Staring at a star

It has been about month now since Twilight became my marefriend; we haven’t told anypony so far, only Spike and Rarity knew we liked each other but not that we were actually dating. But we had to keep it a secret, for princes Celestia wouldn’t be amused by the news. So we kept it a secret until the time was right to tell everypony, but first we had to make a plan for the prices to accept our relationship.

It was during a cold winter morning, when Twilight, Spike and I were having breakfast. Suddenly Spike belched out a letter from the princes, not addressed to Twilight but to me.

‘’My loyal subject Ace’’ I read, ‘’I am hereby asking you to come and meet me at Canterlot Castle as soon as possible; we are in dying need of your assistance for Equestria is in danger’’ my eyes shot open as I read. ‘’what does it say’’ Twilight said enthusiastic. I lifted up my hoof and silenced her, ‘’do not tell Twilight about the danger lurking, tell her something believable and make sure she does not gets suspicious or follow you. Your princes Celestia’’

‘’s-she is inviting me for my last check-up’’ I said with a smile, ‘’really, let see’’ Twilight responded excitedly, Spike gave me a glance. ‘’I-It’s nothing, j-just an invitation…’’ I just remembered that I was a terrible liar and putted up a very bad fake smile.

‘’just give her the letter or you’ll make her go nuts’’ Spike said with a sigh and took a sip of coffee. Twilight glared at the dragon for a second and then returned back to me, ‘’pretty please’’ she said with her lower lip quivering and blinking her eyes fast. I gulped, ‘’b-but its private mail, and addressed to me’’ I started to sweat.

‘’but if it is only an invitation than why can’t I read it, you know I love to read’’ she said with a suspicious look, ‘’what are you hiding?’’ she whispered while glaring at me, leaning towards me.

I leaned back and got of the chair I was sitting on; I pulled Spike his tail and threw the letter in the fire he blew out when he screamed by the yank. ‘’how unfortunate’’ I said with a wide smile, ‘’I have to go now and visit Canterlot. Will be back this evening, bye’’ I said as I ran out the door into the high snow. After walking a few feet the snow reached until my private parts and was very very cold, I decided that flying would be a lot more comfortable.

‘’Whahaha, that face!’’ a loud laughter came from above me, ‘’Rainbow Dash…’’ I sighed as I glanced up to a cloud. ‘’were the boys having it cold’’ she said as she paused her laugh. She looked down over the edge of her cloud, but I was gone, planning my revenge. ‘’A-ace, come on it was only a joke, I didn’t mean to up… whaahh’’ she fell as I kicked the cloud away from underneath her, too surprised to be able to open her wings in time. She landed face first into a large pile of snow, a few seconds later she popped her head out of the snow, her mane a mess, ‘’good one’’ she muttered. I was laughing loudly, barely able to keep my balance in the sky.

I landed next to her where the snow was luckily less deep, but still I decided slowly so that I would not have a cold surprise. I helped her out from the snow pile, ‘’sorry to cut it short, but I have to go now’’ she glared at me, ‘’I’ll get you good next time’’ she said with a little smirk and I flew off again towards Canterlot.

I reached Canterlot after a few minutes of flying, I could have gone by train but that would have taken a longer time and cost me money. I reached the castle gates that were guarded by two tall earth pony stallions in golden armor, ‘’Halt, who goes there’’, one of them said loudly, ‘’A-Ace’’ I responded. ‘’Ace who?’’ he said and glanced at me and then toward a piece of paper he took from a bag, ‘’j-just Ace’’ I responded. ‘’okay, you may pass’’ he suddenly said, placed the note back and opened the gate.

I walked though and followed a path towards the main door of the castle and passed another group of guards, who also let me past after looking at a note. ‘’what is going on’’ I thought to myself, I was now inside the throne room. There she was sitting on her throne, princes Celestia.

I walked forward towards the throne, meeting Celestia’s gaze halfway. I bowed before the throne, ‘’my princes, what do you need me for?’’ I asked and came out of the bow. ‘’ahh Ace how great to see that you could make it this fast’’ she said with a smile, ‘’had any trouble with my faithful student?’’ she stood up from her throne, not awaiting an answer, my face was explanation enough.

‘’now follow me, we have business to discuss’’ she opened a door with her magic and walked through, I was following close behind. I had no idea where this was all about, or even what I could expect.

‘’here he is gentlecolts’’ Celestia said to a group older colts with a war map in front of them, I saw the map and my heart sank, ‘’okay I’m out’’ I turned around and walked back towards the door, as it flew shut. I sighed, ‘’not this again’’ I smuttered, ‘’please listen first, we need your special talent, we need your skills and experience’’ Celestia said with a pleading voice. ‘’ugh, fine... Not that I have a choice or something. And how do you know my special talent, I don’t even have my cutie mark yet’’ I was getting tired of being kept hostage.

‘’have you heard about the attack of the changelings we suffered from a few years ago?’’ Celestia asked me, I nodded. ‘’well we discovered that Queen Chrysalis is recovering her army again, and planning to attack Canterlot again… But she hasn’t been able to get in contact with ponies for a long time and thus not been able to consume their love, this means she is weak, very weak’’

‘’okay, and what do you want me to do?’’ I asked slightly confused, ‘’I tapped into your memories and found out that you are a very sneaky type, with astonishing abilities… and you know how to make a quick and clean kill’’ Celestia said with a straight face, ‘’we need you to infiltrate her lair and finish her miserable life, making Equestria safe again for the millennia to come’’ I gasped my mouth wide agape, ‘’you want me to kill her, a queen, in a beehive like compound…’’ I said dumbfounded.

The princes nodded, ‘’and if you will do it I will give you wealth unimaginable to you, and a wish you heart most desires’’, she leaned down next to my ear with her muzzle, ‘’let’s say a certain purple unicorn’’ she whispered. ‘’b-but h-how…’’ I stuttered, ‘’you silly colt, I am a goddess I know what I need to know. And I am not happy that Twilight kept this from me, normally I would remove her title as my student, but if somepony could prevent me from doing such a thing…’’ she said with a straight face.

I was being bragged by a prices, no a goddess. I groaned, ‘’why me, why don’t do it yourself? I asked angrily, ‘’I am love bound to my subjects; each and every pony is connected to me with love, as I am to them. Changeling can detect love of ponies, and even though I am a goddess I am not able to defeat thousands of changelings at once who are able to prepare as they can sense me form where we stand. But you, you aren’t a real pony, they cannot detect you. Plus your stealth and combat abilities are better than mine, at least the stealth part, it is not easy to hide with solar power radiating through me’’ she said her smirk now a bit more sincere. ‘’please ace we need you, you are our only chance to prevent this, even if you have to kill somepony else we do not have a choice’’.

‘’So you are saying that my love is not real, but it feels real, to me!’’ I said an pounded my chest, ‘’first you order me to kill somepony, like I haven’t done enough killing in my life before then you brag me by threatening Twilight, who obviously also means a lot to you and last you call me not real…’’ I said almost raging, ‘’no I did not say that, I said that they detect pony love, and you are not a real pony. Your love is on another frequency they can’t detect’’ she said simply, ‘’so you’ll do it?’’ I sighed and thought for several moments, ‘’I’ll do it… for Twilight’’.

________________________________________________________________________

I spend the whole day planning my approach with the elder colts; I also found out that I would be accompanied by another pony, well a filly, Scootaloo. Celestia said that she had been trained by the best and had a great talent for stealth action for such a young age, almost as great as mine. I didn’t even know I had a talent for sneaking, but now I thought about it, I always found a way to steal cookies from the cookie jar without being detected when I was still a child, and my flying skills where highly coordinated. The only problem there was with having Scootaloo with me is that she couldn’t fly yet, her wings grew slowly which causes her to be ground bound until her teenage years, this I found rather sad, but she didn’t seem to mind.

‘’uhm princes, c-can I tell Twilight what is going on. She must be really worried’’ I asked with my head lowered, ‘’no you can certainly not, I know my faithful student well and I am sure that she will try to interfere. You may go and say your farewell, thus this mission is of no guarantee that you will return’’ Celestia said.

The mission was all planed and set up; the preparations would take around a week, so I decided to be with my loved one as I could be the last time. I left the castle and flew back towards Ponyville; the sun was setting at the horizon. ‘’I wasn’t that late’’ I thought. I reached the library after a while, but I didn’t rush, I was still thinking about the risks and how I had to lie to Twilight. I wasn’t sure if I could overcome even one of them.

I reached the library and opened the door, the whole library was dark, and not a single source of light was in sight. ‘’H-hello… Twi I’m back’’ I walked deeper into the library and the door behind me fell closed and all the lights went on all at a time, ‘’SURPRISE!’’ everypony yelled out as they came from their hiding spots, one pony jumped out especially high, Pinkie Pie. I jumped up from shock and my heart skipped a beat, the music started playing and everypony walked to me and congratulated me.

I had no idea where it was for, so I asked Pinkie Pie, ‘’It’s your birthday you big silly’’ she said while jumping around. I face hoofed, ‘’how could I be able to forget my own birthday’’ I muttered silently, ‘’and who told you in the first place today was my birthday?’’ I asked to the pink party pony. ‘’everypony is my friend, and I know everything about my friends… and Twilight told me’’ she said the last part very fast and very silently, she started to blush and skipped away.

In the corner of my eye I saw Twilight, she had done her best to look as pretty as she could. Our eyes met, she giggled and blushed, I now noticed that my mouth was agape at the sight of the beautiful mare. She trotted up to me, ‘’happy birthday Ace’’ she quickly looked around to be sure no one was looking and gave me a quick kiss on the lips, ‘’thanks Twi… you look amazing’’ I said causing her to giggle again.

‘’were have you been all day?’’ Twilight said in a sad tone, ‘’you gave me the time to prepare the party together with Pinkie, but still I-I missed you. I was starting to think that you would be away all night’’ she looked curious again, ‘’so now what did the prices need of’’

I sighed, ‘’she wants me to go help with something across Canterlot, three days flying from here… I leave next week’’ she looked shocked, ‘’so how long will you be away?’’ tears started to well up in her face, ‘’what do you have to do there?’’

‘’Twi listen, I am not sure what I have to do there, but the princes said it could be dangerous and that you shouldn’t come with me. I am already telling you too much, I’m sorry Twi’’ I lowered my head also feeling tears to start and well up in my eyes, ‘’what are the conditions, you wouldn’t simply accept for a simple please, right?’’ she asked suddenly very serious. I looked her straight in the eye and smiled ‘’s-she said she would grant me everything I wished for, a-and she knew about…’’ I stopped and looked down, ‘’about what?’’ Twilight asked. ‘’a-about us…’’ Twilight her mouth shot open and a little scream came out before she shoved her hooves in her mouth, her eyes started to water and she shook her head in disbelief.

‘’I wished her for that she would allow us to be together, and that you would stay her student’’ her eyes shot open and a small smile came on her face. ‘’w-was that really your wish?’’ Twilight asked, I nodded. She shot forwards and kissed me passionately, she didn’t care about the rest of the ponies around us.

‘’Woohoo, go Twilight’’ Pinkie Pie yelled, causing everypony to look towards us. We didn’t break the kiss, ‘’woh nelly’’ Applejack said with her mouth agape, ‘’I knew it’’ Rarity said with a huge grin on her face, ‘’t-that’s… nice’’ Fluttershy said softly with a little smile, ‘’hey AJ that reminds me of us’’ Rainbow Dash whispered in Applejack her ear, causing the earth pony to blush.

Authors note: The next chapter is a detailed ending of this chapter *cough* clop *cough*