"You have a bright future ahead of you, Meteor Shower. You are the arbiter of my will, carrying out missions at my personal dictation. I expect you to carry that wherever you go, to wear it with pride. You're more than a stallion, more than a Royal Ranger; you are the will of the Empress. A servant to the GLORY and BRILLIANCE of Equestria itself."

"Impress me."

When I awoke, it was in a hospital. I struggled against the cables and wires attached to me, a Royal Honor Guard sitting at the foot of the bed getting to his hooves. "Empress Twilight" he declared, and from around the corner of the hospital curtain came my Empress. She was in Her public regalia, and She approached my bed. The Honor Guard turned and left the room, leaving me wih the Empress, who looked down at me with care.

"Welcome back, Meteor Shower. To not only the land of the living, but to Equestria" Empress Twilight said, and I nodded in response, feeling exhausted. My head hurt like Tartarus, and I felt bandages wrapped around my barrel. "The doctors said you were in a coma, likely brought on by the smoke inhalation. They were confident you would awake, but they couldn't say when. I did some reading, and found that the average coma lasts six months. There was actually some rather fascinating material in there on the state of activity the brain--" the Empress paused, Her ears flicking as She realized that She was beginning to ramble. "Well, at any rate, I am glad that you are awake."

"Surely I haven't been out that long?" I asked quietly, unable to speak properly. I closed my eyes, trying to stay rested.

"No. You've only been out a week. Still, that week did not bode well. You had lost a fair amount of blood by the time the Startroopers reached you, and were unconscious. You had a mild concussion, likely from that stupid ship ramming stunt you pulled, and you had G-sickness from being in zero gravity for so long" Empress Twilight explained.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" I said, referring to the ship ramming.

"Why must Royal Hunters be so reckless and suicidal?" Twilight exasperatedly asked. I grinned slightly, and I realized I was on painkillers.

"We do it for you, my Empress" I answered, earning a groan from Twilight.

"Ugh. You're lucky you're already in a hospital bed, or I'd have put you in one for being so stupid" Twilight stated.

I nodded. "Empress? How did you know to send Startroopers into the ship to find me?" I asked.

"I was alerted the moment Flurry Heart's ship got close to Equus. I immediately had the fleet move in to intercept, the Horsewell and Marelothian racing in to stop her. When her ship was found to just be floating in orbit I ordered that the vessel be boarded. The Startroopers found your crashed fighter jet and just followed the trail of destruction you wreaked to where you had fallen" Twilight explained.

"I wasn't the only one carving that path of destruction" I said with pained mirth, remembering the Shining Armor AI.

"I won't bother you any more. Get some rest. I'll be awaiting your report when you recover."

Two weeks later I found myself once again trotting down Her Majesty's Walk, heading into Castle Twilight. I ascended the stairs, the Honor Horns allowing me passage, and I entered Her private tower, announcing my presence as I went up the steps. I found Her in Her living room, reading the book with the red-and-gold sun on the cover. "Ah, Meteor Shower! You're up and about now. Good! How are you feeling?" Empress Twilight asked me.

"Better. I'm prepared to deliver unto you my report regarding Princess Flurry Heart and her ambitions" I answered, Empress Twilight setting the book down and getting up. She motioned for me to follow Her, and up we went, past the kitchen floor and into Her bedroom. She stopped in the center of the room, looking up at the colored banners that hung from the ceiling; purple, pink, orange, white, blue, and yellow. She let out a sigh and turned around, facing me.

"Start at the beginning."

I spent the next hour recounting my mission, from where it began on Equus Prime, to Tirek, to Hydra, to the Sol system, and back to the Horsehead Nebula. I told Her of Moondancer, the Sisters' Pie, the soul gems Flurry Heart had used, the facsimiles of the Elements, how she was responsible for the Starborn uprising, the Harmony device, and the Shining Armor AI. I told Her why the Starborn pledged allegiance to Flurry Heart, and why they'd been buying things no robot would ever have need of. I told Her of the six fillies Flurry Heart took from their home, and how she planned to give the Starborn the soul of a pony. I told Her about the fight with the Sisters' Pie, the fight with Moondancer, Shining AIrmor's death, and my fight with Flurry Heart. By the end of it all, She appeared troubled.

"So many echoes of Equestria's past. My neice, my brother, Moondancer... I am glad to know that Shining AIrmor was still operational, and that he died fighting our enemies. But, to know that so many ponies that I once called friends and loved ones were involved. It's a difficult burden to bear" Twilight said.

"They were traitors of the New Dawn, and traitors of you, my Empress" I told Her, and She looked at me with a brow raised.

"Who told you about the New Dawn?" Empress Twilight inquired.

"The Shining Armor AI did. It told me about Equestria's past, and how you came to power. It told me about the remote mountain community you visited, and the beginning years. It also told me about the first of the Royal Hunters, particularly that Flurry Heart was the first Hunter" I answered truthfully.

"Hm. My brother told you things you were never meant to know of."

"The Shining Armor AI indicated as much, my Empress. Know that I do not feel any differently to how I did before, regardless of the knowledge given to me."

"Did Flurry Heart tell you anything?" Twilight asked of me.

"Nothing that I believed, or cared about. She told me that you killed Equestria's old rulers, Princess Celestia and Luna, and that she was shown the truth by Fluttershy's Harmony Brigade. The Shining Armor AI also told me that Flurry Heart was the first Royal Hunter" I explained.

"If you still pledge your loyalty to me, even in light of all this, then you are truly an honorable stallion, Meteor Shower. A lesser pony would've turned their back on me if they'd been told the things you have" Empress Twilight stated. "You told me that Flurry Heart intended to return Equestria to the way it 'should' be. Tell me; who did she think I really was?"

"Flurry Heart believed that you had been possessed by a dark entity that had corrupted your thoughts, and she planned to use her facsimiles of the Elements of Harmony to cleanse your mind of these thoughts. She claimed her facsimiles would work, because she tested the Harmony device on a creature she spawned" I explained.

"Flurry Heart was a terribly misguided mare. Do you believe it would have worked?" Twilight asked, prompting me to shake my head. "Of course it would not have worked. Do you want to know why her facsimiles would not have worked? It's not because they weren't properly powered, because I suspect they were, but because I am not posessed by any dark entity. I have not been corrupted by an evil spirit. No, I believe the way I believe of my own volition. It is by my own thought and experiences that I think the way I do, and why I have recreated Equestria the way I have. I have forsaken Harmony, in favor of Manifest Destiny, and nothing would make me go back. That is why Flurry Heart would have failed. Not because of any miscalculation on her part, but because she was wrong."

"I understand, Twilight" I replied.

Twilight looked at me for another few moments, her head turned to the side as her eyes scanned my body, coming back up to look into my eyes after a moment. "Tell me; what do you think of what you've learned? Do you believe anything Flurry Heart told you?"

"No. I only believe what the Shining Armor AI told me. It said the famine never happened, and that you DID kill the Princesses Celestia and Luna. But, given the world you have built for us all in the centuries since it happened, I don't care. If you choose to have these things omitted, or embellish a little, in our history books... Well, who am I to judge the will of our Empress?" I answered.

"That's a good Hunter" Twilight commented. "Now, why don't you head home and get some more rest? I can tell when a soldier is faking being alright, just to throw his abused body back into the fight, but it's even worse when dealing with Royal Rangers, and especially you Hunters."

"It's all part of the job, Empress" I said, turning around and heading back downstairs, exiting out of Castle Twilight and back into Canterlot, heading to the home I so rarely visited, the midday sun beaming down on me. Our world was intact, our Empire still existed, and the lesser species were still subservient to our will. All was right with the world.

And I would always endeavor to ensure it stayed that way.

So ends the story of the Midnight Rising Incident. Five lost, misguided souls ignorantly campaigning against not only their Empress, but even their own interests. We are the greatest, most powerful species in the galaxy. Why would anypony want to give up that position, their inherent superiority? Flurry Heart and her followers spent too much time worrying about the other species and not enough time worrying about Equestria. In their quest to 'restore Equestria' they would've dragged us all down to the same level as the other species, and made us as dumb and ignorant as the rest of them.

That's all in the past now, though. Equestria has moved on past the Midnight Rising Incident. Our way of life continues, and our position remains secure. I look back on this incident, and the things I was told by not only the Shining Armor AI, but also the mad Princess Flurry Heart, and I think of just how different life was under the Princesses. It is something I could never fathom. I could not imagine life without the things we have now, the things we know now, and the position we hold now. I don't care if life under the Princesses was simpler, and I certainly don't care about the other species, all I care about is Equestria, and my encounter with Flurry Heart has confirmed what I've always known: that life under the Empress is better.

But now, I understand why Her Majesty prefers us to speak on a personal level. Why She does not care for curtsies. She wishes to retain Her humility, even after everything She's accomplished. And, yes, She wishes to keep tabs on those closest to Her, so that She may prevent what happened with Flurry Heart all those centuries ago from happening again. She's lost everything from Her life pre-Ascension. Her parents are gone, her aunt Cadence is gone, her brother is gone, and now her niece is gone. All She has left is the Royal Protector, Spike, and me. The Royal Hunter. When I am retired, and dead and gone, the next Royal Hunter will take that place, as not only Her right and left hooves, not only as an arbiter of Her will, not only for the betterment of all of Equestria and pony kind, and not only as a symbol of our collective might under Her divine wisdom and power...

...but also as Her friend.

I can only hope they realize and appreciate that fact sooner than I have.

Author's Note

The end of Midnight Rising.

What a ride. This story was far outside the norm of my usual writing style, and was a subject I've not yet explored. I felt as though a story where the roles of the protagonist and antagonist were reversed was a concept not often explored by other writers, and the 1st-person prose was a very interesting challenge to tackle. As some of my long-time readers should know, I enjoy writing stories that are not black and white, but rather shades of gray, and while Meteor Shower is a bad pony, who does bad things, I tried to portray Flurry Heart as her own form of evil, who raised six ponies just to harvest their souls and use them to power her facsimiles of the Elements, believing that the ends justified her means. I made sure to flesh out this scenario as much as I could, but should you have any questions or confusions about the story or the lore, I will be more than happy to answer you. I understand if there might be some moments that seem confusing, because the story is written in a way that's intended to be from the viewpoint of Meteor Shower, and the things he was told and taught growing up(the "official" history and lore) conflicting with the truth of Equestria's history as lost echoes(that aren't really meant to be trusted) tell him(aka you, the reader) things that conflict with the "official" history. Writing this story was some of the most fun I've had since I wrote Sins Never Die, and I greatly enjoyed crafting the lore and weaving in all the world-building of Equestria's past as it tied in with the events of the story's present. I truly hope that you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it, and I hope to see you again on future stories. For now, this is CodenameOne, and I'll see you starside.

Update 12/9/19: read the prequel, Tears of Harmony, available now!