Twenty four hours later aboard the H.M.S Paris
Cloud Runner

You would think that a decent night’s sleep would help after the events of yesterday. And it very well might have some benefit, assuming I could actually get some sleep. All I could do was replay one moment through my mind; slapping that pair of cold steel handcuffs onto De Witt. It was energizing… Invigorating even, and that high was likely what was keeping me awake. By all standards I should’ve crashed by now, yet I see nor feel an end to this state of mind. For hours I’ve been staring up at the ceiling above the bunk I was using. And honestly it’s getting rather old.

Ding

I sat up in bed once I realized that the noise was the room’s door chime. “Come in.”

The door slid open and Sky stepped in from the empty hallway. The door shut behind her and Sky seemed to let her posture slouch. “Can we talk?”

I swung into a sitting position and patted the open space on the bunk. Sky plopped down, looking even more downtrodden than when that door first shut. “You OK?”

“Not really.” She sighed.

“Alright…” I muttered. “You want to talk about it?”

Sky offered a curt nod. “I just don’t know where to start.” She whispered.

“Then just go with what feels-”

“My wings!” Sky blurted out. “I had the two most important parts of my body ripped away from me while some psycho tried to teach you guys some vague lesson about… Fuck if I know. Yet here I am with them intact and usable. How the hell am I supposed to feel? Because I’m pretty conflicted at the moment.” She turned and grabbed me by the shoulders “How the hell do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Live with yourself!”

I sat there pondering Sky’s words and realized that she had a point. I got my own wings back within the last week. “Well… I don’t know. Sky, you got to remember that our dear General decided to alter my memories. Sure, I’ve got them back now… But everything else he did is still up in here.” I said, tapping the side of my head. “Even if I had time to really think about it in depth… Where I was without them for so long it’s just easier to cope with. It’s really more like a gift.”

Sky let me go and sat silent for a few moments. “I… How…” She finally sighed in defeat. “Maybe you’re right.”

“There’s some advice my Father told me when I was young, definitely after my ‘accident’.” I said, making fair use of air quotes at the same time. “Flying is a privilege. You can lose that privilege very quick if you do something stupid.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard a more apt piece of wisdom.”

“Ya, but my parents coddled me quite a bit after the General brought me home. Why do you think I went to college in Canterlot?” I stopped and mulled over the economics of it and came to a realization that I hadn’t previously considered. “I wonder if the General had something to do with that trust fund…”

“What are you going on about now?” Sky asked.

“My parents gave me access to a trust fund that they said has been in the family for decades.” I replied. “Now that I think about it I didn’t hear about it until I went to college… Might be something he left for me.”

“Does it matter?”

I shrugged. “Not really. It’s just something to think about.”

“Seems like there’s a lot of that going on…” Sky muttered.

“What else is there to think about?” I asked.

“Well what do I do now? Since I got here I’ve been tagging along with Sombra on his many expeditions to find what’s left of Princess Amore. He’s got what, two more pieces to find? I could either go do that, but then what? I’m not exactly a couch potato.”

“You might have a point…” I sat there pondering my own future and realized that the immediate prospects weren’t entirely that clear. “Something tells me I’m not getting my diploma anytime soon.”

“Why’s that?” Sky asked.

“Unless I’m mistaken half of Canterlot University is sitting at the bottom of the mountain.”

“That would be a problem.”

I don’t know how long we sat there, but the silence spoke volumes to our prospects. Neither myself or Sky had a clear plan for the future. We just helped end a war… What do you do after that? It’s clear that neither of us could settle back into our old habits, simply on the grounds that they’re either unavailable or hold unappealing long term prospects.

As if we were reading each other’s minds, both of us echoed each other's sudden determination. “We need to talk to Cosmo.”

Sky smirked as she got up off the side of the bunk. “I didn’t think a pegasus could read minds.”

“Please.” I chided. “I’m all original.”

Sky made for the door, and in the light that poured in from the hall I could see a full blown smile cross her muzzle. “We’ll see about that.”

***

Medical Ward, H.M.S. Paris
Cosmo

Every time I’ve been in a hospital was usually met with the din of nurses going about their work and the occasional doctor asking me questions about who I was there with or what I did to land myself in the emergency room. This time was different. Bar the beeping of the heart monitor the deck entire room was quiet. Considering there was a small mob of ponies milling about the deck I’d mark it up as a minor miracle. That miracle, however, clearly has a costly source. Laying in the only occupied bed in the ward was Specter, the young stallion that I’ve only barely known for a day. I felt it would be respectful to keep an eye on him, considering he was harmed under my watch. But to see Dusk and his own band of misfits here, along with a group of ponies that looked like they’d been through the ringer, showed that this young stallion is of some importance.

“How did you know him?”

I looked up at an older weathered stallion from my seat. “Who, Specter?”

“Ya.”

“He was with my team when he first got hurt.” I answered. “As far as I’m concerned that makes him my responsibility.”

The stallion pulled a chair next to me and plopped down. “It's been a long time since I heard someone use that justification.”

“Really?”

“Damn straight.” The stallion retorted. “I think I used that line of thinking last like what, twenty years ago now?”

“And I can’t say I’ve seen someone reflect on their own choices in a while either.” I offered.

“Name’s Jericho.” The stallion said, offering a hand.

I returned the gesture and shook the stallion’s hand. “I’m Cosmo.”

“Ah… You’re that stallion that Dusk recruited, aren’t you?”

“Yup. One of two ponies he managed to draft.” I answered. “And so far we’re both still kicking.”

“I never did get how Sky pulled it off.” Dusk said as he meandered over. “Better yet where’s she been hiding all these years?”

“I guess that bullet she got hit with was loaded with some drug that put her out for hours. As for where she’s been hiding… Well, as I understand it there’s been a bunch of nightclubs and running around ancient ruins with a supposedly reformed dictator from thousands of years ago.” I offered. “You know… Kid stuff.”

“Right… The whole Sombra thing.” Dusk droned. “I’ve never bothered paying much attention to him but I never heard about some gun-toting partner he had running with him.”

“And what did you hear?” I retorted. “Because all I knew is that Sombra was still kicking and searching for something. Beyond that I never heard anything else.”

“But you mean to tell me that the ponies in the know wouldn’t share that information with either of us? You mean to tell me that Celestia didn’t bother saying anything about a second pony running around dressed as a Desert Ranger? That right there just doesn’t jive with me.”

“And it doesn’t sit well with me either the more I think about it. But we can’t deal with a potential problem when we don’t know it exists.” I simply sat back in the chair and let my growing scowl relax. “But you know what? It doesn’t matter. Sky is my best friend, and when it counted she was there for me, Cloud, Trixie… She may not have been back in the game long but trust me when I say that I don’t think we would’ve been as successful down on that island without her.”

“Well that’s sweet.” I heard a feminine voice say behind me.

I turned around and offered a simple shrug to the mare and her witless wingpony. “What do you want me to say Sky? That you’re a complete jackass? Because that’s just as-”

“Just stop digging your grave Cosmo.” Sky replied with a chuckle.

Cloud grabbed a stool and slid it next to myself and Jericho. “So what have we missed?”

“Nothing much.” Dusk answered. “Specter hasn’t woken up at all, and the doctors are question whether he will. He lost a lot of blood just from the stab wound and deciding to make a kamikaze run at De Witt didn’t do him any favors. Couple that with the radiation -”

“Wait, what radiation?” I asked, questioning this new and unexpected tidbit of information.

Dusk and Jericho exchanged looks, almost like they didn’t know who should explain. “Lets just say there was an incident in the Northern Wastes and leave it at that.” Jericho finally admitted. “Forgive me for not wanting to talk about it, but it’s still a very raw topic.”

“At the end of the day we’ve been questioning how long Specter could handle the degradation that his radiation exposure was bringing on.” Dusk added. “I think he wasn’t all too enamored with his prospects down the road either.”

“Poor kid…” I muttered.

BEEP BEEP

Both mine and Dusk’s radios let off the same chime. I unhooked mine from my belt and clicked it on. “Cosmo here.”

“Cosmo, this is Captain Baxter. I need you and Dusk down in the brig now.”

Dusk and I both exchanged glances before we made for the door to the hall. “What do you think it is?” I asked.

“De Witt is down there…” Dusk droned as we made for the elevator. “Maybe they’re having trouble with an interrogation?”

Sky and Cloud caught up with the two of us as we stepped into the elevator to take us down further into the bowels of the Paris. “So you two don’t know what’s going on?” Cloud asked.

“If I knew I’d tell you.” I replied. We dropped down three decks before the elevator shuddered to a halt. The door opened to outside of the brig, under the guard of two human marines.

“What’s the problem gents?” Dusk asked.

The marines both stepped aside to let us into the brig. “Best that you see for yourself sir.”

Dusk shrugged and walked in without us. After a minute he came back out with a very different look on his face. It wasn’t one of confusion, but one of grave concern. “Cosmo, you need to see this.”

I waved Cloud and Sky off and followed Dusk inside. The grey of the painted bulkheads gave way to splotches of red all across the walls. We finally made it to the cell opposite of the door and I could see the source of Dusk’s concern; the decidedly headless and bloodied body of our prisoner was propped up in the back corner. “What the hell happened?”

“Would you believe me if I told you that his head exploded? Because that’s what happened.” Dusk answered.

“Believe you? De Witt’s missing his damn head. Even if I didn’t believe you I’m staring the proof right in the face!” I insisted. “Well… Or lack thereof but my point stands.”

“Baxter is pulling the surveillance-”

The decked out human officer swept into the room behind us and plopped a portable terminal down on the watch officer’s desk. “Got the footage right here.”

Both myself and Dusk joined the captain at the desk as he flicked on the monitor. The footage was only thirty seconds long; right away you saw De Witt fall to the floor before a massive explosion went off and tossed his body into the back corner of the cell, followed by marines rushing in. The tape ended shortly after the marines showed up. “That was it?” I asked.

The Captain nodded. “He sat in the same spot for twelve hours and didn’t move. No one came in this room, we already have three separate confirmations, one of which was the guard detail while the others were internal cameras and sensors. We’re assuming that his implants had some sort of explosive device built in, but we won’t know until we do a more detailed analysis.”

I glanced over at De Witt’s corpse before I returned my attention to the last frame of the surveillance camera footage. “Trust me Captain… There are some things better left buried.”

***

City of Emona, Carniola
Present Day
Cosmo

“After that there wasn’t much left for us to do here.” I said to Calvin, who had scribbling notes on the cardboard backing to his notepad by this point.

“Thats… That’s just incredible.” He murmured. “If I may Cosmo, what happened to your mother?”

“Mom? She came back to Vanhoover with me and has been living with me since we left the island. What was I supposed to do? Kick her out on the street?”

“Wow…” Calvin put his notepad down and sat back in his chair. “Something tells me this’ll be one hell of an article.”

“Well it better be.” Said Cloud. “We did just sit here for six hours going over what could essentially be a history book about the invasion.”

“History book…” Calvin scribbled that one last thought on the back of his notepad and underlined it before putting the pad back down. “I hope you don’t mind if I take the idea.”

“Go right ahead.” Cloud insisted. “I’m a bit rusty in the literature department anyway, so it would probably come out like shit if I wrote something.”

“It’s not like you have the time anyway.” Sky added.

“Hey, I have plenty of free time.” Cloud retorted.

“If you say so Cloud.”

“Well of course I say so! When’s the last time we did something big?”

“Can I ask another question?” Calvin asked as he grabbed a throw-away menu and flipped it over to the blank backside. “What happened to Specter?”

“He’s still hospitalized.” I replied. “He has been up and about but he’s still in shit shape.”

“Fair enough…” Calvin muttered as he scribbled that final tidbit of information down. “I think that this will do it.”

I grabbed the menu and pen, quickly scribbling down a phone number. “This is General Meteor Shower’s direct phone line. If you go ahead with this book, give him a ring and tell him I gave you the number.”

“Thank you.” Calvin said as a smile grew across his beak. “I’ll make sure to give the General a call.”

Then something vibrated in my pocket. “You do that.” I said as I got up. I fished out the small tablet from my jacket and saw that a new message had been received. I tapped the icon read four words; ‘Get back here - Mom’

As we walked out of the restaurant I made for the alleyway that ran along the side of the building. “What’s wrong Cosmo?” Sky asked.

“I don’t know.” I muttered as I led Cloud and Sky down the alley. I put the tablet back into my jacket and started charging up a teleportation spell. “But we’re leaving.”

POP!

In a flash of light and a brief sense of dizziness the three of us were standing in the hallway outside my Vanhoover home. “A warning would’ve been nice…” Cloud groaned as he tried to steady himself.

“You’ll live.” I retorted as I threw the door open and marched into the loft. “Mom, you here?” I didn’t get a response by the time I made it to the wide-open armory door.

“Wasn’t that shut earlier?” I heard Sky asked Cloud.

“It was.” I replied as I walked in. Normally there’s plenty of open floor space, but someone had brought in a large table and plopped it square in the middle of the room. At the head of the table was my mother Constellation, flanked by Phalanx, Trixie and Storm Chaser. “Where’d the table come from?” I asked

“I found it in the basement.” Mom replied. “It wasn’t too hard to get Phalanx to bring it up here.”

“Then why is it here?” I insisted.

“Because I need the help.”

I turned around to find that Sombra was hiding in the corner of the room behind me. “You could’ve called ahead.”

“You're right, I could’ve.” Sombra admitted as he took a seat at the foot of the table. “But I know you well enough at this point to know that you have an open door policy.”

“Fair enough.” I offered as I took a seat next to the former dark king. “So what’s on the agenda?”

“I take it you’re aware of my efforts to locate the final pieces of Princess Amore’s crystallized form?” I nodded and Sombra sat back in the chair. “Well I’m in the process of locating the final piece, and I’ll need assistance to recover it once I confirm it’s location.”

“That’s it?” I asked. “You just want our help finding a chunk of crystal?”

“If it was that simple I’d do it myself.” Sombra retorted. “Look, I can go into more details once I have them, but I need something solid to back me up. And I highly doubt that the Princess is willing to do much more for me at this point.”

“We always did it on our own before. What changed?” Sky asked.

“The need for advanced sensors and remotely operated drones.” Sombra answered. “Long story short that expended what little political capital I had with the Princesses.”

“So you need additional support.” I replied as I finally put the parts together. “And you want our help.”

“Not just you Cosmo. Your organization.” Sombra offered.

“How can you call me housing a bunch of homeless ponies and training them in self defense an organization?” I asked.

“Cosmo, there’s more to it and you know it.” Phalanx snapped. “We’ve been teaching the ponies downstairs basic investigative skills, martial arts, weapon maintenance and usage, computer principals… Look you get the idea.”

“And how do you get them to go along with a paramilitary organization? Huh? Answer that.” I retorted.

“They already signed up.” My mother answered as she pulled a sealed envelope out of her jacket. “And this makes everything they signed onto official.”

As the envelope skidded to a halt on the table in front of me I immediately recognized the royal seal. “Mom… What did you do?”

“I called in a favor.” She said as her smirk grew. “Go ahead, open it.”

“Fine.” I lifted the seal off the envelope and pulled out the letter it held. In large bolt type was a single word; Declaration. “Let's see… Effective immediately the crown recognizes that the group denoting itself as ‘The Northern Guard’ has interests in ensuring the sovereignty of Equestria and protecting its inhabitants. We hereby recognize the group as a legal entity that can move throughout the land without let or hindrance in pursuit of its goals.” I wiped the crust from my eyes and read the first part of the letter to myself again. “Son of a bitch… We just got a blank check.”

“Go on, there’s more isn’t there?” Sky chided. “I want to hear the rest of this.”

Sky was right, there was more. “To ensure that the Northern Guard is successful in its endeavors, we are gifting two percent of the current royal treasury to the organization as a means of investing in its continued service as well as deeding Pier Fifteen on the Vanhoover Waterfront to the group as tax exempt property that may be used at their discretion.” I put the letter down as a grin crossed my face. “Um… How big is the royal treasury?” I asked.

“Lets just say that your great grandfoals will have some left by the time they come around.” My mother added pointedly.

“And you did this?”

Mom offered a smirk. “More or less. And if it helps I’ve already called up some engineers to start drawing up plans for the pier.”

Of course Mom read the letter. That much should’ve been clear by the lack of tearing when I took the seal off the envelope. “And just how did you pull this off Mom?”

“Well, there may have been some blackmailing involved… And finding a lost pre-discordian text in the castle library when I got taken on a tour by General Meteor Shower last week. Not like it had been stuck behind a bookshelf for fifty years, but who am I to complain?” She said in as a nonchalant of a manner as she could. “I had Celestia begging me for ways to repay me, so I figured why not actually get paid for once.”

I could just imagine it. My mother standing with some wood-covered book with Celestia, or maybe just Princess Sparkle, begging her to not destroy the book. “I see you’re still good at getting what you want.”

“Of course I am.” Mom retorted. “Now what’s your next move kiddo?”

It should be obvious by now where I stand. I folded the letter back up and pushed it back into the envelope. “Sombra, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Author's Note

Thats it, we did it! Well I did it... There wasn't a team or anything- I can finally close the book on the Northern Guard story arc. The cliffhanger ending is done on purpose, as I eventually want to pick up another adventure with this crew. At the very least I've got an interesting short story idea going for Constellation revolving around her tour of Canterlot Castle, I've got a cover logo in the works to add to the story, and I'm thinking of how to justify Cosmo's comment at the end of Broken Mirror Part I where he expressed that he thought Specter was dead... At the end of the day we'll see where all that goes. In the mean time I'll be turning my attention back to Broken Mirror to keep that moving along.

In the meantime, anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker