large breach in our protocols, Angel."

"She wasn't alone," came Comet's voice as he took a step in front of her, as if to shield the now paling bat pony, "I had my own force there as well. Commander Angel and I were notified by the gryffon Valyrie that her father was highly aggressive and might attack anypony unprovoked, should he feel slighted."

Shining Armor's piercing blue eyes shifted to Comet as he returned the stare, showing very little fear of the unicorn.

"Commander Comet, your actions are not in question here. We have known of his violent nature since he first arrived at this castle, per the notification by Valyrie. While I am curious about how many Goldencloaks were there, you were supposed to keep a small unit following him at all times. Are you insinuating you were not following orders at some point?"

Comet's ears drooped at that, but his gaze hardly faltered.

"No, sir," he replied, his voice slightly lower than before.

"Then do you wish to say that you roused Commander Angel and her guards when you should've easily had the situation in hoof?"

"No, sir, he didn't," came Angel's voice, slightly more squeaky that it usually was. Both Comet and Shining turned to her as she looked up, her golden eyes now sad.

"I roused my own troops without permission because I feared for the safety of Midnight Glow. I should have let Commander Comet keep the peace without my intervention."

Shining narrowed his eyes further at her before speaking.

"Did you attack Samson Coldclaw?" he asked plainly.

"Yes, sir,"

Shining put a hoof to his forehead and rubbed it, thinking to himself. Comet's gaze never wavered from Angel as she looked back at him and smiled weakly, her tiny fangs barely showing from under her lip.

"Samson Coldclaw passed out on the way from the castle," Shining spoke up as Comet and Angel's attention snapped back to him, "He claims you ruptured an old wound he gathered back in his military service. He is on his way home now with Valyrie, but the delegates here say their king is rather displeased with what has transpired. He is demanding we take action to prevent hostilities from starting between our countries by punishing those responsible for the event, namely Midnight Glow and you, Commander Angel."

Angel gulped, feeling like she was trying to swallow a watermelon whole. Shining put his hoof on the floor and looked to her, sadness and seriousness mingling together on his face.

"Midnight Glow is going to be given immunity from punishment from Princess Luna, since the witness accounts say Midnight did nothing to provoke the attack on him. You, however," he said as he pointed a hoof at Angel, "Are to be relieved of your duties as acting commander of the Zodiac and are discharged from their majesty's services."

The words hung in the air the same way a deafening explosion did. Comet's eyes shrunk to pinpricks as Angel lowered her head.

"What?!" Comet almost yelled in an exhasperated tone, "Sir, this is far too extreme of a punishment!"

"And why is that, Commander?" Shining asked, his voice laced with venom.

"Sir, I was there! I saw what he did and while Commander Angel acted rashly, the gryphon would have killed Midnight Glow without her intervention!"

After Comet finished speaking, Shining Armor let out a sigh, an uncharacteristic thing of him.

"Commander, you should know our dealings with gryphons are notoriously sticky. If it were up to them, Angel would be put to death for her actions. Removing her from her command and the guard is the very least we could do, short of banishment or, Celestia-forbid, executing her."

Comet felt his throat tighten as he strained to find his voice. Before he could speak, however, the sound of metal being moved came from behind him. He turned his attention to see Angel removing her armor, placing it on the floor of Shining's office very gently. Comet spun around to stop her, but she looked up and saluted Shining with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I-I-It's been an honor t-to serve, sir," she spoke, her voice nearly cracking.

"Angel, wait!" Comet shouted, "I'm sure there is a way we can stop this! We have witnesses!"

"Commander, restrain yourself!" came the gruffest command from Shining Armor that Comet had ever heard. The pegasus winced at the command, but said nothing in return.

"I-I am-m relieved of m-my c-c-command, sir" Angel continued, her eyes completely glossy.

Shining saluted back at her and said, "You are relieved, Commander,"

Angel nodded to him and gave the weakest sincere smile she could have ever given to Comet as she turned around and trotted to the doorway, leaving a dumbstruck pegasus to watch the door shut.

"Commander," Shining spoke once the door had completely shut, "I am placing you in charge of the Zodiac now until we can find a replacement for her."

Comet spun around and looked at Shining, his face hardened.

"And if I refuse, sir?" he growled.

"The you will be removed from your command as well on the grounds of insubordination," Shining spoke tonelessly, "I would much rather salvage one of you from this mess than lose both."

Comet grit his teeth together, feeling the tips of his molars rub uncomfortably against one another before he saluted.

"Sir, yes, sir," he replied, his voice filled with anger.

Shining nodded to him and turned around.

"I will allow you some time to say goodbye to Angel, Commander," he spoke, "I know she is a very good friend to you and I must fill out some paperwork before you are granted control of both guard units."

The door nearly slammed shut as Shining finished speaking and he sighed again.

"Damn these gryphons," he mumbled as he pulled out some faded parchment.

What I Meant To Say

"And just who do you think you are, making demands of my subordinates without first consulting me?" came the clearly annoyed voice of Princess Celestia. The brilliant white alicorn stood before a mirror, surrounded by Royal Guards in a stone chamber. The mirror was a big oval, ornately decorated with golden leaves and branches, giving the feel of natural origins. Her face was fixed into a scowl as she started into the mirror, eyeing what resided on the other side.

Through the mirror, she saw a giant stone room decorated with many tapestries. Each one was a different color, ordained with an individual symbol ranging from a sword being wrapped by a wyvern to a picture of a large black claw. Underneath all of them sat a simple gold throne, upright and lined with the same red velvet Celestia's own throne bore. Seated upon it was a gryphon, a large and richly clothed one. His piercing gold eyes glared at the mirror, staring deep into Celestia's own magenta ones. The rich brown feathers that covered his upper body were mottled black, save for his beak as golden as his eyes. A rich red robe clothed him, covering his body, save for his dark brown furry legs. A tail containing a tuft of long brown fur slowly waved behind him like a snake, as if warning Celestia of his mood.

"I am the king. I can make demands whenever I please," he spat at the pony in a scratchy, yet deep voice.

"You can make them to me and I will consider them, not my Captain," Celestia accentuated, her voice taking a dangerous edge.

"And what does it matter to you?" the gryphon king snarled to her, "It's not like the whelp would actually listen like a good soldier."

Celestia started to grind her teeth at that statement.

"Are you so thick-headed you forget how to be diplomatic?" she hissed back.

The king's eyes flashed dangerously at that comment.

"I was not the one who started this, lest your memory be fading with your age," he growled back, "You demanded to see me during my meal, so be thankful I answered."

Celestia planted a hoof to her forehead and rubbed it slowly, still grinding her teeth. Why she put up with this, she would never understand.

"Listen, you," she began dangerously, "I don't care what your demands are, you will not coerce my subjects to your will."

"Subjects are supposed to listen to rulers, not the other way around," the gryphon king growled back, "Or have you forgotten that?"

"I have little time for these insults, dear king," Celestia angrily shot at him, "Mark my words, this is the last time you will make demands of my subjects without my involvement, the last officer you will have removed and you will treat us with the respect and dignity we treat you with! Do I make myself clear?"

The king leaned forward a bit, his gaze hard at the white alicorn.

"Do you wish to tell me how to run my country?" he dangerously insinuated.

Celestia held her ground, refusing to look or back away.

"Yes, as I did your father and his father before him. I am the reason you sit on that throne and the reason your army does not cross our borders. Remember that, dear king. Remember that before you start something you cannot hope to stop."

The gryphon king spat at the ground in front of the mirror, clearly insulted.

"And mark my words, dear princess. I am not your vassal as were the weak kings before me. I keep our ancient pact out of honor, not because I feel I owe some debt to you. What you did was over eight centuries ago, in an age long forgotten. Remember your place, since your precious ponies have softened with age while my gryphons have advanced."

"Then we are at an agreement?" Celestia asked impatiently.

The king grunted to her before walking out of the frame, letting the mirror fade to show Celestia's angry reflection. Irritated, the princess left the mirror as her guards covered it with a long red drape. When she had left the cramped stone chamber, her Captain, Shining Armor, stood before her, saluting in his gold and purple armor.

"My Princess," he spoke in his official tone, "You wished to see me?"

"This is not the place, Captain," she spoke quickly, "Meet me in my chambers."

After finishing her statement, the Princess disappeared in a quick burst of white magic, followed by Shining Armor. The two materialized seconds later within the Princess's private quarters, each staring at the other.

"Captain, can you please tell me why you removed my sister's lead guardian on the whim of the gryphon king?" she asked pointedly, "Luna was most displeased when she heard the news."

Shining gulped a bit at that, but kept his composure. Princess Celestia was quite scary when she was serious.

"Ma'am, I did what was required of me," he spoke with shaky confidence, "She neglected to follow our protocols and as such, had mobilized an armed force without authorization. That was what got her removed."

"And why was that a problem?" Celestia asked with a little force, "The whole Lunar Guard is in an uproar, as is my sister. I cannot afford my guards bickering at a time like this."

"Because it has been a rule since before I was made Captain," Shining stated, "You set the rule in place to avoid any chance of a corrupt pony gaining an armed force after your sister turned half of the Royal Guard on you."

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but closed it after not uttering any noise. Her mind searched for any record of her decree, and sure enough remembered the proclamation. She had established the rule a thousand years ago after Luna had allowed the Nightmare to corrupt her, allowing her to influence the then leaders of the Lunar Guard to start a coup on her sister and the newly founded Royal Guard. They had nearly succeeded, causing the then young and inexperienced Celestia to make some drastic changes in protocols of her guardians.

The alicorn lowered her head a bit, a defeated look on her face. Shining kept his salute, waiting for the call to be at ease. The growing silence between them soon became tense as Celestia thought for a few moments before sighing heavily.

"I did make that rule," she murmured, "And it cannot be helped. Rules are there for a reason, even if they are from a millennium ago."

She lifted her head to look at Shining Armor, her sparkling rainbow mane waving gently.

"Gather the guards. I will speak to them personally on the matter and calm them."

Shining nodded before disappearing in his own blue magic.

"Angel, wait dammit!"

The gray bat pony barely registered the words being shouted at her as her belongings were placed into her saddlebags. Her normally sparkling eyes were instead watery, dripping tears onto her valuables. It was when she had started packing did she realize how little she truly owned. Aside from her stuffed Princess Luna, fake Element of Magic tiara and some beads, the poor bat pony had hardly anything. As she dejectedly dropped her items into the brown bags bearing a white heartbeat line, a hoof shot out and grabbed her Luna.

"Angel, for Celestia's sake, look at me!" came the irritated voice of a stallion.

Turning her head, the mare regarded the white stallion, still dressed in his armor, as he looked down at her. His eyes flickered between his natural red color and a vibrant blue, a phenomenon she thought was rather interesting. A look of anger and concern was etched on his face as he stared into her eyes.

"Don't do this, please," he pleaded, "I will not allow you to leave under these circumstances."

"It's alright, Comet," she murmured back, "I messed up. I should have kn--"

"NO!" he shouted back, "I don't care what they say! You did your job and they should not cut you off because of one jerk!"

"Comet..." Angel whined back.

"Don't leave," he stated, his voice gaining an unusual whine, "Angel, please don't leave. I.. I can't..."

Comet stopped speaking there, his own eyes becoming glassy. He regarded the mare, the one who had put him through Tartarus and had come out his marefriend, as she looked back at him, ready to burst into tears. Inside his chest, he felt the familiar feeling of emptiness crawl up and strangle his lungs, the same feeling he got when he thought about his sister. He didn't want to lose another special pony. Pressing his forehead to hers, his hooves automatically wrapped around the mare and pulled her close. He wasn't acting like a concerned friend anymore, but that of a caring coltfriend.

"Angel," he choked out, "I don't want to lose you too."

The bat pony couldn't hold out any longer. Burying her snout into his shoulder, her tears burned steaks down her face.

"I don't wanna leave either," she whimpered, "B-But, I w-want you to b-be happy t-too."

"Angel, I'm happiest when I'm with you," he groaned out, wrapping her more tightly into his hug, "I haven't been this happy since Nova was alive."

The two ponies sat in silence for a few second, each holding onto one another tightly. Comet struggled not to shed a tear because, if he did, he would be an emotional wreck for the remainder of his Royal Guard days. This was the ultimate test of his stoic-ness, to remain strong when the most important pony to him was taken away yet again. Angel, on the other hoof, thought about how much she was going to miss him and what life would be like for her.

"Where are you going to go?" Comet asked hoarsely.

Angel whimpered a few times before answering.

"M-My colony. I... I need to see my d-dad again."

Comet tensed at that, but kept her in his grip.

"Where is your colony?" he queried.

"F-Far to the north, near the Crystal Empire. A city called Transyl-mania," she sniffled back.

Comet thought about that, wondering if he knew of such a place. He couldn't recall anything about that place other than some stories about the mythical vamponies that lived there. He knew they were false, but never thought such a place really existed.

"Do you need to go?" he replied.

Angel nodded her head, smearing her tears and snot on his shoulder. Comet would normally be grossed out by that, but didn't care at this point. Instead, he was slowly hatching an idea. The normal Royal Guard salary wasn't much, but being the leader of Princess Celestia's personal guard had some perks. His salary had gone up considerably, but he had hardly used it other than to spoil Angel, as well as slip Midnight some bits for his dates with Valyrie. That meant he had quite a bit left over, sitting in his bit bag.

"Angel," he started, "Why don't you stay here with me?"

"I can't, C-Comet," she whined, ready to start crying again.

"No, I mean permanently," he deadpanned, causing Angel to look up at him, "I want you to stay with me, either here in Canterlot or in San Pransisco."

"What?" she asked, her glossy eyes widening.

Comet gulped, his thoughts finally realizing what he was building up to. She was annoying, loudmouthed and just too silly for her own good. She was bent on making him miserable, going as far as to tricking him a fortnight ago into doing something incredibly intimate with her. She was a pony he despised, but it went farther than that. He couldn't stop looking at those big gold eyes, nor could he keep a straight face around her. He didn't laugh, grin or feel good unless she was there. All in all, he was annoyed when she was there, but he was utterly miserable when she wasn't. It was then his mind was made up on what he thought of her.

"Angel," he stated slow and deliberately, his mind completely blank, "I love you. I don't ever want you to cry when I can do something about it. I don't want you to be alone when I should be there."

He pressed his forehead to her again, just staring at her eyes. His hooves squeezed a little more tightly on her while his wings unfurled and wrapped around her like a second pair of hooves. Inside his mind, three words bounced around that terrified him. Before he knew it, his mouth started moving, unable to stop when his mind shouted for them to.

"Angel," he whispered, "Marry me."

It was the three dumbest words he could have spoken right then, but her reaction told him that he had said the right thing. Her eyes widened even more as she froze, tear lines still on her face. She was so utterly cute right then, Comet couldn't help but let a small smile crack his face.

"B-But," she stammered, unable to think of what to say, "W-We can't..."

"Yes, we can," Comet stated in a voice slightly above a whisper, "When you were a guard, we couldn't. You're not a guard anymore."

"B-But how? We don't have anything saved up," Angel pointed out.

"I do," Comet said confidently, "I will get us a home and I will make sure you never have nowhere to go. When you get back, all you will have to do is just fill our home with fruit."

Comet wasn't really sure what happened next. One moment, Angel's eyes twitched as she registered his words, then the next she was on top of him, pinning him to the floor with her hooves crushing the air out of his neck.

"Yes, Comet!" she shouted, tears running down her face again, this time for joy, "Yes, Oh Celestia yes!"

Comet couldn't tell her how happy he was she had said yes for two reasons. The first was that he couldn't breathe, the second was that shortly after, he heard somepony clearing his throat. Looking up, a steel gray unicorn guard looked down at him, a scornful look on his face. Both Angel and Comet froze, looking up at the guard who started to blush.

"I'm sorry, Commander," he stated, the look on his face accented by the blush, "I didn't mean to interrupt you during your 'personal' time..."

Comet flipped out at that. He nearly threw Angel off of him, allowing himself to breathe and stand up, before literally yelling at the guard he had the wrong idea and that he was not engaging in any inappropriate conduct. After two minutes, Comet finally calmed down enough to let the guard speak, though his face was more red than the guards.

"Sir, I did not think... Well, I mean... Uh..." The guard stammered. He shook his head and regained his normal, stoic face before continuing, the blush still apparent. "Shining Armor has requested that all members of the Solar and Lunar Guard meet at once to have an audience with Princess Celestia."

He saluted after that and disappeared in a whirl of green magic, leaving the two ponies to sit in silence. Dejectedly, Comet turned to Angel and looked at her, realizing why he was originally here. Instad of crying, the mare smiled at him, her face still wet but her eyes now happy.

"Go ahead," she said as she waved her hoof to him, "I don't want you to be late."

"But-" Comet murmured to her.

"I already have my stuff packed. I want to see my father at least one more time before I get married," she said with a small coo at the end of her statement. Comet blushed a little at that, smiling to himself.

"I mean it," he stated, confidence regaining control of his voice, "I will have a home for us."

"And I will fill it with so many oranges, you will think we owned a grove," she finished with a mischievous smile.

Comet grinned at her as he turned around. Without realizing it, his armor slipped off of him, landing with a loud clang on the floor. Comet sucked his teeth, realizing how dumb he must look and bent over to put it back on.

"Comet," Angel started, her voice hinting at concern "Why are you still white?"

Looking down, the stallion gave a curious look to the mare before lifting his hoof to his face, expecting it to be his usual orange. After all, the armor only force changed his coat when he was wearing the main pieces. Instead, a sparkling white hoof glimmered back at him in place of his usual ochre. His eyes widened a bit at that as he looked to the armor laying on the floor.

"I, uh," he stammered, hurrying to put it back on. As he did, the white coat he wore began to fade back to his normal ochre before zapping back to the brilliant white. He looked at Angel, confused, when she spoke up.

"Must be some kind of glitch with the spell?" she offered as an explanation.

Grimacing, Comet made a note to himself to speak with Shining Armor about this as he darted off. Before he turned down the hall, he looked back at Angel, still sitting on the floor of her former room and smiled as she waved weakly.

"I love you," she called to him.

"I love you too," he replied.

Take The Long Way Home

The sea of Royal Guards stood uncomfortably in the setting sun. Half of the crowd was made up of both white and gray ponies outfitted in golden pieces of armor. They all stood cloistered together, glancing nervously to the other group. The other half was a mass of dark gray with purple armor who muttered unhappily. There was a bit of tension in the air as the bat ponies cast mean glances to the pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies.

Above them was a simple stone balcony decorated with a railing of corinthneighan columns. The balcony led to an open window on the side of the spire it was attached to. A pink curtain, emblazoned with Princess Celestia's cutie mark, was drawn over it, concealing the meeting that was going on inside. Within the room were two alicorns, one white and one blue, along with the Captain of the Guard and the leader of Princess Celestia's personal guard corp. The two stallions remained silent as the alicorns discussed matters among themselves, particularly those of what had transpired earlier that day.

"What did that impertinent mongrel say?" Princess Luna asked bitterly, sending a chill up Comet's spine.

She was awake much earlier than normal, which would make anypony cranky, but had also learned from a member of her personal guard that the mare she had trusted to protect her had been removed at the request of the gryphon king. Needless to say, she was much more than cranky at this point.

"Sister, there is no need for those words," the white alicorn spoke, "I have resolved the issue."

"POORLY, I MIGHT ADD!" Luna shouted back in her Royal Canterlot voice.

Both Comet and Shining Armor winced a bit at her tone. The stone walls seemed to amplify her voice much more than it should.

"Dearest Luna, I did what had to be done," Celestia stated quickly.

"THEN ENLIGHTEN US AS TO WHY IT WAS MY OWN GUARD WHO WAS PUNISHED MOST SEVERELY FOR THIS MEAGER OFFENSE!"

Princess Celestia closed her eyes at that and took a deep breath. Luna would most definitely not like the answer she was about to receive.

"Sister, she had violated rules for a pony in--"

"WHAT RULE IS THIS, IF WE MAY INQUIRE?!"

"She summoned a large group of her own--"

"AND WHY IS IT THAT GATHERING HER TROOPS TOGETHER AN OFFENSE PUNISHABLE BY DISCHARGE?"

As Luna finished speaking, a small cheer echoed in through the window. Both Celestia and Luna turned to the noise before Celestia's horn glowed. A veil of blueish magic covered the window and the solar princess returned her gaze to her sister.

"WHY DID THOU BLOCK MY SUBJECTS FROM HEARING THIS MANNER? THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHY THEY WERE PUNISHED WHILE YOUR GUARD GOT AWAY WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A REPRIMAND!" Luna shouted to her sister while rising to her hooves.

Celestia's face hardened a bit, but before she could speak, Luna swept a hoof over and pointed directly at Comet and Shining Armor.

"THESE TWO, YOUR CAPTAIN AND HIS LACKEY, HAVE BOTH BEEN PARTY TO ATTACKS ON US, DEAR SISTER! WHY WERE THEY GIVEN PARDON FOR TREASON WHILE MY GUARD WAS--"

"ENOUGH, LUNA!" Celestia shouted over her, causing the walls of the castle to shake slightly.

The blue alicorn's mouth froze as she stared at her older sister while both Comet and Shining Armor winced loudly and rubbed their ears. Luna was quite loud, but Celestia could easily outshout her if she desired. The Solar Princess took three deep breaths slowly, trying to calm herself down before she straightened up and looked down at her younger sibling.

"Luna," she began in a more civilized tone, "It was not the gryphon king who removed your guard. It was me."

The blue alicorn's eyes narrowed at her and she put her hoof down.

"Tell us why you betrayed the trust of my guards then," she almost hissed to her.

"It was because of a law I put in place over a thousand years ago," Celestia stated without any hint of fear, "When you fought against me as Nightmare Moon, you turned your half of the guards against mine. While we fought our duel, my dear ponies were subjected to fight their own kin, the ones who they had trusted just weeks earlier to aid them in our fight against Discord and Sombra. They were shaken at the end of our conflict and I ordered that no pony, not one save the Captain of the Guard and ourselves, be allowed to summon a force of considerable strength."

Luna narrowed her eyes some more, but planted her royal rump on her midnight blue pillow, clearly unsatisfied.

"So why did thou not repeal the law when the times of strife subsided?" she asked harshly.

Celestia shook her head before responding.

"I could not take that risk, sister. When the struggles to establish Equestria had ended, you were still Nightmare Moon and I knew how devoted your guards were to you. They would answer your call, whether you be my sister, Princess Luna, or the madmare you became. I could not ask it of my guard to harm yours again, so I kept the law in place."

Luna scowled at the floor after hearing that.

"But why did thou not remove it after we were freed from the bonds of madness?" she queried, "Why does thou think of me and my kin as enemies still?"

"Luna, listen to yourself!" Celestia almost shouted to her, completely taken aback by what she had said, "Would it be any different if our places were switched? If you had to endure stopping me while I was in a state of insanity, would you be trusting of my guards who would have turned on yours? I do not consider you or those devoted to you as enemies! After you were banished, I pardoned all the guards who had taken up arms against me and my kin and welcomed them and eventually you back with open hooves and wings."

Luna ground her teeth together as she heard that. It didn't seem fair to her that her guard was punished, but she couldn't argue Celestia's logic. Surely, she would have acted in a similar fashion should their roles had been reversed.

"Still," Luna continued, "If thou knew of how we are not enemies, why was our guard not reinstated? She did only what was proper to keeping the peace."

"Luna, you know I can't ignore rules meant for Equestria's safety," Celestia stated.

Luna grumbled incoherently for a bit as Celestia watched her. A little ways back, both Shining Armor and Comet stood resolutely still, keeping silent. Comet was both thrilled and terrified by what had just happened. It was not every day he got to hear the princess talk about his secret new fiancee, but the argument they had was much more scary than any changeling or gryphon he had ever met.

"So, do you understand my actions and why your guard had to be removed?" Celestia asked calmly to her still aggravated sister.

Luna heaved a sigh, but looked up to her and replied, "We do understand and we will not go against your word, but this matter is still unresolved. I trust we shall have words about just how extreme this punishment was?"

Celestia smiled to her younger sister and said, "Of course, my sister."

With the two alicorns in agreement, Comet saw the blue magic surrounding the window disappear and the Solar Princess trotted towards it, her sister joining her. Now that they had resolved the issue among themselves, it was time to make sure their loyal guards understood as well.

The train rattled along slightly as Angel watched the world fly by. She had a very conflicting series of emotions as she watched the city of Canterlot disappear slowly into the distance. The gleaming castle still shone brightly in the sun, causing Angel to choke up a bit. That place had been her home for the last couple years, a special place in her life. While she was indeed heading back to her hometown, she felt more of a connection to the wonderful capital than the dank series of caves she hailed from.

"It'll be okay," she mumbled, trying to comfort herself, "You'll be back soon."

It took a bit for the castle to be hidden by the forests and hills of the country, giving Angel enough time to come to terms with her leaving. It was a sad moment, to be sure, especially since she wouldn't see her best friend and future husband, Comet, for at least two weeks. A small film of tears covered her eyes as she touched her hoof to the window, wishing he was there.

Out of all the ponies in her life, Comet was one of the few she had come to trust outside of her family. She had spent over two full years with him, pestering and irritating him every single step of the way. They had shared nearly every experience together, from her silly antics the day they were recruited to being the heroes of Canterlot, thwarting the attempted invasion. They had become personal friends to the princesses, something Angel never thought would happen in any scenario she had come up with, and had even grown to like each other.

Angel barely noticed the sky darken and the moon rise into the sky as she reflected on her life to this point. There were three ponies she specifically wanted to see when she arrived, her father, Harvest Moon, topping the list. She had promised him long ago that she would return eventually, bearing some sort of good news. The only problem was, she had made that promise years earlier, shortly before leaving the colony to pursue some pony named Artemis.

Still, it was a long way to her destination, a junction in the railway lines known as Cliffpeak. From there, she would have to wait for a train bound for Transylmania, the small pony settlement outside of her colony. She hoped it hadn't snowed there recently, since it would make the rail lines inaccessible. If that happened, Angel knew her trip would instantly go from a couple weeks to a month at the minimum.

Back at the castle, Comet heaved a huge sigh as he trotted over to Shining Armor's office. His commander had ordered him to report to his office at a later time after the princesses speech to the whole Royal Guard. The Night Guard was still unhappy about the situation, but followed Princess Luna's lead in taking the recent event in stride. If she was willing to overlook it, they would as well.

Comet had been on edge for most of the speech, but hadn't yet calmed down. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed Angel for that. His thoughts were stuck on the abnormal absence of her in the castle. Usually, after some incredibly stressful situation, like trying to get a handle on the newly crowned princess ignoring the safety measures he had installed for her, Angel would pop into his life, tease him a bit and end their meetings with a simple hug and kiss. His mind and body were feeling the negative effects of not having that happen to him today, a sure sign that the few weeks without Angel would be difficult.

As he marched off, the pegasus commander failed to notice a set of eyes watching him. The green irises watched him trot dejectedly through the hallway, looking at him with concern, As he rounded the corner, the eyes emerged from a shadow behind a tapestry, revealing a large black pony. She had a long, sickly greenish-blue mane and tail along with a shiny black chitin exterior filled with holes. Two large fangs hung from underneath her down turned lips, much bigger than the standard bat pony's set.

The black mare, a young changeling queen, took a small step forward when a loud cough broke the silence, causing the queen to yelp in surprise. She shrunk back into the shadows, trying her best to stay hidden. The sound of hoofbeats echoed over to her and pretty soon, the black figure of a Royal Guard stood in front of the tapestry.

"I know you are there, Princess," came the commanding voice of a mare.

Slowly, the young queen poked her head out, shivering as she did. If she was caught by a guard out of her disguise, she could easily be captured and imprisoned, probably for life. Her green iris twitched as she looked to the one who had found her. The pony, in question, was an off white pegasus with an orangeish-red mane and tail, along with piercing blue eyes. She wore the vibrant golden cloak of her unit, Princess Celestia's elite guards.

"Do I have to remind you of your limitations?" she asked pointedly.

The changeling shook her head quickly, as nervous as she could be.

"N-No, ma'am," she stammered quickly.

"Then you know he is not to see you, no matter how much you want to see him," the mare replied tersely.

"I know," the changeling mumbled sadly, "I just, I want to talk to him. Just once to apologize for what I put him through."

The mare raised her eyebrow at that.

"To apologize? Don't you mean 'feed' on him?"

The changeling shook her head, scared of the mare.

"No, It's more complicated than that," she weakly offered as a response.

"I see. Is this related to why Princess Celestia ordered me to keep a strict eye on you?"

The changeling said nothing, instead staring at the corner where Comet had turned.

"Alright," Holly Stalk said to her, "I think it's time you got back to your quarters, Princess."

The changeling glowered at that.

"I told you, I have a name."

Holly Stalk sucked her teeth at her comment.

"Fine, which do you prefer today? Gorgon or Nova?"

The changeling continued to stare after Comet longingly, as if she was hoping he would reappear.

"I... I don't know," she whimpered, looking down and shutting her eyes.

Welcome Home

In the dim torchlight, the faded and crumbling stone cast eerie shadows everywhere. They clung to the walls like pitch, slowly sinking onto the splintering floorboards. The only window in the room was tightly shut, wooden shutters bound together by sturdy steel braces. Cobwebs hung from the beams on the roof, holding back torrential amounts of dust. It was obvious this room was of no importance to the owner of the building, who sat on a rickety stool in the corner.

The pale gold eyes of the gryphon king lazily flicked about the room, wondering why he was wasting his time here. This was no place for him, a proud and regal ruler. This room would normally be reserved for begrudged guests of his, namely foreign diplomats known as ponies. He coughed and spat on the ground, disgusted by the word. His rich brown feathers ruffled as he shook his head in revulsion. Their species name alone was an embarrassment, enough to make him glad he wasn't of their kind. As he thought about how pathetic they were, his thoughts went into the grand retrospective of things.

It was an utter disgrace to the gryphon race to know they had to be peaceful with the pony race. The two were fundamentally different in every way, ponies being the weaker of the two. Gryphons were naturally larger, stronger and more predatory than the weakling grass eaters. While the ponies frolicked about in their homeland of green fields and harmony, gryphons were forced to fight for their homes in a land as hostile and rugged as the beasts that roamed here. Ponies had made ties with all the other races in the world while gryphons had been forced into peaceful relations with them.

In this way, the real truth was obvious to the king. Ponies were born into a weak way of life, one focused on making friendships and harmony while gryphons were bred to be warriors, fighting and refining themselves through the constant struggles they endured. They were superior in every way, down to the fact they had claws and the ponies had hooves. Gryphons were built to do so much more, to accomplish things that other species could only dream of. They were warriors, fighters and conquerors, not the ponies. Yet, the opposite was true; ponies dominated the world while gryphons scratched out a meager living.

These thoughts naturally made the proud king irritable, causing him to flex his claws and glare at the figure he was waiting on. Standing at a rickety wooden table was another gryphon, this one bearing white feathers groomed to be impeccable. His beak was almost non existent, a short, sharply curved line on his face. His other half had white fur and black speckles, what the other races would refer to as a snow leopard. His tail swept back and forth slowly as he worked, showing he was in deep concentration.

On the table itself was an assortment of random vials and rocks, each bearing a specific color. In order, they were sky blue, bright red, deep purple, light pink, blazing orange and dark lavender. The snow gryphon worked diligently at the lavender vial, gently dropping in a very fine powder of unknown origin, causing the vial to shake gently.

"I grow weary of this," the king stated irritably, expecting to be heard.

The snow gryphon didn't even break his concentration.

"Patience is a virtue, my lord," he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

The king growled angrily and stood up, a snarl etched onto his pale gold beak.

"Feh, a pox on you," he spat, "I have waited and my patience is wearing thin!"

The snow gryphon raised an eyebrow, but did not look away from the vial.

"Really? Is it that bad?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.

The king dug his sharpened talons into the floorboards, leaving fresh marks into the wood.

"Do not test me, subject," he snarled, "You are here for one reason and I expected you to have your job completed by now."

"And have I not delivered?" the snow gryphon asked in a toneless voice, sweeping his tail to the five vials.

"I have yet to see any proof they will work," the king snapped back.

The snow gryphon laughed at that, as if it was a funny joke.

"My king, there are no gaurantees when toying with magic, especially this kind. What I am trying to replicate is how to seal away the best magic in the world."

The king ground his beak together, but held his tongue.

"So, you can see that this takes time and, even then, we have only a hunch of how this will work. It could be exactly what we expect or it can have a wholly different effect."

"Then you profess no knowledge on this subject?" the king growled.

The snow gryphon stopped at that and turned to him slowly, his yellow eyes flashing dangerously behind a small set of glasses.

"My lord, there hasn't been a gryphon with magical abilities since your ancestor made the bargain that placed you on your throne," he spoke with a hint of anger, "I am trying to replicate magic not seen in almost a millenium, so forgive me if I am not sure of the effects."

"Just make sure it will do what it's supposed to do," the king grunted, placing himself back onto the stool.

"Right, I will make sure they will fully seal away the most powerful magical objects in the known world," the snow gryphon bit back, returning to the vial, "I can't believe you think it's so easy to seal them away."

"We're not sealing it away," the king growled, "We are taking back what is rightfully ours. The means to bend the world to our will."

Valyrie stood before the forged steel gates of her home. The city was far more menacing than she remembered, but that might only be because she had spent nearly two years in Equestria. The gates stood nearly three stories tall, emblazoned with the red markings of a wyvern wrapped in flames. There was no welcome sign, no smiling faces from those entering and exiting the town and certainly no bright and cheery looking buildings.

The town was dilapidated at best. Ancient wooden buildings sat against the snow that covered the entire place, each with a harsh yellow light coming from their windows. A dark shadow was cast over the town, made by the summit of the great mountain they called home. The jagged edges of the mountainside looked like the teeth of a menacing, primal beast made from the planet itself, ready to devour the town in one bite. There was nothing close to what Valyrie had come to be fond of in Equestria here. The sky was cloudy and gray, as if the world was depressed. The woods surrounding the buildings were not comfortable and inviting forests, but rather looked like the trees themselves would eat you if you dared to get within ten feet of them.

"Welcome home," her father grunted as he pushed past her, knocking Valyrie into a snow drift.

Valyrie wasn't in any hurry to pick herself up from the snow, wishing her father would keep walking and she could escape. This was not what she wanted, not anymore. Wyvern Pass couldn't even hold a match to Canterlot, though she boasted differently when she had first arrived. Picking her head up, Valyrie saw her father glaring impatiently at her, waiting for her to get up. Morosely, she lifted herself from the snow and shook the remaining flakes off of her feathers.

As she walked to her home, a variety of strange, yet familiar, noises and scents came to her from around the town. The acrid smell of sulfur hung in the air from the local blacksmith while the sounds of battle cries pierced the air. The buildings all creaked and seem to lean in to look at her, as if they didn't recognize Valyrie. She gulped hard as the residents of Wyvern Pass stopped what they were doing and glared over to her. They were not the welcoming smiles of her friends in Equestria, but rather the stares of suspicion.

"Keep walking," Samson grunted to Valyrie, pushing her forward.

Valyrie did as she was told, hanging her head in shame. The walk through the hardened snow and dirt was something she was glad to forget in Equestria, but found it to be a grating reminder of where she hailed from. There was no grass here, no soft breeze or warming sunshine that Canterlot had comforted her with. The walk seemed so long and tedious, going on until her father barked at her.

"Stop," he growled to her, "We're home, or did you forget where we live?"

Valyrie picked her head up to see a larger, but no less dilapidated, building. It was easily three stories tall, with angry yellow lights burning inside. Frost hung onto the windows in an endless embrace, leading down to icicles that looked like teeth hanging from the windowsills.

"What are you waiting for?" her father snarled from behind her, "No guards are going to open the doors for you here."

"Just another thing that made Equestria better," Valyrie mumbled back.

A sharp pain struck the back of her head and Valyrie whimpered, rubbing the spot gingerly.

"Don't talk back," Samson growled.

Inside, the place was no better. The walls contained almost nothing, save for trophies her father had wanted on the wall. The wood was rotting, flaking off in splinters at the edges. It had no color, looking as pale and dead as the sky outside. A faded rug sat on the floor, torn and frayed from claws. Walking inside, Valyrie traced the familiar route to the kitchen where, much to her surprise, a couple gryffons were waiting for her. One even ran up and hugged her before she could react.

"Valyrie!" she shouted in glee, "Oh, my sweet baby! I've missed you so much!"

Valyrie found it hard to breathe as the gryffon pressed her into her white plumed chest. A beak gently nuzzled her crown, a feeling Valyrie absolutely loved.

"Hi mom," she grunted out.

"That's it?!" her mother nearly yelled back, "My precious daughter is away from me for two years and all you say is 'hi'?!"

"I would say more if I could breathe," Valyrie choked out.

Her mother released her and a small blush crossed her face. Valyrie was the spitting image of her mother, a white feathered and brown furred gryffon with gold eyes and black claws. Her mother was a bit heavier than her, but that was due to her laying a clutch of six eggs, one of which was Valyrie. Four of the other six smiled over to her, three of her brothers and younger sister. The gryphons heavily resembled their father, all gold with brown fur on their hides. The younger sister was a mix of both parents, white feathered with golden fur.

"Hey Val, long time," one of her brothers spoke.

"No see," came another one.

"You owe me twenty gems," came the little sister, smiling smugly at her older brother who spoke first.

"Nice to see you all too," Valyrie said with a nervous smile.

"Holy--! Valyrie's smiling?!" one yelled.

"At us?!" came another one.

"The snow will finally melt!" the third one cheered.

"Enough!" came her mother, glaring back at the three gryphons, "Valyrie has had a long trip and the last thing she needs is heckling from you three!"

"Yeah!" came her little sister, "Shut up!"

The trio rolled their eyes at once and kept quiet, sulking. They were triplets, all three hatching at the same time in different eggs. They were younger than Valyrie, but by a couple of weeks.

"Fine," one commented.

"Whatever," came the one next to him.

"I ain't paying you nothing then," the last one chimed in, looking at the younger sibling.

"Argo! Draco! Rainier!" came their mother, "Don't even start! We are happy Valyrie has come home!"

"Yeah, and that she's not a pony like you said!" chimed in the youngest girl.

"Celebi," her mother spoke in a warning tone, "Don't you dare bait them."

'Home sweet home,' thought Valyrie as she chuckled a bit.

Lost And Found

Angel gaped at the scenery before her. It had taken her a while, but she had made it back to Transylmania, the shoddy town from which she hailed from. She stood on a ridge near the entrance to her home, looking down on it wide-eyed. She knew the town was in sore straights, but she had apparently forgotten just how decrepit everything was.

The first thing she noticed was absolutely nothing shined. There were no sparkling walls or windows, no pretty ponds or polished brass. The dried out wood that made up most of the buildings sucked up any kind of light, even those that had orange glowing windows. Building were in no particular order, like the well lined streets of Canterlot. Instead, the looked like a jumble of blocks thrown on the ground.

At the center of it all sat the illustrious Town Hall, a large square tower made of stone. It was basically the main pull for tourists here, so the building was the cleanest and neatest part of the town. While Angel wasn't too sure of why it was built, she supposed some mad old unicorn made it to spy on the frozen tundra to the north. Her reasoning wasn't exactly clear on how she came up with that, but it was fun for her to tell tourists that.

Speaking of tourism, Angel spun around to the train station she had arrived on. It was getting dark and Angel realized her vision wasn't as sharp as it used to be. The platforms were little more than dark figures in the waning light with only a couple of oil lanterns hanging near the tracks. The ticket booth where Gus, the conductor of this station and her friend, was seemingly gone, along with a wooden shack she remembered all too well.

Turning back towards the town, Angel let out a sigh and started to trot over to it. After getting her first taste of freedom from this place, she had almost vowed not to return. Transylmania was a town where you grew up, lived and died in, wishing your whole life to escape from it. Even the colony she hailed from was little more than comforting.

About forty minutes and three guards later, Angel stood on a rickety wooden bridge in a pitch black cavern. To normal ponies, like Comet who she missed, this would be a terrifying experience. However, Angel's superior vision allowed her to make out enough of the bridge to cross it. Plus, it felt way too familiar.

After trotting on a few steps, Angel gasped as she entered a giant cavern. Sparkling white lights seemed to be everywhere, like she had just stepped into the night's sky. They barely illuminated the cavern, but Angel's eyesight was able to take in everything. The lights were actually stones embedded into a dome. The dome, in turn, was actually the hollow center of a mountain that lined Transylmania.

Below her, was the calmest water source Angel had seen in years. To the untrained eye, it didn't look like water at all. It simply looked like the stones went down farther into the ground, like a bottomless pit. Angel, however, knew that it was actually a lake, a massive underground water source that came from Celestia-knows-where.

The bat pony shivered as she felt an icy wind around her. The lake was pretty, but it was also cold. In fact, the temperature had dropped significantly from when she was outside due to the lake. Angel shook her head as she remembered that it always was this cold here. She had just forgotten again.

Around her, the sounds of other bat ponies echoed in the cavern. Angel looked up to catch a few of them flying from one side of the cavern to the other, entering and exiting little niches in the walls. That was how they lived, in caves eked out by their ancestors years ago. Angel took the cue and followed suit, easily remembering where her cave was. It was higher up from the lake, but closer than many other caves were.

Angel's hooves clicked against the smoothed stone underneath her as she trotted to her home. There were several other families who lived here, but they all seemed to be away at the moment, something Angel was extremely grateful for. Dim lights came from each of the tunnels leading off from the cave, indicating that they were still inhabited. Near the end of the caves, she heard humming coming from one of them.

Turning to the tunnel, Angel trotted down it a ways to come into a large opening where several stone benches and a table resided. The room was cozy, but cramped. Pictures lined the walls of several bat ponies, some younger and some older, along with dried flowers. Several ropes hung from the ceiling, each containing a small bowl with various fruits on it.

The humming got louder as Angel heard another set of hooves echo louder. As Angel turned around, she saw an older bat pony mare trot out into the room. She had her mane done up in a bun, where it was a swirl of midnight blue and silvery gray. She wore half moon glasses on a chain around her neck and a goofy cream colored cardigan. Her smile melted into a look of awe as she regarded the bat pony before here.

"What? Who are...?" the mare spoke before covering her mouth with a hoof.

Angel smiled sheepishly.

"Hi Aunty," she murmured.

The older mare almost screamed as she plowed into Angel, wrapping her into a huge hug.

"Oh, my sweet little Angel!" she excitedly shouted, "You finally came home!"

Angel gagged as the mare squeezed her neck with almost unreal strength.

"Yeah... Aunty," she choked out, "I'm... home."

"Oh my Luna, you must tell me what has happened! Where did you go, what did you see, who did you meet?!"

Angel gurgled a bit, giving her aunt the cue to let her go. The older bat pony mare obliged and released her niece from the hug of doom, smiling widely the whole time.

"Oh, I'm so excited you came home! I was so worried about you after you left to find that Artemis fellow years ago, but here you are! I can't wait to tell everyone that you came home! Why, your father..."

Angel's aunt stopped at that, as if an idea had struck her.

"Your father!" she shouted again, "He needs to see you right now!"

Angel tried to say something, but the older mare was gone in a flash.

Alone now, Angel let her saddlebags down from her haunches and sat on the cold stone furniture. It wasn't much, but it was the home she remembered.

Several loud shouts echoed to her and Angel chuckled.

"Aunty Autumn Night," she murmured to herself, "You haven't changed a bit."

Two Months Later...

Comet stood resolutely still in the throne room, eyes forward into an unwavering gaze at the tapestry on the far side. The rich red dye used on it seemed to shift ever so slightly as he stared, as if it had small veins that pumped the tomato color around the darker emblems, those of Celestia's sun and Luna's moon. While he stared, he was met with the sound of absolute silence; the very rare sound of stillness Comet had recently enjoyed. Not a thing moved, not him or the regular guards posted around the room.

It had been a couple months since the debacle with the gryphons and Angel's removal as a captain and guard. Needless to say, both Luna and her guards were not happy, but Celestia had done her best to make amends of the situation. After a rather lengthy and deafening discussion about laws that were outdated, Celestia had the one that had removed Angel repealed to an extent. It was still in place, but it was much more lenient to emergency situations and no longer required immediate response until a proper investigation was conducted. In addition, Celestia issued an apology to all the Lunar Guard, many of which were still sore about the terms and handling of Angel's dismissal.

Comet's own job had been an uncomfortable ride since that day. His reaction to Angel's dismissal had caused some speculation that there had been something going on between them, leading to a closer look at his activities in the past few weeks. Thankfully, Shining Armor was leading the investigation. Since Angel was already gone, nothing was found, allowing Comet to retain his position.

Rather than losing his command, his workload had nearly tripled from his usual duties. While overlooking the Solar Guard as their acting commander under Shining Armor, he was tasked with overseeing the Lunar Guard while training their new commander as well as commanding the newly formed Magic Guard meant to protect Princess Sparkle. It was harrowing enough to corral his own group, but maintaining order and cohesion among all three was another level of stress.

Today, though, he was requested to appear for a meeting between Princesses Celestia, Luna, Twilight Sparkle; as well as Captain Shining Armor. Comet was evidently nervous, as would anypony asked to be in the presence of four of the most powerful ponies in all Equestria, so he relished the momentary silence he had. The pegasus was exhausted from everything that had happened, but his thoughts were not on work. Instead, he thought of Angel.

It had been two months since she left. A whole month without any excited squeals, gigantic baby eyes, surprise hugs and general unrest. A year and a half ago, Comet would've done unspeakable things to attain this kind of calm, but now his heart plummeted when he remembered she wasn't here. He missed her more than anypony he could think of, even his deceased sister, Nova. While he wasn't into the whole "romance-novel-longing-and-missing-her" thing that her half-brother, Midnight Glow, was currently going through, he felt as if his life was slowly turning bleak without her.

It hadn't taken him long to locate a suitable home for both of them in Canterlot. As of now, Comet was negotiating the price of a small flat above a produce store in Canterlot's market district, about two minutes from the alley he first met her. The owner had wanted a huge sum of bits for the place, which had only two bedrooms, a single bathroom and a large common space crammed into a space the size of Celestia's bedchamber minus the balcony. Not the ideal space for a pony with Angel's energy, but it was where she would be the happiest.

A small puff of smoke appeared before his eyes, leaving a small scroll hovering in the air. Comet regarded the note and caught it with his hoof, face still expressionless. The note unfurled in his hoof and he read it quickly before pausing halfway down. His eyes narrowed before widening to the point of comically oversized.

Commander,

This note is to inform you that a decision has been reached regarding your current position. Your ability to handle the duties of commanding three guard corps has been noticed by their Highnesses, Princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight Sparkle, and your presence has been requested to discuss your new position as Acting Captain of the Guard.

Please report to Princess Celestia's chambers immediately.

Revelations

Transylmania...

A large yawn broke the silence of the pitch black room, indicating there was some life inside it. An audible but faint shuffling followed it, broken by the soft translucent glow from gems all around the room. As they gradually brightened, a rickety wooden bed was able to be seen, along with the figure of a pony atop it. The pony rolled over and moaned pathetically before lifting it's head up to reveal two massive golden and bloodshot eyes.

The pony yawned again before cringing at something. Her front hooves curled around her stomach, gently massaging the soft spot. Her face softened a bit as she did that, as if some pain had alleviated. She closed her eyes, hoping to sleep some more before a knock came from her door. She whined at it, but a voice spoke from outside the room.

"Angel, dearie? Are you alright?" came the familiar gentle tone of Aunty Autumn Night.

All Angel could do in response was whine again as a new wave of pain shot through her belly. This was perhaps the worst stomach ache she had ever had, even worse than the one she got from eating those fuzzy strawberries some years ago. Why she felt this way was a mystery to her, especially since she hadn't eaten anything odd in a while.

The door to the cave creaked open and Angel rolled over to see the older mare looking at her with concern.

"Angel, you've been like this for two days," she stated as the gems in the room began to brighten, "You need to see a doctor now."

Wyvern Pass...

The unusually loud sounds of talons scratching against wood woke Valyrie prematurely, causing her to throw the nearest object at her door, which unfortunately was her only pillow. It took the tired gryffon a few seconds to realize she had tossed the only support for her head before she rose up and yawned.

In the dim light, Valyrie blinked her gold eyes and looked around the room. The area was small, but big enough for her to survive in. Her bed took up one quarter of the space, and that is not to say her bed was large. A chipped and pock marked mirror hung onto one of the creaking walls, swaying ever so slightly as the house did. Turning to the only window in the room, Valyrie groaned as she saw half of the window was covered by snow and the other half was shielding her from a blizzard.

"Guess there's no flying today," she grumbled.

Throwing her covers from her, which was a claw-knit quilt her mother made her, Valyrie placed her claws on the freezing wood planks. The icy layer of air that surrounded them tried to worm its way up Valyrie's legs, but the tough soles of her claws and paws prevented any shuddering by her. Once her footing was established, her wings flapped quickly and spread wide, almost touching both ends of the room.

Valyrie groaned as she stretched her joints, feeling a couple soft pops in her wing joints. Before pulling them back in, she made a quick scan of her vaned feathers. The primary and secondary feathers were all aligned except for one particularly pesky one on her right wing. Growling to herself, she brought the wing closer and proceeded to nibble on it for a moment with her beak.

After ten seconds of that, Valyrie pulled her wing back to its resting place on her side and sighed. It had been two months since she had left Equestria and slowly felt her connections to the place slipping away. Preening herself was something she almost had to relearn when she came home, mostly because there wasn't a pegasus at a spa to do it for her.

Shaking her head of the memories, Valyrie trudged out of her room and down the rickety stairs, wondering what was for breakfast. The sound of her father voice echoed up to her, indicating he was not in a good mood this morning.

Canterlot...

"Hold still while I take your measurements, Captain. Please!"

Comet did his best to be resolutely still as the tailor measured his body, moving his measuring tape in some very uncomfortable ways. It somehow went from seeing his leg length to wrapping around his tail and then to the inner part of his rear leg, making this the worst fitting he had ever received. It was for a good reason, namely his arraignment as the new Captain of the Guard, but he was not in a good mood.

In fact, he hadn't been in a good mood in about two months.

While his duty was here in Canterlot, his thoughts were in Transylmania with his marefriend, Angel. It had been almost two whole months since he had last heard from her, something that worried him immensely. After the two week period she had set expired, Comet had sent several letters to Transylmaina.

Sadly, every letter came back with the same message: UNABLE TO DELIVER DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER.

Upset by the lack of communication, Comet had arranged for some time off to go there himself, regardless of weather. He had obtained several days worth of food, goggles meant for flying into snowy weather and even a pop up tent for the nights.

Then he was hit with becoming the new Captain of the Guard.

A wandering piece of the measuring tape touched against a particularly sensitive area of him yet again, causing Comet to nearly buck the tailor in the face. Spinning around angrily, he saw the familiar face of his second in command, Holly Stalk, standing by the doorway with a most grave look on her face.

"Commander, Princess Celestia has requested your presence," she stated tonelessly.

"What for?" Comet responded with a little bit of leftover venom in his voice.

"I am allowed to tell you that she wants you to be fully aware of your duties as Captain. I cannot speak further about what she wants to show you."

Comet tilted his head at that, wondering what the buck Holly Stalk was being so cryptic for. Sure she was a bit of a hardass when she was serious, but he had never seen her like this. Turning his attention to the tailor, he nodded to him and stepped off of the pedestal, grateful to be away from that infernal tape. Without a word, Holly Stalk spun on the spot and marched out of the door, Comet in tow.

The two ponies walked along in tense silence. For the first few minutes, Comet was okay with the welcome quietness, but eventually he began to get suspicious. There were ponies rushing about and carrying out their duties near the tailor, but Holly Stalk seemed to be taking him to a more deserted part of the castle. As his mind worked out something to say, he accidentally bumped into Holly.

Her reaction was immediate. Her angry looking teal eyes whipped over to him and her hooves flinched, ready to attack him.

"Sorry," Comet mumbled.

Holly's gaze only got harder as she spun around, marching off in a more irritated manner. Comet usually didn't care for her attitude, but he had never seen that reaction before. Eventually, the two ponies rounded a hallway to a dead end.

"Um," Comet spoke up, "Are you sure this is the right place?"

Holly's gaze returned to him, a snarl on her face.

"Yes, Commander," she almost spat at him.

Comet recoiled a bit from her. Why was she so irritated?

"You okay, Holly?" he asked in a slightly concerned tone.

She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes, calming herself down.

"Yes, sir," she answered in a much more even tone, "I just wish we didn't have to do this."

Transylmania

Angel yipped as a gray hoof prodded her stomach, sending a slight jolt of pain into her belly. The hoof backed away instantly, straight to its owner. To Angel's right stood a bat pony stallion with glowing orange eyes and a mask over his snout. A silly shiny disk sat on his forehead, just barely keeping his messy purple mane back.

"Oh dear," he spoke softly, "It doesn't seem to be just an upset stomach or food poisoning, does it?"

Angel groaned at that.

"If I knew what it was, you wouldn't be here now," she bit back, irritated.

Behind the doctor, a small snort of amusement rang out. Aunty Autumn Night held a hoof over her snout, barely concealing a smile while a taller bat pony stallion rolled his golden eyes. He was older and a little more haggard looking than the doctor, putting him near Autumn Night's age. He wore a white coat covered in pockets, so his cutie mark wasn't able to be seen.

"Angel," he mumbled, "He's here to help..."

Angel yipped again as the doctor prodded her side, causing her to nearly hit him.

"Fat lot of good he's doing, dad," she growled.

Her father merely shook his head, a small smile tugging at his cheeks.

The doctor narrowed his eyes at Angel's belly as he neared it. His ears stood straight up and he spun his head so that his ear was pressed against it. He looked up at the ceiling, as if waiting for something before his eyes became cross looking. He picked his head up and stared at Angel's belly before pressing his ear to it again.

Angel had to repress a chuckle as she saw him listen. The doctor was young and somewhat new to his position, so he looked like a total dork moving his head around. Eventually, the doctor backed away from Angel slowly, a disturbed look in his eyes.

"Doctor?" Autumn Night spoke up, "Is everything okay?"

The doctor looked to Angel's aunt before spinning back to Angel herself.

"I, uh," he spoke in a confused tone, "I need to get another doctor for this."

Wyvern Pass

Valyrie slowly walked down the creaky steps, bracing herself for her father's temper tantrum. He was always irritated, but when he was shouting before the whole family even woke up, it was not a good thing. Valyrie's mother was not the best cook in all of Wyvern Pass, but her father was quite demanding.

"What do you mean by that?!" his voice rang out in the rickety house.

Valyrie hung her head, taking a deep breath before rounding the corner into the kitchen. Her father had made her the target of his anger since she had returned, so no matter what was going on, it was her fault. Much to her surprise, though, the kitchen contained three griffons instead of just two.

Samson stood angrily at the table, his black claws leaving fresh marks in the table. Behind him stood Valyrie's mother, a claw over her beak and her eyes starting to water. At the other end of the table sat a stone gray griffon, his cool blue eyes locked onto Samson's blazing golden ones.

"It's true," the gray griffon spoke in a totally calm attitude.

Canterlot

Comet couldn't believe his eyes as he saw the image in front of him. He stood with his jaw hung open, eyes as wide as dinner plates. The room he was in was spacious, much larger than where he thought he was going. A bed sat in the corner and a table dominated the center of the room. In front of him, Holly watched him with her normal hardass look while Princess Celestia smiled from the table, along with another pony.

"Do come in, Commander," she spoke gently, "I have somepony I want you to meet."

Transylmania

Angel shifted a little uncomfortably as the ice cold stethoscope withdrew from her belly. Her golden eyes were locked onto the owner of the stethoscope, a seasoned looking bat pony with a graying mane and tired blue eyes. Only, instead of looking tired, they were wide open and in shock.

"You hear it too, don't you?" came the younger doctor who was tending to Angel earlier.

The doctor's eyes swept across Angel and locked onto her face, causing her to shrink a bit.

"Unbelievable," he whispered in awe.

"What? What is it?" her father asked from behind the two of them.

The doctor didn't even turn to them as he delivered his diagnosis.

"My dear," he spoke slowly and deliberately, "You're pregnant!"

Wyvern Pass

"It's true," the stone gray griffon spoke, "Your daughter is legally part of Equestria. Her marriage document says so."

Valyrie's eyes opened wide in shock at that.

She was married?!

Canterlot

A black pony with a sickly green mane looked up to Comet with her piercing green eyes. She was as tall as Princess Celestia, so her hole ridden hooves were up on the table, fumbling around with a teacup. Her two large fangs were visible for only a few seconds before the rest of her teeth were revealed as she snarled.

"Hello Comet," growled Gorgon, "It's nice to see you again after what you did to me."

"Now now," came Princess Celestia, "I believe she wants to say hello as well."

Gorgon's eyes slid over to Celestia, hatred burning in them, before returning to Comet.

"And Nova says hello as well," she spat out.

That Awkward Moment

Comet could only glare angrily at the scene in front of him, his rump planted on a wooden stool. Across from him, still fumbling with a teacup, was the changeling who had nearly cost him his life, his marefriend and his freedom. She was every bit as menacing as he remembered her with her two large fangs, burning green eyes and imposing size. It was only because of Princess Celestia's presence that he did not leap over the table and start trying to strangle her.

Princess Celestia sat quietly, watching her newest Captain with mild interest. The tense silence that had followed after she had asked him to join them was making her uncomfortable, but she waited to see if the two would eventually speak to each other. If either one managed to say something, it would be the first step to repairing some of the damage they had inflicted on each other in the past. She honestly hoped it would be Comet, but his gaze spoke otherwise.

Gorgon herself snarled at the teacup in front of her, trying to lift it with her hole ridden hooves. It would be so much easier to lift the stupid thing with magic, but she absolutely refused to. Using any kind of magic that stemmed from her reserves caused something strange to happen, something she didn't want the whelp in front of her to see. It was an embarrassing secret that she was now sure the demeaning Princess was going to reveal to him. Her thoughts only darkened from there.

"I hate you," Gorgon muttered, finally getting the teacup grasped in her hooves.

"The feeling is mutual," Comet snarled back.

An angry flash crossed Gorgon's eyes as they focused on him.

"I wasn't talking to you, whelp!"

Comet's blue eyes flickered red again as he bared his teeth, ready to tear into the changeling, before Princess Celestia cleared her throat, silencing anything he was about to say. That didn't mean his angry gaze wavered an inch, though.

"Calm yourself, Captain," Princess Celestia spoke smoothly, "This is not a battle, just a simple meeting."

Another silence even more tense than the last followed her words before Comet managed a sentence.

"Why are you here?" he spoke through gritting teeth, "I told you never to come back."

"I'm not here because I want to," Gorgon snapped back.

"Then why?"

"It's none of your concern, whelp!"

"Gorgon," Princess Celestia spoke in a warning tone, "Remember, kindness is key here."

The changeling rounded to the Solar Princess, hatred burning in her eyes like an inferno.

"Shut up!" she roared at the Princess, causing Comet to rise to his hooves, "You brought him here only to torture me!"

Princess Celestia gazed unflinchingly back into her eyes, her face becoming slightly disappointed.

"Manners," she spoke in a little harsher tone, "You are only here because I allowed it. If you wish to stay safe, you will do this like a mare of respect, not a feral animal."

"I DON'T WANT TO STAY HERE!" Gorgon shouted in her face, "I NEVER ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!"

The disappointment in Celestia's face became one of anger as she rose to her hooves, halting Comet's advance with a hoof.

"You will control yourself, young queen, or I will throw you out and let the guards deal with you," she spoke in an icy tone, "I'm sure they will not be nearly as lenient as I am. Correct, Captain?"

Comet nodded gravely, wishing his liege hadn't stopped him. His muscles were itching to attack her and his blood ran warm through his veins.

Gorgon started to rise to her hooves as well, but stopped under the power of Celestia's gaze. Frustrated, Gorgon turned back to her teacup and fumbled around with it, muttering incoherently. Satisfied, Celestia sat back down and nodded to Comet. Reluctantly, he took his seat as well and continued to glare at the changeling.

"Now," Princess Celestia began, "I'm sure you two remember each other all too well, so we will skip the pleasantries. Captain, I called you here to inform you of your newest charge."

She nodded to Gorgon, who bared her teeth at the cup.

"Gorgon is my guest and newest student. It is my hope that you will treat her as you would any other guest of mine."

"More like prisoner," Gorgon mumbled under her breath.

Princess Celestia seemed to ignore that and pressed on.

"I also would like you to aid her in something. Gorgon, you see, is not well."

Comet frowned at that, his eyes flickering red again.

"I will never help this monster, Princess," he hissed.

Gorgon's eyes flashed to him, a sneer starting to curl on her face.

"Sucks to be you then," she hissed.

Comet's teeth ground together again, baring his teeth at the changeling. He so badly wanted to jump over the table and beat her senseless again, but he had to retrain himself, as painful as it was. Princess Celestia, luckily, intervened for him.

"Did I not remind you of your manners, Gorgon?" she asked in a stern whisper, "Or do I perhaps need to drill you in proper etiquette again?"

The sneer on Gorgon's face was wiped instantly, becoming a frown in seconds.

"You promised I would never endure that again," she said.

"I promised that should you behave, you would never go through the training again," Celestia corrected.

It was Gorgon's turn to grind her teeth as she returned to the teacup, fumbling with it for a second.

"Why not use your magic, monster?" Comet growled to her.

He swore he hit a nerve, because Gorgon stopped fumbling with the cup and Princess Celestia turned to him, her face crestfallen. Gorgon slowly looked up from the teacup, anger burning in her eyes at him.

"Why don't I use magic?" she squeaked.

"Oh dear," Princess Celestia spoke, covering her face with a hoof.

"WHY DON'T I USE MY MAGIC?!" Gorgon roared at Comet, making him flinch and stand up reflexively.

Gorgon rose to her hooves as well, her translucent wings spreading wide as he horn began to glow.

"BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU IMBECILE! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME?! DO YOU?!"

Comet glared daggers at her, lowering himself and getting ready to pounce.

"LOOK! LOOK AT THE DAMAGE YOU'VE WROUGHT!"

The glow on her horn became more pronounced as she glared with utter fury at him. Comet acted instinctively, leaping at the changeling as her magic burst into a bright light. He closed his eyes, bracing for the impact of the spell, but felt nothing. Instead, just before he collided with Gorgon, she screamed in an ear piercing tone. Comet made contact with her and they fell to the ground, Gorgon writhing underneath him.

Comet tried to hit her with his hooves, but her screaming only got louder, causing him to cover his ears. He winced at the ringing noise in his ears, risking opening his eyes to prepare himself for a counterattack, but instead stared at Gorgon with a shocked expression. She was twitching and screaming, as if she was in pain. Her eyes glowed an eldritch green, her pupils lost in the light. Comet risked removing his hooves and tried to scurry back from her, but instead ran into Princess Celestia.

"Princess, go! I will protect yo--"

He was silence as a hoof swept in front of his mouth. The Solar Princess watched sadly as Gorgon continued to scream, her horn glowing slightly. An aura of comforting blue wrapped around Gorgon and she slowly calmed down, her screams dying off.

"Commander, I would have hoped you would've show more professionalism around her," Princess Celestia spoke.

Comet stared at his princess with a confused expression before moving her hoof away.

"My Princess, she attacked you a year ago! She nearly killed me, my friends and the rest of the guard! She's--"

"In pain, Commander," Celestia replied tonelessly.

"Good!" Comet shouted, "She deserves it for what she did!"

Turning to him, Princess Celestia glared slightly at Comet, causing him to recoil a bit.

"Commander, I will ask you once more to restrain yourself before I nullify your promotion," she spoke sternly, "You are letting your emotions override your judgement."

She turned back to the changeling, who was now stirring slightly.

"I had hoped the two of you would set aside your past and talk as civilized ponies, but I misjudged how deep the scars really are. I suppose this way is the best for you to see why she is here."

Comet looked at his princess with a dumbstruck face before turning to Gorgon, who seemed to be waking from a sleep.

"I don't understand. What is wrong with her? Why have you allowed her to stay here?"

"Be patient and you will see why," Princess Celestia answered in a finite tone.

The two ponies stood there silently as Gorgon woke up. She lifted her head, her eyelids still closed, and yawned widely before rubbing her eyes. Once she opened them, Comet noticed the lack of anger gleaming in her eyes. Instead, she looked almost normal with her gaze no longer in a snarl. She glanced around the room before seeing the two ponies, breaking into a broad smile.

"Princess Celestia!" she sing-songed happily.

It took Gorgon less than three seconds to run up and hug the Solar Princess, shocking Comet and causing him to almost stop her.

"Welcome back, my student," Princess Celestia spoke warmly, "How was your rest?"

"It was lovely!" Gorgon squealed back like a filly, "I had the most wonderful dream! I saw my younger brother again!"

A pained smile graced Celestia's face as she turned to Comet.

"Is that so?"

Gorgon looked up from her hug, a confused expression on her face.

"What's wrong with that?" she asked, concern lacing her voice.

Princess Celestia looked back down at the changeling and smiled wryly.

"Nothing. I have somepony I want you to meet, though."

Princess Celestia turned to Comet, along with a confused looking Gorgon. The changeling seemed to scrutinize him for a second, as if she didn't know who he was, before gasping loudly and covering her mouth with her hooves.

"P-Princess, i-is that?"

"Yes," Celestia replied softly, "That's him."

Comet stood there, absolutely bewildered by what was going on, before Gorgon spoke again.

"D-does he kn-know?"

"No, I wanted you to tell him."

Gorgon gulped audibly as she lowered her front hooves, quivering slightly.

"H-hello," she spoke timidly.

Comet remained silent as his gaze flicked up to Princess Celestia.

"Er, hello Gorgon," he stammered, looking back to Gorgon.

A look of sadness crossed Gorgon's eyes as he spoke. Her gaze fell to the floor as she spoke softly.

"You don't recognize me?" she asked meekly.

Comet's gazed became bewildered again, especially when she looked back up. Tears were threatening to fall as she gaze beck to him.

"Comet... it's me, Nova."

Angel's Beat

The silence of the dimly lit room was a bit too much for Angel as she lay still in her bed, gingerly cradling her still aching belly. It twinged again, causing her to wince and rub the soft spot slowly. It had been several minutes since she had gotten the world shattering news that she was pregnant and her mind was already in panic mode. Thoughts raced through her head at blinding speeds, each one more terrifying than the last. Before leaving, the doctors had offered their sympathies for the child and to her, scaring Angel even more.

As she thought, the old wooden door creaked open, allowing the familiar figure of Aunty Autumn Wind to slip inside. Her usual smiling face was nowhere to be seen, much to Angel's dismay. Instead, her mouth was fixed into a small frown, concern knitting her eyebrows into a sweater of concentration. As she sidled in and let the door shut, Angel turned over to look at her with a weak smile.

"Hi Aunty." She spoke brightly only to receive a cold stare. For several tense seconds, neither one of them spoke before an abnormally large grin broke Autumn Wind's face, her head barely able to contain the sheer width.

"I can't believe it!" she shouted as she ran over to Angel, throwing her hooves around her, "I'm going to be a grand-aunt!"

Angel gasped as her aunt began to squeeze her chest with unreal strength, draining all air from her lungs before she could react. The squeezing only intensified as she tried to protest and Angel was sure her bones were going to snap.

"Aunty-- you-- squeeze---meh," she managed to gasp.

"I don't care! I'm just so happy right now!" Autumn Wind shrieked as lifted Angel up from the bed. She began to rock her back and forth, grinning wildly while Angel tried to suck down a breath. She steadily turned blue as Autumn Night held her there. Thankfully, a pony cleared his throat behind them.

"Autumn, put my daughter down. Now."

Angel managed a single breath before her head met the covers on the bed, causing her to straighten up and shudder. Aunty Autumn Night was no longer smiling. Instead, her mouth had turned down into a small frown as she stared into space, her eyes wide.

"Uh oh." She whispered.

Angel peeked around her aunt, who was somehow still standing on her rear legs, to see her father's angry gaze. However, in the brief second she saw him before cowering behind her aunt again, she decided that 'angry' wasn't a fitting term for him. Something more appropriate for his current expression leaned closer to irate, pissed off and 'I'm about to strangle somepony'.

"Autumn, I would like to speak to my daughter. Alone." Her father grunted through clenched teeth, his striking orange eyes piercing through her, directly to where Angel sat. Dropping to her hooves, Autumn Wind spun to face him, a worried look painting her face.

"Now, now, Harvest Moon," she spoke in a timid tone, "We both know this was b-bound to happen sooner or later--"

"Autumn. Out. Now."

"Harvest, please. It's not that big--"

Angel was sure she heard something snap right then.

"NOT A BIG DEAL?!" her father roared, "NOT A BIG DEAL?! SHE'S PREGNANT! THAT'S A VERY BIG DEAL, AUTUMN! MY DAUGHTER COMES HOME AFTER LUNA KNOWS HOW MANY YEARS AND SHE'S PREGNANT!"

"Four years and nine months to be exact. And as I said, Harvest, we both knew this was bound to happen--"

An angry snorting filled the room as Angel did her best to bury her head into her covers, hoping this would be over soon.

"When the buck did I tell you I expected my ONLY DAUGHTER to come home PREGNANT?!"

"Um," Autumn Wind stammered as she put a hoof to her chin, "I know we discussed this at some point. Give me a minute."

Harvest Moon groaned loudly and pressed a hoof to his forehead, grinding his teeth with incredible force.

"I'm not in any mood to play games right now, Autumn. Move aside. Now!"

"Hold on, wasn't it that time we were out drinking and you--"

"Autumn."

"Yes! You had three shots of gryphon whiskey in you and then--"

"Autumn!"

"Said something to you about Angel and you said it wouldn't surprise you if she--"

"AUTUMN!"

An eerie silence filled the room, broken only by Harvest's heavy breathing. Eventually, Angel risked poking her head around Autumn Night and timidly smiled at her father, who was beet red.

"Hi dad." She squeaked to him, causing his gaze to shift.

"Angel, I want to know right now. I want to know everything; who the father is and why you came back. And don't give me that garbage 'I wanted to see you again' line. I want the truth and I wanted it two minutes ago."

Angel gulped as her hoof gingerly rubbed her stomach, unsure of how to proceed. Her father had, understandably, assumed the worst had happened to her and she knew this wasn't going to be easy. Thankfully, a soft hoof touched her back and she looked up to Aunty Autumn Night's smiling face.

"Okay dad," Angel said as she breathed in deeply, "When I left last time, I told you I was going on adventures, right?"

"Please don't tell me this is going where I think it's going." Harvest groaned.

"EW DAD!"

"EW HARVEST!"

"Just continue." He grumbled.

"Anyway, now that disgusting innuendo is out of the way, what happened next, Angel?" Autumn Wind cooed, throwing Harvest a dirty look.

"Well, that was only half true. I did travel around for a while, running errands and helping out my employer, but I eventually quit at her advice. She said I would never get anywhere making a living as a courier, so she gave me a nice amount of bits and I left."

"You were fired?"

"No! Daring told me she wasn't firing me!"

"Fine then, please continue."

"Harvest, please!" Autumn Wind interjected.

"I said please!" Harvest Moon shot back.

"Not that, your tone! Angel needs us now more than ever and you're not helping!"

"What the? Alright fine. Angel, please continue."

"That's better."

"Oh, be quiet, Autumn."

Angel couldn't help but let out a chuckle as the two ponies bantered back and forth. It almost seemed familiar to her in some way she couldn't put her hoof on, but she loved to hear them argue anyway.

"Okay," she spoke up, "So I went a couple of places for a while. The Everfree, the ocean and a few others. Eventually, I ran out of bits and was stuck in Canterlot."

"So why didn't you come home then?" Harvest asked.

"Shh!" Autumn Wind reprimanded harshly.

"Fine." he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, I needed bits and I wanted to see Princess Luna before I came home, so I decided I'd join the Royal Guard!"

Angel smiled brightly to her father, whose jaw was now hanging open. Autumn Night, however, was more vocal in her response.

"The Royal Guard?! Wow, Angel! It had to be so awesome to be a member of them!"

"It was! All I had to do was fill out some papers and they accepted me, so it was super easy to join!"

Harvest shook his head, trying to piece this together. In the years that he hadn't seen his daughter, she had blown a sizable sum of bits on travelling and had wound up broke in Canterlot, so she joined the Royal Guard to make some bits and meet Princess Luna?!

"When were you planning on telling us all of this?" he asked, cutting through the chatter of the two mares.

Angel paused and thought for a moment, trying to come up with a response. It had been two months since she returned and hadn't mentioned anything about the Royal Guard.

"I dunno. Whenever it came up, which it just did."

Harvest blinked a couple times, his mind trying to process the response. In no manner of logic did it make sense, but he had learned long ago to give up using normal logic with Autumn Wind.

"Okay fine," he stated, brushing the subject aside, wanting to get back on topic, "So how does all of this have anything to do with you being pregnant and why you came home?"

"Well, when I joined, I met the most dreamy stallion ever," Angel began, her eyes glazing over and a large grin splitting her face, "He was such a jerk when I met him, but he was so cute when he was serious."

This time, Autumn Wind kept the same silence that Harvest Moon did, allowing Angel to lose herself in her memories for a few seconds. Eventually, though, Autumn prodded her to bring her back to reality.

"So, are you going to tell us more about him?"

"Oh yeah! His name is Comet Burst and he's now the leader of Princess Celestia's personal guard!"

"You landed the leader of Princess Celestia's personal guard?! Way to go, Angel!"

Autumn Night hoofbumped Angel, who was grinning from ear to ear.

"That's not all! Before he became the leader, we both helped stop a changeling invasion, so I was promoted to the leader of Princess Luna's personal guard!"

Harvest Moon knew right then she was making all of this up. However, Autumn Wind ate up every word of it, much to his chargrin.

"You were... Princess Luna... WOW ANGEL! Did you get to meet her?!"

"Yeah, she's totally super cool! Except when she gets mad, then she gets really scary, but she always feels bad after doing that and sometimes cries, so I was ordered to be there for her like her best friend!"

"Angel." Harvest Moon spoke.

"Plus, I met Princess Celestia a couple times, and she is rrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaallllllly tall."

"Angel."

"And I reported directly to Shining Armor, who doesn't have as big of an office I was expecting for the size of the castle."

"Angel!"

"Plus, the castle was huge! It holds all the staff and Royal Guards in it, both Day and Night guards, so there were tons of other bat ponies there for me to talk to and--"

"ANGEL!"

"Yes, dad?" she answered, not missing a beat.

"So, who is Comet Burst? The stallion you mentioned earlier?"

"Oh, he's the dreamy stallion who I'm engaged to."

"Okay, so go through this one more time."

Harvest Moon sat on his haunches, rubbing his forehead slightly. His reaction to Angel being pregnant was admittedly, a bit over the top. Still, Angel dropping bombshell after bombshell had caused his mind to ache. She had joined the Royal Guard, gotten engaged and was the center of a dispute between the Princesses. He was sure Angel was making all of this up, but he knew deep down she wouldn't lie about all of this.

Plus, he still had to deal with the fact his now pregnant daughter was in the colony. While just as shocked as the doctors were, he had kept his composure long enough to bribe the doctors to keep quiet about this. How long the doctors remained quiet, though, he couldn't guess. It was only a matter of time before the colony guards came to the cave, demanding to see her and taking her away to the breeding site where her mother currently resided. Harvest had visited her a couple times since she left him and Angel, and it was always a difficult thing to do.

She looked nothing like the mare he fell in love with years ago now. Instead of a normal body, hers was always bulging at the belly, leaving a creepy amount of stretch marks on her. She had been pregnant nonstop for ten years now and had birthed well over twenty foals, something that pained Harvest to think about. He had wanted to prevent that fate from falling onto Angel, but she had unwittingly just sent out flares to the colony.

"I met Comet, we didn't get along and eventually did, we started dating and then I remember going into heat and tricking him into his office so we could be alone."

Harvest groaned again, pressing his other hoof to his head as the headache flared again. Of course Angel would have done that.

"So, what now?" Autumn Night asked, turning to him.

"What do you mean?" Angel asked, looking from Harvest to Autumn.

Autumn turned to Angel, smiling softly.

"Well Angel, there are not a lot of fertile mares here anymore. Your mother, my sister, is one of the last few ones here, so they've been curious about you for a while now."

"Exactly, which is why you being pregnant right now is a terrible thing!" Harvest spoke up, "Those doctors report directly to the colony's leaders and if they tell them you're pregnant, they will investigate!"

Angel's eyes shrunk to pinpricks as her father spoke. She knew it was risky being here, but she didn't know it was that bad. If the fertile mares were dying off, then they would be investigating all the foals of the fertile ones to replace them, meaning Angel was one of the first ones they would investigate.

"So, what do we do now, Harvest?" Autumn Wind asked again.

He took a deep breath before looking up at them.

"We play it cool for now. If anypony comes sniffing around, we need to get Angel out of here. Angel, I want you to stay here in this cave until this either blows over or the worst comes."

Angel gulped hard, trying not to ask the question on her mind.

"What's the worst?"

"They take you from us and turn you into a breeder for the colony."

Mixed Signals

"HARVEST!" Aunty Autumn Wind roared as her niece cried furiously into her cardigan, "WILL YOU STOP BRINGING UP THE WORST CASE SCENARIOS FOR JUST TEN MINUTES?!"

"WAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Angel cried over Autumn's shouting.

Harvest Moon winced at the sheer volume both mares had taken on. When he had mentioned that Angel might be taken on as a breeder for the colony, it was as if he had told her there was no more fruit in the world. Her sobbing worried him that the neighbors might hear their discussion, but he had felt his admonitions were prudent. While the colony had not yet forced fertile mares into becoming breeders, they had stepped up their attempts to coerce them into doing it. Some mares had been harassed relentlessly, others had been made outcasts and some had even been forcibly removed from their homes in order to be instructed of their duties to the bat pony race.

As a father, Harvest would not dare to see them take his daughter to become a breeder. He had already suffered through enough visits to his former wife to be assured that he would protect Angel. His thoughts drifted into darker places as he remembered seeing her, all swollen and sick. She had bore about twenty foals in the fourteen years she had been doing her job as a breeder, but she somehow still retained her motherly glow despite the stretch marks and occasional vomiting. It tore at Harvest's heart to see her like that and only served to reinforce his will to protect Angel.

"Autumn, we need to be prepa--"

"THAT STILL DOESN'T MEAN YOU SCARE YOUR POOR DAUGHTER HALF TO DEATH!"

"Aunty-he-he!" Angel wailed, finally bringing her head up, "I don't wanna do tha-ha-ha-ha-t!"

Autumn Wind turned to her and smiled gently as she began to rub her crown. "I know, Angel deary, I know. We don't want you to that either."

Angel continued to wail as she reburied her head into Autumn's cardigan, filling Harvest Moon with a sense of shame. Maybe he had laid it on a little thick for his daughter. It was a long shot that the colony would go to measures as drastic as that. With guilt building in his chest, he slowly began to trot over to the bed under the watchful and angry gaze of Autumn Wind. Ignoring it, he stopped at the edge of the bed and forced a small smile, reaching his hoof out to rub Angel's back.

"Angel, please stop crying," he cooed to her, "I'm sorry I overreacted. You just... kinda.... uh, stunned me?"

Angel's sobbing slowed to a bit of hiccups as she turned her glossy eyes from Autumn Wind's now stained cardigan to him, looking like the silly filly he remembered raising. The small smile tugged at him even harder, forcing itself to get bigger against his will.

"Harvest, that's not the word I would use to--" Autumn Wind started.

"Surprised?"

"No."

"Shocked?"

"No."

"Scared?"

"What is with you and these 'S' words?"

"Fine! You... er, made me panic!" Harvest nearly yelled out in exasperation, "Is that better?!"

"Warmer, but still not there."

"Buck it, Autumn! What would you say then?!"

"More like 'horrified, aghast or perturbed."

Harvest Moon turned his gaze to Autumn, glaring at her in a way that made ice seem warm. She responded by sticking her tongue out at him playfully. A small grunt escaped him, his gaze going from icy to annoyed in seconds.

"Okay Angel, I was perturbed by the news you were pregnant. I had just always hoped if you had found somepony to have a foal with, it would be far away from here. Also, I was a little horrified that you didn't know you were pregnant the whole two months you were here."

"You forgot 'aghast'." Autumn jabbed playfully at him, but Harvest ignored it.

He smiled to Angel again, only to see her look down with a bit of shame on her face. Autumn Wind cleared her throat right then, causing Harvest to look up at her. She nodded to Angel and raised her eyebrow, a silent cue that only he could understand. Well, anypony would get the idea of what she was implying from it, but Autumn did it so often with him, it was easy to get her meaning.

"So, uh, you mentioned that the foal's sire is... uh, wait. Was it.. er.."

"Comet?" Autumn Wind finished for him.

"Yeah! Him?"

Angel sniffled and looked back at him before she nodded slowly.

"So, er, what's he like?"

"Yeah!" Autumn Wind chimed in, "You told me he was the commander of Princess Celestia's personal guard! Is he all dashing and heroicly handsome?"

"Well, let's not jump to conclusions about him just yet," Harvest Moon butted in, "I can believe he's a Royal Guard, but a commander? Of the Sun Princess's personal guard at that?"

"And why is that so hard to believe?" Autumn Wind rebuked with a stern gaze, "Were you with her the whole time?"

"Well obviously no, I wasn't. But still, she--"

"So how do you know she's making it up? Why couldn't Angel charm a pony as important as that?"

"I didn't say she couldn't!"

"You're implying she can't!"

"No! What I'm saying is that I find it hard to believe that on just her word alone!"

"Has she given you a reason not to believe her before?"

A stern silence fell over the room as Harvest returned Autumn's stern gaze.

"If I remember correctly," Harvest began, "She told me she was running an errand for her boss and would be gone for only a week. She then didn't write or let me know she was fine for four years."

Autumn smiled in a nervous way, her eyes darting around as she tried to think of a response. She stuttered a few times and tried to work out a few sentences, but came up with nothing. However, Angel gave the answer that Harvest was looking for.

"I know you don't believe me, dad, but I'm not lying." she stated as she turned her gaze to him, "He really is the leader of Princess Celestia's guards, and I can prove it."

Harvest raised an eyebrow at that, a curious expression crossing his face.

"Really?" he asked, "And how are you going to do that?"

Angel's glossy eyes seemed to twinkle at the question.

"By taking you to meet him."

Harvest Moon blinked a couple times before he managed to emit a dull, "What?"

"I'm taking both you and Aunty Autumn Wind to meet him."

An abnormally loud squeal came from behind Angel as she was wrapped into another one of Aunty Autumn's death grip hug. Her hooves immediately went to her neck to stop the signature stranglehold, but even her advanced reflexes from her days spent as a guard were not fast enough. Her neck was subjected to a crazy amount of pressure as Autumn buried her snout into Angel's mane.

"OOOOOOOHHHHH! I always wanted to visit Canterlot! My cousin Fang Warden always said the city was so bright and pretty despite not being in a cave! He was always a bit of a grump, though, so him saying it was pretty and you actually needing to return there is like a--"

"Autumn!" Harvest shouted in a concerned tone, "Put Angel and my future grandfoal down now!"

Autumn paused her line of thought and looked down curiously to see a very vibrant shade of violet on her niece's face as her rear hooves kicked around uselessly. Much to Autumn's surprise, however, she was also hovering in the air, holding Angel up by her neck. Suddenly mortified, Autumn dropped Angel back onto the bed, where she immediately began heaving and sucking down as much air as she could.

"Angel!" Autumn shrieked as she landed, "Are you alright?!"

"I'm *gasp* I'm alright," she spoke through heaving breaths, "I just *wheeze* need to get a *cough* glass of water."

She rose to her shaky hooves, just managing to keep herself upright. It took a few moments for Angel to stagger out of the room, leaving her bewildered father alone with her hyperactive aunt. His bewilderment turned quickly to a scowl as he turned his attention to Autumn.

"What?" she asked, fully expecting the tongue lashing that was to follow.

"Damn it, Autumn. We just found out that not only is she pregnant, but she's also engaged," Harvest reprimanded in his best exasperated tone, "And you do what? Hug her while talking about how you want to visit Canterlot like it's a vacation! Do you even comprehend what has just happened?!"

He pressed a hoof to his forehead, rubbing away a minor headache from the stress. Taking care of Angel was always a hooffull, but he didn't ever think that this would happen. Everything about Angel that he tried to keep a secret was no longer privy to just himself, Autumn and Moondrop, Angel's mother. To make matters worse, he had blown up at Angel and made her cry, was subjected to Autumn's torment and now was told he was to be headed off to Canterlot to meet his only daughter's fiance.

"Hey, Harvest?" Autumn spoke softly as her hoof began to rub his scalp.

Harvest had barely looked up when Autumn placed a small kiss on his lips, causing his headache to disappear. She backed away just as quickly as she had entered his personal space, her golden eyes half lidded and a small smile on her lips.

"Calm down, will you?" she asked coyly. Harvest, however, did the exact opposite.

"Autumn!" he hissed to her, his eyes flashing dangerously, "What the buck are you thinking?!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to keep you calm. I can always tell when you're upset."

"And how was that supposed to calm me down?!"

"It worked before, or do you need a longer one for this kind of situation?"

As quickly as before, Autumn closed the distance and pressed her snout to his, causing any arguments he had to evaporate into an overwhelming sense of pleasure. The two bat ponies stayed that way for a couple seconds before Autumn pulled back again.

"Better?" she asked in a more serious tone.

"I hate you."

"But you love me when I do that."

"I also hate it when you act like a child."

"I know you love it when I call you a stuffy old pony."

"Autumn."

"Harvest."

Within a second, Harvest was within her personal space, kissing her as well. Autumn purred slightly as he forced himself closer to her and eventually they broke away, Harvest gasping slightly.

"I really do hate you." he whispered.

"If you did, I wouldn't have lived with you for all those years." she cooed back.

"I thought we agreed that this would be a secret from Angel. Plus, did we ever agree to--?"

"Harvest, what you did with Rough Diamond is in the past. We never actually broke up."

"But... you, what?"

"I was mad, yes, but I've learned to let things go. You obviously don't know when to."

Harvest's face scrunched up into a funny look when he said, "Are you talking about Moondrop?"

"Yeah. My sister left you but you've never left her."

"She is my wife. You are not."

"Ex-wife," Autumn corrected as she shifted herself closer to him, "And I might as well be. We've lived together for almost seventeen years and you've been single for about thirteen of them. Plus, I think Angel sees me as her mother more than my sister."

Harvest grimaced, remembering there was another pony in this cave.

"I'm not single."

Autumn reached her hoof up and touched his chin, causing him to lock eyes with her.

"You were that night," she whispered to him, her smile growing wider by the second, "Remember when you saw Moondrop after her twenty second birth?"

"Please don't bring that up."

"You, me and a bottle of crystal berry wine..."

"Autumn."

"A warm fire and the soft blankets from your bed..."

"Autumn!"

"And then we started giggling for no reason and you rolled over on top of me..."

"AUTUMN!" he yelled at her in whisper form.

"What?"

"Remember that we're not alo--"

As if the situation wasn't bad enough, it was at that moment a third voice rang out.

"What are you two doing?" Angel spoke from behind them.

Frantically, Harvest spun around, nearly bucking Autumn in the face. He put several strides of distance between her and trotted up to Angel, his face hardening into an unreadable mask. Autumn, however, brushed off her cardigan and smiled sweetly to her before they both tried to respond.

"She, uh, stepped on a sharp pebble." Harvest stated in a deadly serious tone.

"He helped me remove a pebble from under my hoof." Autumn said nonchalantly.

Angel looked between them and shrugged almost too quickly.

"Hey dad, the water kinda tastes funny."

"I'll be there in a second. I need to make sure Autumn's hoof is alright."

"Kay."

Angel trotted off back towards the kitchen, allowing Harvest to breathe again. As he swallowed a couple gulps, Autumn sidled up beside him, a mischievous smile on her face.

"She's smart, you know. She'll figure it out." Autumn cooed.

"I know, and that's what scares me about all of this." Harvest mumbled.

"Us or her pregnancy?"

"The whole thing. I don't know if anything Angel has told me is true, she's pregnant and engaged to a Royal Guard who may or may not be the leader of Princess Celestia's own guard and--"

"And then there's us, along with Rough Diamond and Moondrop." Autumn finished for him.

"Yeah. Rough Diamond still wants to visit sometime soon."

"And do you want her to?"

"That depends on you."

"You don't need my approval, Harvest. You're a grown stallion and you do what you want."

"But... last time, you nearly left."

"Because I want you to want me and nopony else. I'm not even officially dating you, so you don't need permission from me to see anypony."

"You're not going to ever make my life easier, are you?"

Autumn smirked and placed another kiss on him, trotting away and wiggling her rump seductively.

"As long as I'm in it, that answer is no."

The Best Laid Plans

Comet sat in the far corner of the room, watching through his blonde mane at Gorgon while she was instructed about how to lift a teacup with magic, something that Nova would never know how to do. A bitter taste coated his mouth as he looked down at the floor, hearing her cheery voice ring out.

"Comet, look! I'm lifting it!" She cried out with barely contained joy. His only response was to close his eyes and grit his teeth, wishing he didn't have to respond.

"T... that's great... Nova." He forced out, trying to sound happy about it.

An uncomfortable silence grew as he finished the sentence, but Comet forced himself to remain oblivious to it. He was sure that Gorgon, Nova, or whoever the buck she thought she was, had returned to her lesson, preferring to ignore his sullen attitude. The system worked well for him, as he really didn't want to interact with her any more than he had to. It almost felt expected, then, when Princess Celestia chimed in.

"Nova, are you hungry? I think it is time for a snack." She spoke in a soothing tone.

Comet was too busy paying attention to the loops in the red rug below him to notice the reaction Nova/Gorgon gave, but it didn't really matter to him right then. Princess Celestia confirmed what he thought it was almost immediately after.

"Why don't you go down to my dining chamber and Holly Stalk will bring you something. I need to speak with your brother for a bit."

Comet's hearing tried to blot out the 'brother' part of that sentence. That monster was most definitely not his beloved sister, no matter if she thought she was. Nova had been dead for years and all that was left of her by now were probably a pile of bones. There was no bright smile on her muzzle anymore, no sparkling tangerine eyes or soft voice asking him not to worry about her. Just a pile of rotting bones that he had buried long ago. His teeth grit harder as he stared at the rug while Nova/Gorgon passed by, pausing for a second when she was next to him.

"C-comet?" She asked tentatively. "Are you alright?"

This was all wrong in Comet's mind. Nova had never asked him that.

"Fine." He said, his voice showing no emotion.

The changeling walked past him after that, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He knew what Princess Celestia was about to ask him, so he did his best to bottle the many emotions he felt right then. It was an easy thing to do before when the subject of Nova came up, but this time was different for some reason. A lot of things came flooding back to him from the dark recesses of his mind, mental images of a happy Nova smiling at him from the bed and playing with her Princess Celestia plushie. Those wonderful memories were instantly tainted by a far darker one: the soft smile she wore when he saw her on the park bench.

The door to the chamber echoed loudly as it shut, leaving Comet alone with the most powerful and most important pony in all of Equestria. His gaze remained fixed on the rug, not wishing to look up as he heard the hooffalls approaching him. Still, the soldier part of him reacted and his hoof raised to salute her.

"At ease, Commander." Celestia spoke. "There is no need for formality here."

Comet's hoof dropped to the floor like a brick, making a hollow noise as it landed. His mind stayed blank, even as she continued speaking.

"Just so you know, I am not omnipotent, so I need you to tell me about her, about Nova. I can understand your mistrust of Gorgon, but Nova has spoken of you as if you are the most precious thing in the world to her. She has gone on for days, telling me about how sweet and caring you are, stating that her greatest wish was to see you again. You, however, are acting like this is the most painful thing you've ever gone through. So, please, tell me why she is so happy to see you and you want nothing to do with her."

Comet closed his eyes, all of those words stinging at him like a colony of ants. He wanted to say so many things right then, but kept his tongue in check. It had already cost Angel her job.

"That's not Nova." He spoke bitterly.

"I am quite aware of that, Commander, but that does not tell me why you are so defensive about the subject. Before you do tell me, though, I think it would be prudent on my part to explain why she is here." Celestia spoke, causing Comet's head to snap up. He met her gaze, staring into the magenta eyes of a pony who seemed the most capable to understand nearly anything.

"After the attack on the Gala, I had my guard sweep the grounds to locate any possible holes in our defense. Three days after the sweep began, my guards found her deep in the woods after hearing screams of agony. She was alert and wandering around, muttering nonsense and seemed to be in a haze. They managed to capture her and brought her directly to the dungeons here, but she was crying the whole way, asking for you specifically."

Celestia took a deep breath, her gaze dropping a bit before returning to it's previous intensity. "They brought this to my attention when one of the guards recognized your name after the promotion you received. I went to see her and was mildly surprised that she was snarling at me, claiming you had ruined her life. When I asked how, she showed me what happened when she tried to use magic. I must admit, I was not prepared for that."

"But why, Princess?" Comet asked. "Why take her seriously?"

"Because of what she told me after. Her demeanor changed entirely and she acted as if she had never seen me before. I could also sense her mind had shifted dramatically from when I had first arrived. She went from spiteful and filled with rage to happy and full of fear, asking if I knew you. When I told her I did, her face filled with so much glee, I was almost sure I was smiling with her. However, your reactions to her are a far cry from hers about you, and I would like to know why."

Celestia let her words hang in the air, crushing Comet under their weight. He had to tell her, even if he didn't want to.

"Princess... Nova is my sister." He grit out. "My older sister."

Princess Celestia's eyes changed size for a moment and she tilted her head, an expression of slight curiosity on her muzzle.

"Then why are you so horrified to see her? I understand it is a bit jarring to see a doppleganger, but—"

"She's dead." Comet spat out, lowering his own gaze. "She's been dead for years."

A long silence filled the room, making the space uncomfortable for both ponies.

"Commander, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize—" Celestia spoke, the shock evident in her voice.

"She died when I was little and I couldn't save her. I had buried everything about her until that monster, Gorgon, attacked. When I nearly beat her to death, she transformed into her. She became Nova to protect herself from me."

Another silence reigned over them, causing Comet to shift uncomfortably. Why did this problem never seem to go away? In the past two years, he had been forced to relive the hurt that Nova had left him with more than the years since she died. It all felt like some cosmic joke to him, a cruel and twisted scheme that when he found a bit of happiness, Nova was there to squelch it.

"You know, I felt like that once. Like my sister had died and a monster was hiding behind her face." Celestia spoke as if admitting something. Comet looked up to see the Sun Princess staring at the floor like he was, a sad expression on her muzzle.

"When Luna became Nightmare Moon, I felt as if my fears were playing with me. She was still in there and I tried to plead with her, but all I could see was a monster smiling from behind her face, knowing I would avoid hurting her at all costs. It pained me to fight back, making it seem as if I was betraying the trust she had in me. Banishing of her was the hardest thing I think I've ever done, but even though I've put it behind me, I still fear seeing her like that again."

Comet's throat constricted as the Princess finished, his chest feeling abnormally tight. Why was he reacting to her words this way? He had buried all his fears of Nova, right? Angel had wiped away the raw feeling of her death and replaced it with the obnoxious joy he loved and despised at the same time. Small pockets of emotion rubbed against his thoughts, though, telling him that no matter what Angel did, there was nothing that would soothe the pain other than fixing what had happened with Nova.

As if on cue, Princess Celestia spoke up again. "Commander, I am truly sorry about your sister's death, but you are an intricate part of this situation and must be the one to help Gorgon with her problem. I have tried, but there is a strange magic at work with her that seems to only react to your presence. While you may have strong emotions for her for what she has done, you should attempt to see it from her perspective. Gorgon is alone in a strange place filled with ponies that want to hurt her and crippled with a condition where she loses control of her mind. Would you be upset if you were in that position?"

Comet didn't want to, but he nodded slowly. He decided then that if Princess Celestia was a mother, her foal would be the most down-to-earth pony ever. A small smile played across her face and her eyes twinkled, as if she was happy that Comet had listened instead of storming off like he felt he should.

"I will continue to work with her," Princess Celestia continued, "But I want you to spend time with her. I know it will be difficult and I am heaping this upon you before you've officially started your new position, but please do this for her sake. Gorgon is in pain, holding in everything that hurts because nopony will take the time to listen to her, but I think that, should the two of you get to know each other, you may find she is not the monster she portrays herself as."

"And if she is?" Comet asked pointedly.

Celestia closed her eyes for a second, as if coming to terms with something. Once she reopened them, her eyes were void of the emotion that filled them earlier.

"If we cannot reach her heart, then she is a threat to Equestria and will be dealt with as such. I do not want to resort to this as I believe there is good in all ponies, but if she cannot be helped, she will either be imprisoned, banished or erased."

"E-erased?" Comet asked tentatively, fearing what the answer would be.

"It is a method only the highest ranks of the Royal Guard know of. Back when my sister turned, there were ponies that still allied themselves to her and fought back fiercely, killing and maiming the Royal Guard in the name of vengeance. In response, I and my most accomplished unicorn guardsponies erased them, implanting them with a new personality that steadily overtook the old one. It was an extreme measure done to only the worst of the worst and has not been used in almost a thousand years, but it was effective." Celestia spoke in a deadly serious tone.

Comet's eyes widened with each word, unable to comprehend what she was saying. Princess Celestia, the great ruler of Equestria, had rewritten entire personalities in ponies? She had literally erased the problem at the source, along with everything that made the pony unique. Comet made a move to say something, but Celestia raised a hoof and continued talking.

"I know what you are about to say, Commander, but the past is done and even I cannot rewrite it. I made a lot of decisions I was not proud of back then for the good of everypony and I still question whether they were needed or not. That is why I have not employed this measure for so long. However, Gorgon exhibits the early signs of the erasing process, especially since the Nova part is becoming stronger day by day. If the worst comes to pass, then I will let the process run its course and Gorgon will be no more."

"But how?" Comet rebutted, "If it is Gorgon's mind, why is Nova able to do anything at all? Can't you remove her with a spell?"

Princess Celestia let out a pained smile before speaking. "When I met with Nova in the dungeons, she could not cast magic. The only way Gorgon regained control was when Nova slept, either from a nap or a night's rest. I did not teach Nova to use magic, either. She is learning herself and harnessing Gorgon's natural ability while Gorgon is losing her ability to cast spells, even the most simple ones. She struggles to do anything out of fear of Nova and is losing her place in her own mind."

Comet looked down, trying to imagine what it would feel like to lose control of something like that. He painted a terrible mental picture of himself, a weak and broken pegasus losing the ability to fly and to be around Angel, and shuddered violently. That was something he wouldn't wish on anypony, not even Gorgon. Yes, he still hated her, but nopony deserved that unless they were far beyond redemption.

"What I hope to do is save Gorgon." Princess Celestia continued softly. "I understand that it may be a gift to see Nova again, but—"

"It's not really her." Comet finished. Celestia nodded morosely in response, her eyes looking down at the stones below their hooves.

"Yes. If Nova passed away long ago, then this is nothing but a shadow of who she was. Gorgon is still the rightful owner of her mind and body, and as such, she deserves a chance to keep it like anypony does. My goal is to help Gorgon reclaim her mind and fight back against the parasitic personality, but I can only help her as far as she will let me. She seems to have a much more open mindset when with you, as your meeting showed."

"But why?" Comet queried. "Why me? I hate her and she hates me!"

"You are also the only pony she has ever reacted to that way." Celestia spoke calmly. "Your very presence around her seems to make her much more talkative and open. When I was alone with her, Gorgon almost refused to speak with me. When the two of you met, she expressed emotions and even yelled at me, something she has never done before. While I was not pleased with it, you made more progress with her in ten minutes than I did in ten weeks."

Comet's stare could only be described as comical. His eyes were wide, but a look of disbelief surrounded them. "I.. er, what? I didn't..." He spluttered.

Princess Celestia allowed a warm smile to grace her features, looking much more like her normal self. "There is hope for Gorgon, Commander, and you are the pony to give it to her. She needs somepony she knows to to take an interest in her, to be willing to listen and sympathize and, most of all, one who knows about her and is unafraid of her presence. If you do that for her, I am sure she will stop being hostile towards you and will regain control of her mind from Nova."

"You speak of this like it has been done before." Comet remarked.

Princess Celestia allowed a small laugh, a welcome sound in the silence of the room. "Let's just say this, Commander. You have a special opportunity to reform Gorgon without magic, something I tested on Discord himself with my star pupil and her friends. If they could reform him without resorting to magic, then I have complete confidence you can do it too."

Comet could only gulp as he realized what his Princess was asking of him. Part of his duties as the new Captain was to now reform one the most dangerous ponies in all of Equestria with little more than words and to save her from a terrible fate.

He could almost hear Angel laughing in the back of his mind right then.

Sisterly Love

Autumn trotted through the well traveled tunnel, humming to herself. Her tear-stained cardigan had been replaced with a fresh one and the soft fabric felt wonderful as it rubbed against her neck and shoulders. Most ponies found it strange she wore them, but Autumn was mostly too lost in her own world to care. Things in her life had propelled from good to amazing in a single morning, starting with the news that her beloved niece had a little one brewing in her belly to the now affirmed trip to Canterlot, a place she had dreamed about visiting for years.

While she trotted, Autumn barely noticed the stern looks from the large guards that lined the branching hallways. Each one was pretty imposing, some sporting scars of unknown origins in odd places, like their eyes and where normal pony cutie marks would be. They were armed with an assortment of older and crude looking spears, most of them rusted and there were even a few that appeared to be made from stone. Autumn glanced over them and repressed a snort as she passed by one, wondering if they really thought that this much security was needed. A cold stare met her and she glanced away, hoping that he did not decide to stop her. After passing through a couple more hallways, Autumn turned to enter the one that led to her sister when the tip of a spear came down, blocking her advance.

"Where do you think you're going?" The guard asked in a gritty voice, reminding Autumn of the time she had tried to grind sugar in a pastel.

"Oh please," she responded, knocking the spear away and rolling her eyes, "you've seen me come by at least fifteen times since the last guard rotation."

The spear snapped back to its original position and a low growl came from the guard. "Perhaps you didn't hear me. Where are you going?"

"To see my sister! Duh!" Autumn shouted, annoyed by this security garbage. Every single guard who had ever protected this hallway had let her pass without any problems after the twelfth time she had visited, but there was an occasional crackdown on them to make sure the guards did their jobs.

A sly grin cracked his face before he made a motion to Autumn, indicating for her to come closer. "Prove it." He said. His eyes took a quick pass over her to areas that made Autumn scowl back, ready to hit him for what he was insinuating.

"You know I'm old enough to be your mother, right?" She snapped back. "In fact, I probably know her."

The stallion's grin only became more malicious as she spoke. "You're also old enough to be a mother. And, if you are a sister to one of them, that means you're fertile as well. Right?" He whispered as he leaned in closer to Autumn while she inched back, a disgusted look on her face. "If you show me that you're her sister, I'll let you pass whenever you want."

His grin was cut off when a hoof struck him hard in the cheek, causing his vision to black out for a second. He spun in place, yowling in pain, while Autumn stood wide-eyed, watching a figure appear from behind him. A larger, more muscular stallion glared down at him with crystal blue eyes while the smaller guard attempted to rise to his hooves, swinging his spear in Autumn's general direction. She yelped and ducked as the weapon sailed over her head with a definitive 'whoosh', placing her hooves over her mane to protect herself. The guard yelped again as the sounds of a fight started to echo around the walls, ending just as quickly as they started.

Autumn risked peeking up to see the larger stallion pressing a hoof onto the back of the guard's head, pinning him in place effortlessly. A nasty scowl covered her savior's face, accentuated by pointy green tattoo on the right side of his face, forming what looked like a dragon on his cheek. The guard tried to say something, but the bigger stallion spoke first.

"You disgust me, whelp." He spoke in a voice that sounded like steel against rocks. "I have half the mind to paralyze you right now."

"Get your blasted hoof off of me! I am a commander of the Guard for the Council!" The smaller one shouted.

"So am I, moron." The bigger one growled, "And I heard all of that little banter you gave her as well as your attempt on her life. Apologize before we go speak to one of the council members."

The younger guard let out a throaty growl as he tried to pry himself loose, but the bigger one pressed harder.

"Now."

"Get the buck off me, you idiot! I am a commander!" The smaller one yelled.

"And I can make sure you apologize one way or another."

A sharp snapping noise caused the stallion to cry out in pain while the bigger one's face hardened further. Autumn cringed and turned away, her stomach clenching. She tried to leave for her sister's den, but only managed two steps. Halt!" The bigger guard shouted, causing Autumn to freeze. She turned around, worried about her own safety. The bigger guard eyed her, but stayed rooted on top of the younger stallion. "If this fool is too weak to apologize, then I will for him. Please disregard what he did and proceed." Autumn gulped heavily and nodded, spinning and almost running through the passageway while the sounds of more angry banter echoed behind. She sped through the few twists in the tunnel before stopping and gasping for air.

"I told you that it takes a full eleven months for the foal to develop." came a mare's voice. "Coming by to see me every three weeks will not make it grow faster."

Autumn's head snapped up as she registered those words. The voice was so intimately familiar, yet alien to her. The source of the voice was a navy blue bat pony mare laying with her back to Autumn, resting on a tattered mattress of feathers and straw. Her wings hung from her back in a limp manner, twitching slightly and perfectly in sync with the sounds of her labored breathing. Her mane and tail were made up of stringy clumps of hair that sported silver lines interwoven into them.

"Okay, look," she spoke. "I know it's a big deal that you're going to be a parent, but you don't need to worry about me. I've given birth to plenty of foals and I am aware of what signs to pay attention for. So far, I can tell your foal is healthy and strong since it kicks slightly. It should be quite an athlete when it's born."

Autumn's mouth opened and closed twice as she tried to work something out, but she felt herself unable to say anything. The silence took its toll and the mare leaned back, her tired golden eyes glancing over to Autumn. Her hoof rested on her bulging belly which bore long stretch marks clearly visible from underneath her fur. "Autumn?" she asked.

"Hi sis!" Autumn said with a wide smile and a wave. Her sister responded with a snort and flopped her head back onto the beaten pillow it was previously resting on.

"What do you want?" she asked, derision in her tone. Autumn snorted as the smile fell from her face like a brick.

"Clearly it wasn't to come and see my only sister." she replied.

"You only come and see me when you want to talk about Angel. Tell me, why else would you come by? Did Harvest finally work up the courage to dump me after what I've put him through?"

Autumn gulped hard and ground her teeth, itching to give her a tongue-lashing for her attitude. Instead of doing so, however, she trotted up to the bed and sat down next to it, putting on her best smile as her sister made an attempt to ignore her. "Oh, come on, Moony. You used to love it when I came by for a visit." Her sister snorted in response.

"Why do you insist on calling me that? Call me by my real name, please." she said.

Autumn sighed dramatically before answering. "Fine, Moondrop. You want me to talk to you like mom did?"

"I want you to talk to me like an adult. We're not fillies anymore if you can't tell."

Autumn rolled her eyes. "Since when did you become so grumpy?"

Moondrop shot a small glare over to Autumn before she spoke. "Since I entered my third trimester and the foal began kicking my stomach every two hours."

Autumn lifted a hoof and tried to place it on Moondrop's belly, but it was swatted away before any contact could be made. She withdrew her hoof and placed it on her own belly, looking down at it with a curious expression. "I always wondered what a kicking foal would feel like. It must be magical."

"Yeah, until it kicks you awake every two hours and forces you to regurgitate the last thing you ate." Moondrop scoffed.

"I thought you liked being a mother." Autumn said.

Moondrop threw her another pointed glare. "Don't act like you couldn't have been one too."

Autumn looked away towards the ceiling, her anger starting to get the better of her. Moondrop was in the insufferable state of blatant irritation that came with pregnancy, something Autumn was happy she had never experienced. "If you're going to be like this, then we're not going to talk for five minutes until you calm down."

"Fine by me. I was nearly asleep when you came barging in." Moondrop replied.

Autumn turned to her sister, completely bewildered. "What the buck made you this mad, Moondrop? Whatever it was, don't take it out on me!"

Moondrop's head rose from the pillow, an acidic stare coming from her haggard eyes. "I said you only talk to me whenever Angel is involved. Spit it out. What has she done this time? Did Gus throw her off the train platform again? Did she go windsurfing and break her wing again? What could she have possibly done to herself to make you want to tell me all about it?"

"Sheesh, you act like it's a bad thing that I keep you informed on what your first daughter is doing! It's not like you're there to see it yourself!" Autumn bit back, immediately regretting what she said.

"My daughter hasn't seen me in over six years, Autumn, and the last time didn't go so well because she walked in on Harvest bawling his eyes out like a little foal."

"Because you tried to convince Harvest to stop checking on you! He still loves you, Moondrop, even if you don't love him anymore!"

Moondrop's legs wiggled as she forced her body upright, rising to the same eye level as Autumn. "Don't you dare accuse me of not loving Harvest, Autumn! You're just jealous because he picked me over you and stuck with me when I left!"

A twinge shot through Autumn's chest as she glared back at Moondrop, her teeth starting to bare. "You broke Harvest's heart and still trample on the pieces to this day! It was your actions that made Angel hate you! You broke your family to make yourself feel important and I've been there cleaning up the mess you made, just like when we were in school!"

"I did what had to be done because you were too chicken to do it!" Moondrop shouted back, a fire burning in her eyes. "I tore my family apart so you didn't get dragged off and forced to do this for the rest of your life! I paid for your mistake and you still have the nerve to act like everything is my fault! Why don't you go tell Angel the real reason I left instead of filling her head with lies?"

Autumn had to resist the urge to hit Moondrop across the face for that comment. "I didn't need you protecting me!"

"And what would you have done? If it wasn't for you, I would've stayed home and been a real mother to Angel and a good wife to Harvest! Instead, I have to sit back here while somepony's foal kicks me awake every night and do nothing but think about why I shouldn't wring your neck for what you did to me!" Moondrop made a motion to rise to her hooves, but her left front hoof slipped out underneath her weight. Without any support, she fell forward and slammed her chin into the ground, along with part of her belly. A shrill cry rang out in the room and Moondrop flailed around in frustration, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. Autumn watched the scene with morbid interest, wanting to help her sister up but also thinking this was justified to go on for a few minutes.

Eventually, Moondrop managed to get back on her hooves, though they still shook as if they would collapse at any moment. By now, a trail of tears wove down her face while she tried to snarl at Autumn. "Get out of here. I don't ever want to see you here again." she whispered.

"Why?" Autumn asked. "What did I do to you to make you hate me this much?"

"You took everything from me!" Moondrop shouted in return. "You took my family, my happiness, my daughter and now my husband!"

Autumn's eyes widened as she heard the hurt in Moondrop's voice. "I didn't take anything from you, Moony!"

"Yes, you did! Everything in my life was perfect and you were jealous! That's why you tricked me into doing this for you! I had everything you wanted and you couldn't stand it, so you signed up for this and backed out so I would take your place!"

"I, no. Moony, you got it all wrong!"

"I have it perfectly! When Harvest picked me, you wanted a way to get him back! That's why you signed up to become a matron for the colony! To tell him you were fertile and grab his attention! Then when I had Angel, you were so jealous that you came to me, crying your eyes out about them taking you away so I would volunteer for your sake!"

Autumn stood in stunned silence as she stared at Moondrop, unsure of what to say in response. Their past was always something they avoided at all costs when they met, especially since it was painful for either one to remember it. Moondrop had a wild interpretation of how events played out during that time, but she was wrong. Autumn wasn't jealous of what Moondrop had. She was happy that Moondrop had a family and a stallion who loved her, even if that stallion was one she had tried to win over before he had ever seen Moony. Angel herself had nothing to do with what happened at the time either, no matter how badly Autumn said she wanted her own foal. She was far too cute and adorable to be a point of contention between the two of them.

Right?

Clearing her throat, Autumn stood a little taller as Moondrop gingerly lowered herself back onto her mattress. "Moony, I don't know what made you feel this way about me, but I never once thought about taking anything from you. You're my sister, the only pony who has been there for me whenever I needed one. What happened back then is over with and long forgotten."

"Just go, Autumn." Moondrop replied, closing her eyes firmly. "We have nothing to discuss anymore. I need to get some sleep now that the foal stopped kicking."

"Moony, please don't put us on bad terms. I've done everything I could to keep Angel and Harvest happy for you and told them how much you love and care for them. Harvest knows that more than anypony alive and Angel... she needs some time. In fact, I came here to tell you some wonderful news! She returned to the colony not too long ago a---"

"Stop, Autumn. I really need some sleep before the foal is ready."

"But I didn't tell you the best part!"

"Whatever it is, it can wait."

"But you don't!"

"Autumn, leave now before I call for a guard to escort you out."

"But!"

"Now!"

Lowering her head, Autumn turned and trotted to the cave entrance, glancing back at Moondrop before heaving a large sigh. "What happened to you, Moony?" she whispered before leaving the den.

Back at the mattress, Moondrop sniffled to herself as angry thoughts whirled around in her head. It wasn't fair what Autumn did to her, no matter how hard she tried to suppress her anger. Autumn stole everything from her and lived her life while she suffered through labor pains, sickness and being a mother many times over only to watch her foals be taken from her and given to ungrateful young couples. It hurt more and more every time she held the newborn for a few minutes when the doctor tapped her on the shoulder, indicating it was time to give up the beautiful little baby. The most fond memory she had of them was holding her first foal, Angel, close to herself and nuzzling her while humming a soft tune.

As her tears wet her pillow, Moondrop could only think of apologies to Angel as images of her as a foal popped up in her mind. Cute scenes from when she was a baby learning to walk and her taking oversized bites of oranges pervaded her thoughts, making her reach up and rub her belly again. This was going to be the last foal that would be taken away from her.

Of that, anypony could count on.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

“Ha ha ha ha! Look at you, so weak you can’t even keep his interest!” a mass of black shouted, its sickly green eyes gleaming.

“No! Give him back!” Angel shouted, tears streaming down her cheeks. She tried to move, but the chains wrapped around her hooves kept her in place. From above, she could see Comet’s back as he walked away.

“Welcome back, my sweet,” cooed the phantom voice as tendrils of black wrapped around him.

“No! Stop it, stop it!” Angel cried before collapsing to the floor, wailing like a filly. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to stop the tears, but a maniacal laughing echoed around her.

“Aww, is the little baby crying?” it asked. From behind Angel, the sound of a foal’s crying became audible, causing Angel to jump to her hooves. Spinning around, she saw the same green eyes looking down into a bassinet. “Shush, little one. Mommy’s here.” From the darkness, a black and hole-ridden leg stretched into the bassinet, causing the crying to stop. A wicked looking smile revealed itself from underneath the eyes, and a hushed laughing could be heard.

“Leave her alone!” Angel screamed at the top of her lungs, fighting with the chains again, but it was futile. Scabrous green magic oozed around the pink bundle, lifting it up from the wicker bassinet and dangling it almost negligently in front of the darkness while a long tongue licked the fangs below the eyes.

“You look just like your mommy,” it said. “We’ll have to fix that.” The mouth and eyes lunged at the pink bundle, fangs gleaming against the black. Angel screamed and shut her eyes again, wishing it was all over.

“Angel, wake up!” a voice shouted as she felt her body shake. Angel twitched a bit before her eyes shot open and she flailed around, screaming in terror. As she tried to push back the darkness, a hoof touched her legs and tried to force her legs back. “Calm down, Angel! It was all a dream!” the voice said, sounding suspiciously like her father’s.

“No! No! Get it away from them!” Angel cried, pushing the legs away and scrambling around with her blanket.

“Get what away? Angel, calm down!”

As she desperately tried to push herself away, Angel forgot that her bed had an edge. It didn’t really make much of a difference, though, as she fell off it and the blanket followed, wrapping around her. She squealed and tried to pry it off, but her method meant rolling away from it, meaning all she did was get tangled in it more. The sounds of hooves moving around in the empty room caused the crystals embedded in the walls to glow, outlining Harvest as he tried to pull the blanket off of her.

“Dang it, Angel! Are you okay?” he asked as the blanket finally started letting go.

“Y-Yes, sir,” Angel stammered.

“You didn’t land on your belly, did you?”

“No.”

“Oh, thank Luna! Are you hurt?”

Angel moved her hooves around, making sure she didn’t twist or land on them awkwardly and shook her head. A huge sigh came from Harvest as he set the blanket down. “Don’t do that to me, Angel. I thought the guards had tried to foalnap you.”

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Angel said, lowering her head. “Just had a bad dream.”

“I can tell that. Was it something to do with your fiance?” Harvest asked.

“How did you know?” Angel askeded, looking up at him.

“I can only assume you shouting the name ‘Comet’ means he is either your fiance or somepony else you really care about,” Harvest said, staring into her eyes. “But I would hope that you’re not the kind of mare to have multiple colts under your hoof.” Angel started chuckling at that.

“No, most of them are just silly sweethearts I couldn’t do that to. Comet was the only sourpuss that I could annoy into liking me,” she said, covering her nose with a hoof.

“You know, the more I hear about him, the more I think you’re making him up,” Harvest said, turning around and trotting away. “Who’s ‘the bug’?”

Angel snapped her head over to him, a worried look replacing her grin. “The bug?”

“Yeah, you were shouting about some bug along with Comet. Care to explain?”

“Well, uh, it’s not really a bug, Dad. It was a changeling,” Angel said, looking away.

“Wait, what? A changeling? Aren’t those just some tall tale from the Badlands?” Harvest asked.

“No, they’re real. They’re also mean, gross and evil. One of them tried to seduce Comet before she tried to rip my limbs off.”

A tense silence followed, Angel refusing to look at her dad. She was sure he was going to say something along the lines of her making up stories again, but the silence made her wonder what he was really thinking. She risked a glance over to him to see his mouth hanging open as if he was trying to say something.

“One of them… tried to rip your limbs out after it couldn’t seduce your fiance?” he asked. “Angel, is there something you want to tell me?”

“I did, Dad,” she replied.

“Angel, are you... taking medication?" Harvest asked, his tone indicating the drugs in question were most probably obtained in some dark alley

“What? No, Dad!” Angel shouted, rising to her hooves. “I am not a druggie!”

“Angel, you show up at my home unannounced and unaware you’re pregnant. You claim that you somehow joined the Royal Guard and became Princess Luna’s personal guard leader before being dismissed for attacking a hulking gryphon and then tell me your fiance is the leader of Princess Celestia’s personal guard. From all of that, I can come to one of two conclusions: you are either on drugs that are affecting your memory, or you are making all of this up to cover up something.”

“Dad, I’m not making this up! Once we go to Canterlot, you’ll see everything happened!”

“And that’s another thing. We are not going.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m not going on some wild goose chase simply because you and Autumn want to go see the palace. I have duties here.”

“But, Dad! How else can I prove I’m not lying?” Angel shrieked.

“By acting like an adult. This was all cute and everything when you were a filly, but now you’re a mare and soon to have a foal that may or may not be the child of the second highest ranking pony in the Royal Guard. If it is his, he will come find you,” Harvest said in an icy tone.

“That’s not fair!”

“Enough, Angel. When you’re ready to tell me what really happened and who the foal’s father is, I’ll listen. For now, though, get some rest. I need to go make sure your mother is alright.”

“But, Dad!”

“Shush. I’ll be back later,” Harvest said with finality.

As he walked away, Angel sat next to her bed, staring at him in bewilderment. As the door shut, she shouted, “What did I ever do to make you not believe me?”

The door stopped shutting, but it made no attempt to open again. “You told me you would be back in a week and didn’t contact me for three years,” Harvest said before he pulled the door shut.

On the other side, Harvest scowled and whispered, “Your mother told me something similar and she never came home.”

“Just a little more, Ms. Moon. Keep pushing!” the doctor said, his ears poking up from the shawl. Moondrop let out a groan as she rolled her head over to a spot on the pillow not covered in sweat. No matter how many foals she had, the act of giving birth one of the most excruciating things she ever experienced.

“Come on, Moondrop, you can do it,” said a nurse as she squeezed her left hoof gently. She watched her with pale blue eyes, filled to the brim with worry, and Moondrop stifled a scoff.

“Sweetie, I know I can do it. It’s whether I want to do it or not,” she said sarcastically.

“Focus, Ms. Moon! The foal’s already crowning! I need one more solid push from you!” the doctor shouted as the nurses behind him scrambled about.

Taking a deep breath, Moondrop closed her eyes and tried to work up what little strength she had left. Capturing the fleeting moment, Moondrop shouted as she worked muscles that burned with an intense pain. Banishing the need to stop, she ground her teeth together as something moved about in her at an agonizing rate. Just as her strength and will faltered, the sound of crying began to echo in the cave.

“There! Perfect, Ms. Moon! Quick, get me the scissors!” the doctor shouted, pulling what was left of the foal out. Moondrop threw her head back and panted, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Foal number twenty-two took its first breath and had just been brought into the world at great expense and, rather than ignoring it like numbers nineteen and twenty-one, she peeked up above the shawl to catch a glimpse of it. While the doctor and nurses were crowding it, she could see a little mass of dark gray fur wiggling about on the table not too far away. A smile worked its way onto her muzzle, and the nurse beside her gasped.

“It’s so beautiful,” she murmured, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. “I.. I can’t thank you enough, Moondrop.”

“Thank me by taking good care of it,” she said, tossing her head back onto the pillow. “I told you it would be worth it.”

“Still, my own foal…” the nurse whispered, squeezing Moondrop’s hoof harder. “I’m actually a mother now.”

“Just feed it every day and give it lots of love,” Moondrop said with her trademark sarcasm. She heaved a few breaths, feeling her heartbeat start to slow down. The pain was mostly gone by now, but it left her feeling numb from the waist down. She glanced over to the bags of chemicals hanging on a pole next to her bed and followed the tubes running down from it to her other foreleg. She often joked that they should leave the needle in her leg since she visited them so often, but she rolled her eyes and looked back at the ceiling.

“Congratulations, Ms. Moondrop. The foal is a colt in good health and strongly developed,” the doctor said, returning with a bundle of pale blue blankets. “I would imagine you’d like to see him?”

Moondrop lifted her head and glanced at him with derision before shrugging. “Sure, I guess.”

The doctor threw her a sideways look before handing over the foal. “I know you’ve had a lot of foals, ma’am, but they can still hear you. It would be wise to not be so insensitive around them.”

Moondrop held out her hooves and the doctor reluctantly allowed her to take the foal. Pulling him close, Moondrop looked down at the little colt and felt her heart stop. Despite having over twenty foals, each one was still adorable. This one had a small tousle of a snow white mane hanging down right between his closed eyes. She could feel the small, shallow breaths he was taking and she hugged him a little bit closer to her. The bit of mane rubbed against his nose and the foal sneezed, causing him to make a couple hiccups before a frown crossed his muzzle.

“Shh, shh,” Moondrop cooed. “Momma’s here. No need to cry.”

The foal calmed at her voice, the frown becoming a yawn. He made a small inhaling noise before it snuggled back into the blankets, wiggling his legs. From beside her, Moondrop could hear the nurse sniffling.

Casting an angry sideways glance, Moondrop said, “Can I please have a moment alone with him? You’ll have him for the rest of his life in an hour.”

“Oh, I-I’m sorry,” the nurse said, wiping away the trail of tears. “I know you want to be with h-him for a bit.” Backing away from the bed, she turned and began talking to the doctor, making more noise than before. Moondrop growled under her breath, knowing all the background noise would only upset the foal.

“Can you all please go? Like, right now?” she hissed, glaring at everypony in the room. The doctor shot her a venomous look as well and nodded to everypony else, causing them all to file out of the room silently. Once only the doctor remained, he trotted by the bed, his wings fluttering.

“Remember, you only have one hour with him. No naming, no telling him not to trust his parents, and you are not allowed to leave. You’ll be put on bedrest for the next week before meeting with the next foal’s parents. This time, keep your mouth shut, got it?”

“Only when you go to hell,” Moondrop said, not looking away from the foal. “I’m not just some breeding tank.”

“Yes, you are. Don’t forget that either,” the doctor sneered as he left.

Moondrop glared daggers at the door, wishing she could buck the doctor in his teeth. In her forelegs, though, her newest son began to squirm.

“Easy there,” she whispered. “He’s gone now. No need to be upse--”

Moondrop’s eyes widened as a massive stab of pain pierced her chest, causing her to pull the foal closer. She tried to breathe, but each gulp of air felt like hundreds of tiny needles were shifting in her lungs and heart.

“Wh-What the?” she wheezed out as she tried to gasp for a single breath, but nothing would help. The pain in her chest exploded outward, making her limbs weak and shaky. The colt seemed to gain three hundred pounds as her forelegs gave, the blankets and body pressing down on her chest. Moondrop threw her head back, still trying to breathe as her head began to go numb, feeling like it was floating.

“H-Help…” she whispered, her forelegs turning ice cold.

While she struggled, she could faintly hear the colt starting to cry. Forcing her head up, her vision went dark around the edges as she looked down at him. Finding some reserve of energy, she forced her hooves back around him and lifted him into her grasp. The pain seemed to lessen as her vision faded even more, but she could still see his little face frowning.

“Sh-sh-shh, little… guy,” she forced out. “Every...thing is… al…”

Her vision went black as he start to cry.