Moonlit Memories

"So, he was a Border Guard" Sunrise mumbled to herself, remembering the zeppelin she rode in, it reminded her of a scout zeppelin used by the Border Guard, but with a larger turbine.

"Yea, one of the badasses in the guard, made his rank in four years, most can barely get to sergeant in that time. The guard took a toll on him, though. Before the guard, it was Friday night parties, getting hammered, and waking up completely fucked up with a hangover. After it was having a drink to wash away the terrible things he seen, and lashing out at anyone who talked bad about the guard, or the people he knew, bar fights and sending people to the hospital. He moved away from Trottingham to get away from it all, never knew where he moved to, I thought he went to Appleloosa." Vinyl seemed not to have kept in contact with him

"He lives in Ponyville, runs the Ponyville Morgue," Sunrise said, confused, Vinyl lived in the same town as Moonlit, how did she not know?

"He does!?, man, I wonder why I didn't hear about a party greeting a new pony from Pinkie Pie?"

"In his time in the guard, a pack of manti lions attacked his squad, it was when he was a grunt soldier, he and 3 others were ones only to survive, they were having a birthday party for the squad leader, the leader was one of the causalities." Sunrise coldly stated.

"THAT IS TERRIBLE!" Vinyl was shocked about the event that her friend apparently witnessed.

Moonlit and Octavia was in a conversation about Vinyl's past, and the stupid stuff they did, and the way of Trottingham trash, as he put it. "So, how did a classy Canterlot mare fall in love with a Trottingham thug?, I don't come off as 'that' type of mare" Vinyl was blushing and nervous about the waters that their conversation was going.

"What do you mean by 'that' kind of mare!?" Octavia protested "And 'Trottingham Thug', Vinyl never mentioned a lot about her past from her past" Moonlit was now looking at Vinyl, neither wanted this conversation to pop up, but it slipped.

"Well...uhmmm" Moonlit started "Let's just drop this topic, eh?" Octavia was not dropping it, she was in the need to know about Vinyl's past.

"No, let's keep talking about that part of Vinyl being a thug" now Moonlit and Vinyl was choking on the topic at hand, their past wasn't the cleanest.

"Well, we were in the bad part of town and fell into a shitty crowd, let's just say we did a few things that weren't very nice" Octavia wasn't letting Moonlit stop with this conversation, and she said as much "We mugged, drank, and smoked some very illegal herbs, and ran from the police every time we got spotted, let's just say during my time in the guard, the Princess owed me a favor, and I got us clean slates" Moonlit and Vinyl nervously smiled. Octavia wasn't pleased, but she was willing to forgive her lover's sins, and the continued to the castle, it was a good hour of friendly conversation before they reached the gates of the Castle, the Guards out front lost composer at the sight of the former Captain, the two high-ranking ones looked in disbelief and trotted toward the former captain and smiled.

"I'll be, is that Cpt. Moonlit coming back to the Guard?"

"No, this is a VIP that has an appointment with Celestia over the death of Cpt. Solar Wind" Moonlit said, but the three apparently knew each other.

"I am sorry for your loss, and you know he changed his name, right?" The guard said correcting Moonlit.

"I am aware, but a legal document won't make me forget the name of being 'lil brother, and I thought Border Guards stay at the border, I didn't know the border was pushed back to the gates of the castle" Moonlit, teasing the guard.

"Captain, I changed over to the Royal Guard after you resigned, it just wasn't the same without the Captain that made the Hellhole actually fun" The guard was smiling wide now before he added "Cpt. Horny Head" the three guards started laughing so hard that they almost lost balance and fell.

"Man, Deputy Cpt. Chicken Wings, I forgot that name and Private Potato, how have y'all been?"

"I got married, three foals, Potato over here got married and divorced, that skank took every bit he had, and it's Sgt. Chicken wings and Lt. Potato to you, Cpt. Horny" they all laughed, but Sunrise was getting a little impatient, and at the sight of her, the two active guards shot to attention, leaving Vinyl, Octavia and Moonlit confused.

"Lt., Sgt.," she stated with an unimpressed tone "You are on duty, and I expected you two at your post and stand there, not chatting with your former superior, I'm your boss now so get back the work" Sunrise wasn't happy with the two, but Moonlit was still confused.

"Rank" he turned to Sunrise and asked, she was confused at first, but she caught on.

"Commander Sunrise at your attention, Sir" She stated with a slight grin.

"Either you are treating me like a VIP, or you think a Captain is a higher rank than you" he wasn't sure about that 'sir' part.

"Four hours before you resigned, paperwork to make you a General was completed, so technically, you outrank me" she said.

"Well, that's some shit, so if I told you to run 1,000 laps around this castle, you would?" he asked, and sunrise deflated.

"Yes, but please don't, that would kill me, and I haven't done anything bad" she answered.

"Technically, you interrupted a superior's conversation, but, I'll let that slide" he winked at her.

"If you don't mind, can we-" Sunrise started but got interrupted

"Wait, I resigned, so I can't do anything, so why did you say I could still order you?" Moonlit was confused

"Did you never get the letter? Celestia wanted you back, so she informed you, but your rank was held until you answered the letter, but you are still recognized as such" she answered the question, making Moonlit ponder

"General Moonlit, man, I need to be put into the Lunar Guard to make that sound right" Moonlit joked. They continued onwards to get to the throne room, when they got there, Celestia and Luna was in there, but the door was barely opened, so Moonlit told everyone to stop and be quiet, he wanted to make an entrance that would be funny to him and Vinyl, but he wasn't sure about the other two, but that didn't matter, he turned his plot to the door, he then gave the large marble door a hefty buck, and it went flying open he entered with a sarcastic smile on his muzzle, the guards inside and the two princesses were surprised by the intrusion, and moonlit was going to milk this rank, just to get back to Celestia. He walked in and ordered the Guards into a line in front of him, he was going to enjoy this

"As you might know, I am former Cpt. Moonlit, but Celestia made me General Moonlit, and I ain't impressed with y'all sacks of lazy guard trash, step forward if you were on duty when the changling attack happened" all of the guards stepped forward, Celestia wasn't impressed with the General's actions, but she wanted to see what he was planning.

"Well, no shit" Moonlit began " So, Y'all was damned near defeated by a surprise attack, which you are trained to counter, is that right you sacks of shit!?!" Moonlit raised his voice, and Celestia knew where this might be heading, but she wasn't stopping Moonlit, she was interested with this surprise. "While I know it was rough, HOW THE LIVING FUCK DID A SIMPLE ATTACK CATCH YOU OFF GUARD!!" he was going to deal with this problem right here, no one fucks around in his guard. everyone was quiet. "That was a question, and if you don't answer it, you will wake up in a hospital bed from internal bleeding, ANSWER ME!!!". Luna was briefed on this stallion, but he was more of a hardass on his guards than the reports said.

"General, If we could intervene with your conversation with thy's guards, why are they lined up?" Luna asked, not catching onto the reason he was pissed.

"Because, they are apparently under trained, so here is what is going to happen" He was still smiling but it goes full on with his last sentence. "Beginning now, all the Border Guards from this year's class will become Royal Guards, and all Royal Guards will train to be better, at the Border Guard's expenses that it, and they will never make my guard look like little shit heads during an attack ever again' he turned to the guards "Get all guards that were here on duty during the Canterlot Invasion and ship them to Border Guard training grounds, bring the Border Guards that are graduating here, and I will make the combat training in the guards more deadly and efficient so that shit won't happen again" he looked at the sad Sunrise and took a moment to think "But, one of y'all get Commander Sunrise's file for me, I'll take a personal look at it, same with Lt. Potato and Sgt. Chicken Wing" a pegasus went to get the three guard's file. "The rest of y'all heard me, get going, roundup and ship all those guards for more training. DISMISSED!" the rest of the guards took off at incredible speed, he approached the Princesses, who had mixed feelings about the General's orders, but they would trust him.

"So, how long has it been, I hope if you don't mind me calling you Captain?" Celestia asked

"I would prefer General, and could we move this to the Royal Conference Room, we all could sit there and discuss our situation" Moonlit smiled after correcting Celestia, Sunrise turned and started walking away, but Moonlit wasn't done with her. "Commander, I would appreciate it if you accompanied me for a little longer" he said with a hint of friendliness in his voice

"Yes, sir" Sunrise wasn't going to argue, but Moonlit was acting if a plan was blooming, and that could be good or bad for her, but she had no choice in the General's question, he would have kept insisting.

"Good, well, let us go" He lead the way, the two princesses was behind him, and behind them was Sunrise, Vinyl, and Octavia.

When they got settled in the room, he asked a guard for some whiskey on the rocks, a martini for Octavia, a glass of vodka for Vinyl, White wine for Celestia and red wine for Luna. Once everyone had their drinks Moonlit began the conversation. "So, I was right, wasn't I Celestia?" he said, but Celestia and Luna were confused.

"Whatever do you mean, General?" Celestia asked

"I said he was going to die in the guard, and here we are, but I will forgive you for backstabbing me on that one, because I know he had a will, and I want to see it, I am afraid that he left everything to one of his past wives, and I can't allow that" Moonlit stated

"About that, he left everything to you, but since you cut contact with him, you never got a different set of news," Celestia said, nodding to Luna who left, leaving the five in the room.

"And what news would that be, Tia," Moonlit said with an interest in his voice. "What news-" Moonlit was cut off by an unfamiliar voice, it sounded like a filly from here in Canterlot.

"Are you my Uncle?" the filly called from behind Moonlit, he stopped and looked behind his chair, the filly had a white coat and a mane that was light green on the left and dark green on the right, she was a pegasus, she defiantly looked like his brother, but he wasn't convinced.

"And whom may I have the honor of meeting, Miss-" Moonlit stopped to get a name

"My name is Solar Light"

"Well, it sounds like a name that he would come up with," Moonlit said "Is your father Solar Wind?"

"Yes" she said, smiling that she won't be orphaned if this is her uncle.

"May you come over here?" Moonlit said with a smile. she trotted over and hopped up onto the chair Moonlit looked uneasy, then the fully curled up right below his chest, and between his fore legs and yawned, everyone but the confused Uncle smiled at the cuteness, and before he said anything, the filly fell asleep. "When was the last time she slept?" Moonlit asked Luna.

"A moon ago, before she got the news" Luna answered, Moonlit nodded and turned toward Vinyl and Octavia.

"looks like you two are aunts,how does that feel?" The two mares thought about it for a few seconds.

"Why do I feel old?" Vinyl said, making everyone laugh

Moonlit turned to Celestia "Look, I'm not going to hold a grudge, but don't fuck with me, I don't like being made a fool of" he said, Celestia nodded.

"Now, you will get his money put on your account, and what of his possessions?" Celestia asked

"Send them to Ponyville, I have a house I never used, it's an old ranch that I let a family in Ponyville use for cows, I think it's the Apple Family?" Moonlit said

"She is the Element of Honesty if you didn't know, and all business will be sent to Twilight's Castle, so you will meet the others that know Applejack" Celestia said "But, how did you know that he died?, I told her not to tell you."

"I forced her, I don't like liars, so I told her to tell me the truth, or I crash the zeppelin into the ground, and I got suspicious when she said LUNA sent for me when she probably knew nothing of me other than what you told her, and while we are on that topic, I need a replacement for the Ponyville Morgue"

"WHAT?!?" Octavia yelled "You worked at the morgue!?"

"Yea, No one dies in Ponyville apparently, so I got a job there, it was peaceful" Moonlit said. Then the pegasus that he sent to retrieve the files arrived "Thank you, dismissed" he said, then began cross referencing the three files "O.K, these three won't need extra training, they apparently kicked and fought the whole time, and saved quite a few, also, Sunrise, I'm Promoting you to be my right-hand mare, if you wish to relocate to Ponyville, I will pay for the expenses for a place for you to stay"

"Please, you said you owned a ranch" Sunrise questioned

"Yes, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, kitchen, living room, and a ton of land" Moonlit answered

"Could I move in? if that ain't a bother, I wouldn't want to trouble you with living expenses" Sunrise asked

"why not, the more the merrier as they," he said "And Vinyl, if you dare make it sound like I know you will, I will not forgive you" everyone laughed.

Soon after, the five left the castle and started for Ponyville, Solar Light sat in Sunrise's lap as Moonlit flew the zeppelin, and Octavia and Vinyl caught a train since there was no room in the zeppelin for them.