There stood a pony with a blue mane and a gray coat, his flank empty, and his long mane flowing in the breeze. The pony heard a peculiar sound, and the gray stallion turned around only to see his tiny dragon assistant standing right in front of him. The little blue dragon stood there with a nervous look in his purple eyes, his green spines shaking ever so slightly.
“Hey, Cook. What brings you here?” asked the colt awkwardly.
“Important message from Princess Celestia,” the diminutive dragon stammered out. With a burp of green flames, a sealed scroll materialized in the air in front of them, and floated down to the soft grass below. The stallion opened the letter apprehensively. He had never known the Princess to send letters to him exclusively.
Dear Faded Glory,
It is with a heavy heart that I write this message, for being the bearer of bad news is a burden I have been bestowed with many times in my years.
It was discovered early yesterday morning that your sister, Morning Glory, was missing while on a visit to the royal city of Canterlot. She was visiting your mother, who I am sure you are aware is one of my most trusted advisors.
I am also sure that I need not tell you the implications of this.
Morning’s kidnapping was done by professionals, of this I am sure. They were well trained enough to follow her until she was in a relatively secluded area, and managed to grab her in broad daylight without anypony noticing a thing.
Being a Princess means that I have many enemies, Faded Glory. It would take much too long for me to go through them all. The only lead we have to go on is a symbol that was delivered to your mother’s residence a few hours later, along with a lock of your sister’s mane. I will send this symbol through Cook so you may see for yourself.
In the meantime, you are probably wondering why I chose to contact you directly.
It is to deliver a warning.
I know you, Faded Glory. You have been within my castle walls many a time while visiting your mother from Ponyville. You are adventurous and brave. But you can also be brash and headstrong. I am sending you this letter to warn you not to go after your sister. I have already sent many patrols of my guards to investigate her disappearance.You must trust me in this, Faded. I know that you care about her, and I know that you would do anything to save her, but you must not put yourself in harms way in doing so, for your mother’s sake if not for Morning Glory’s.
Your mother is already in danger of losing one child, Faded Glory.
Do not put her in danger of losing another.
Yours,
Princess Celestia
Fade stood there petrified, his throat dry as dust. He could not comprehend what was happening around him. A wave of nausea swept over him, and he felt as if he could throw up at any moment. The little dragon was moving his lips but Fade could not hear him. All of a sudden he snapped back to reality. Cook was shaking his shoulder in alarm, and it was only then that he realized that he had fallen. A crowd had formed by then, all murmuring amongst themselves at the sight of the unicorn that had collapsed in the middle of town square.
In all the commotion, barely anypony noticed the blue dragonling as he burped forth another ball of fire, and this time a small metal figure materialized in the middle of it. The symbol clattered to the ground in front of him, and he examined it with wide eyes.
Nurse Redheart came by Fade’s side, but he pushed her away and struggled to his hooves.
“I’m fine.” said the stallion curtly.
“Sir, are you-” Redheart began.
“I said I’m fine!”, Fade snapped. He shrugged off her gentle hoof and started to stalk away from the crowd.
“Cook, go home.” said Fade.
“But-”, Cook stammered.
“Go home, Cook! I’ll meet you later, okay?” said Fade. He walked past, leaving behind a confused and slightly hurt young dragon.
“Where are you going, then?”, Cook called after his retreating figure.
Fade stopped in his tracks, and turned back toward his friend.
“I’m going to the library.”
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The stallion walked through the door only to see countless wooden shelves lined with hundreds of different books.
A voice called from behind the array of bookshelves. “Hello, sir! I’m a bit busy at the moment, so if you need any help my dragon Spike can help you! “ it said cheerfully.
He skirted around the shelves and followed the sound of the librarians voice. Twilight Sparkle stood in the center of the tree structure talking to a rough and tumble looking unicorn with a shock of electric blue hair. Fade could identify Ponyville’s resident DJ, Vinyl Scratch.
“Okay, so Vinyl, you want an enchanted disc?”
“Hay yeah! With disks like those, I could keep the bass pumpin’ all night long! Can you really enchant them to hold more tracks?”, the unicorn filly said excitedly.
Twilight chuckled, shaking her head. “Well, no promises, but I could certainly try.”
“Certain disc you want me to enchant,” asked Twilight.
“Yeah this one.” the unicorn said with a smile.
“Well uhh..” began Twilight
“You can do it right?” interrupted the pony.
“I think let me try.”
A blast of blue light came out of the purple pony’s horn and went into the disc.
“Can I try it?” asked Vinyl when the blue strip ended.
“Yes,” said Twilight with a smirk.
Vinyl grinned like a schoolfilly and snatched the record with her magic. Without any further ceremony, she slapped the disc in and pressed a round button on her amplifier. With a deafening roar, the amp started to blare the hard and heavy beats of one of Vinyl’s signature club songs. Both Fade and Twilight clapped their hooves over their ears, trying to drown out the cacophonous noise. The DJ pony didn’t seem to notice at all, and was instead bobbing her head in time with the music, still grinning maniacally.
Twilight was just about to try to smash the amp with one of her heavier textbooks when Vinyl shut the machine down. Still rubbing her tender ears, Twilight opened her mouth to berate the DJ when a white hoof was stuffed into it.
Vinyl looked at her through her purple shades.
“Shut up and take my bits.”
After the white hoof was removed from Twilight's moutht,Twilight looked at Vinyl.
“Like it?” said Twilight very sweetly.
“AWW YEAH!” screamed the unicorn.
“Twilight?” said Fade
“Vinyl will you step outside please?” said Twilight
Twilight looked to Fade when the door closed.
“Yes?” said Twilight her hair frizzly.
“Do you know anything about this symbol?” said Fade
He handed her the metal symbol.
“Yes this is the Dawns Shadow emblem its a front for a kidnapping organization. Why?” she asked.
“My sister was kidnapped and I need her back.” said Fade
“And I need help!”
Why should I help you? said Twilight looking confused.
Because your the only person who can help me!” said Fade his mane also getting frizzly.
“Are you or are you not the smartest pony in this city?” asked Fade giving her an eye.
Twilight tried to speak but Fade kept going on.
“Did you not defeat Discord and Nightmare Moon?”
“Did you not give Trixie a lesson?”
“ Well I did but I mean,i’m just a regular ol unicorn not a super hero. ‘ said Twilight.
“Please, help me!” said Fade who felt as if he could sob.
“Fine, but on one condition.” said Twilight.
“Anything.” said Fade.
“You have to pay for every book a pony needs for one day.” said Twilight.
“Okay.” said Fade
The door burst open and Vinyl came in.
“Look I may seem crazy but can I come along?” asked Vinyl
“Why?” asked Twilight
“Because i’m handy when it comes to sneaking around, and I can cause great distractions you know, if needed.” she said.
Like what? asked Twilight.
Well uhh, I can run out in the open so they can be focused on me while you run out of the situation. said Vinyl reassuringly
“She seems serious.” said Fade shrugging.
“Wait,let’s question her.” muttered Twilight.
“How do we know you won’t betray us?” asked Twilight.
“Really? I have known you since magic school!” said Vinyl with a “really?” look in her eye.
“Fine, but if you blow our cover we will boot you off the mission.” said Twilight.
Vinyl started jumping and smiling in delight.
“My friend Rarity can make very fine black cloaks.” said Twilight.
Cool, lets go. said Fade
Without another word they walked out of the door going to Rarity’s, Vinyl still jumping.
I would like to thank my editor AxanZenith and please check out his fic, Dreamer.