Speedy woke up as he heard whimpering. Still sleepy, he opened his eyes, noticing it came from Apple Bloom, trembling in her sleep. “No…” She cried with a scared expression.
He wrapped an arm around her. “Shh, nopony’s gonna harm you anymore.” The stallion cleared his throat and started to sing in a soft voice.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the World so High
Like a Diamond in the Sky
When the blazing Sun is gone
When there nothing shines upon
Then you show your little light

Twinkle twinkle all the night
Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your little spark
He could not see which way to go
If you did not twinkle so
When the blazing Sun is gone
When there nothing shines upon
Though I know not what you are
Twinkle twinkle little star

As soon as he had finished, the mare stopped to whimper, sleeping peacefully again. Speedy let a tear escape, his mother used to sing this when he was a colt, briefly looking out of the window, admiring the stars. His mother had always been so caring, she hadn’t deserved such a fate. He then looked at the sleeping pony, stroking gently her mane. “I will not fail you.” The stallion whispered. With a sigh, he soon fell asleep.
Both couldn’t tell how much they had slept before a loud bang tore them out of their sleep. “What was that?” Apple Bloom asked scared.

“I don’t know, stay behind me.” He replied as he watched out of the window, noticing that smoke came from the front of the truck. “You gotta be kidding me!” They heard Fynn yell in surprise and anger. A few seconds later, the stallion walked into their room. “Sorry guys, for some reason, the engine overheated. Can you take a look?” Speedy yawned. “Sure, but tomorrow please, not in the middle of the night.”

“Natürlich, we managed to pull up at a resting place.”

“Okay.” With that, the two went to bed again. The blue pony woke up in the morning as a delicious smell entered his nose. “Good morning, Speedy, Ah made ya breakfast.” Apple Bloom walked in with a breakfast board, on it a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of juice. He smiled. “Thank you, but would not have been necessary.” Nevertheless, he enjoyed it clearly as he smiled while eating and drinking.

“It’s to show you my gratitude for saving me. If you hadn’t come, some other pony had taken me…”She shuddered. “If you don’t mind, how are your sisters?”
Speedy took a deep breath, his expression went neutral, making her fearing that she had upset him. “They're great.” He smiled weakly. “And proud of what I’m doing. In fact, you and your friends kinda remind me of them.”

“Ah do?” She asked curious.

“Yeah. My younger sister, Shinelight, is a unicorn with dark blue mane, blue eyes and a silver heart surrounded by a platinum flower as cutie mark, being friendly and politely, always ready to help. Her and my older sister is a Pegasus, called Passion. She has a dark pink coat, magenta mane and tail, the former tied into a ponytail and also blue eyes. She’s wants to keep Shinelight safe and sound but is as friendly and polite as her.”

“Do you think Ah could meet them?” This surprised Speedy a bit and he putted a hand to his chin. “Well, as I mentioned before, they are under Royal protection, but I think that can be arranged.”

“Okay.” Apple Bloom replied, “I think your mother would be proud of you and so would be your father.” As those words left her mouth, the stallion lowered his head. “Ah’m sorry if Ah woke bad memories.” The mare lowered her head in guilt.

Her friend then looked her into the eyes with a light smile. “It’s okay. Ma never told me about my father, I guess he died or left her but it seemed to affected her hard, not wanting that she would lose us too. When Onyx came, I guess she was too shocked to do anything. I don’t blame her.”

“Ah also never knew my parents. But say, do you have a marefriend? Ah mean a muscular, known stallion like you must get a lot of attention from mares. No offense.”

Speedy blushed slightly. “It’s fine. I do get a lot of attention but I’m not really social or have many friends. If I get a marefriend than rather after this is all over, I don’t want to pull someone innocent into the underground.” Upon mentioning the last word, the yellow pony started to tremble.

“Ah had a nightmare tonight. S-some goons chased us and k-killed you, having been ordered to recapture me and my friends.” She told with a shaking voice, only to be hugged by the blue Earth pony.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let that happen. Besides, you either have to be very stupid to have a really good team to mess with Fynn’s security.” He assured her in a calming voice and she smiled again.

“Yeah…You know, your first name reminds me of Speedy Gonzales.” That caused the young stallion to chuckle.
“It was my nickname in the military. Now, let’s see what we can do about the engine.”

Apple Bloom made a playful salute. “Yes, sir!” They got outside as Fynn suddenly stopped them. “We got company!” And pointed to a black Ford Mustang that pulled up. The windows were tinted, making it impossible to see who was inside, but it looked like an undercover police car.

But Speedy didn’t take any risks and turned to Apple Bloom. “Stay behind me.” She nodded in response, trembling slightly as he drew a Magnum revolver and took cover behind the truck with Fynn as the car came to a stop.

Three ponies stepped out, they all wore dark trench-coats, shades, silver street jewellery and sheer-black gloves tipped with small metal claws. As Speedy peeked around the corner, he could see one of them was a bat pony wearing a high collar, the other a Pegasus with a feather boa and a unicorn with a grey scarf.

They looked like mercenaries or like a gang, making Speedy suspect these could be sent by Sweetie Belle’s owner to eliminate him before he could reach her or the owner of Scootaloo, maybe even Xander. The sight of them put him on edge.

Then again, they wouldn’t be so stupid to approach casual and in the early morning. “Stay where you are!” He yelled, aiming his revolver at them, they stopped and calmly raised their hands.
“Relax, we mean no harm.” The grey stallion replied, sounding very relaxed. His voice was familiar to Apple Bloom but she couldn’t tell.

“Why should I trust you?” The blue stallion countered. “If we would, you'd probably be dead by now.” The bat pony replied and Apple Bloom started to realize why the voice was so familiar.

“Uncle Midnight!” She exclaimed and ran towards him to hug him, causing to smile, much to Speedy’s confusion. “Hey, Apple Bloom, I can’t say how happy I am to see you again.”

“Ah missed ya!” She exclaimed with a happy voice, crying tears of joy. He returned the hug. “I'm so sorry, Little Bloom, for everything you've been through. I couldn't stop it from happening but I swear, we will put an end to it.”

“Uhh, can somepony tell me what the hell going on?” The blue stallion asked in confusion, having his gun lowered.
“Sure, Speedy.” Fynn then looked at the unicorn. “Fletcher Fray, it’ nice to see you again.” Fray smiled. “Likewise.”

“You know each other?” Speedy asked his friend. “Ja, kind of a long story. I tell you in the truck, okay?”While being confused, Speedy replied, “Fine.”
After getting comfortable, the three ponies took their sunglasses off, revealing their eyes.

The Pegasus was a mare with fiery navy-blue coat with matching eyes and flowing silver mane and a very muscular build. She wasn’t gigantic but Speedy could definitely tell she worked out a lot from a mere glance. Fletcher had a long blonde mane, light blue eyes, fluctuating like water and a leaf-green coat. He was muscular, though not as much as the Pegasus, somewhat slender and slightly more youthful than most ponies who wore garb like his.

The bat pony had pure-white eyes and matching eyes, being of a muscular build Speedy had seen many things, but pupil less eyes were new to him that that started him slightly but did not show it.
“May I introduce: Midnight Blade.” Fynn pointed to the grey stallion who gave a wave, “White Wolf,” The mare nodded,” And Fletcher Fray.” The unicorn also waved.

“Okay, Fynn, how do you know Fletcher, and what are you doing here?” Speedy asked, slightly nervous. “Well, Fletcher is a member of the Armbrust household, one of the most well-known and respected households of Germaney. At least it was 1000 years ago, but my ancestors were good friends. I like it to keep it that way.” Midnight continued, “As for why we are here, do you know Derpy Hooves?”

“Of course I do, quite a friendly mare and caring mother.” Speedy replied.
“You see, a few years back before Apple Bloom got kidnapped, Derpy’s daughter Dinky went missing. Fletcher got dispatched to find her, befriending her in the process. After he returned, we also befriended the CMC.”

Ah, yes. There was something. The blue stallion thought, due his work, he barely had time to read or listen to news but heard faintly heard of it. “You’re the specialists of the Royal Guard, the Eternal Knights, correct?” He asked.

“That’s right. After this event, we helped the local police forces to take down sex slave rings as you did.”

“Then what took you so long?” The yellow mare asked. “Well, Apple Bloom, we actually responded quickly to your kidnapping but Onyx was really good in hiding his tracks, I give him that. When we found you, the chief gave the permission too late. It came when Onyx had already sold you and your friends.” The grey stallion told with regret in his voice, head lowered.

“This lowered our trust in the police force. Then, sometime later, Onyx kidnapped Dinky, Tootsie, Ruby and Noi.” Apple Bloom’s eyes went wide in fear. “Please don’t tell me-“ Midnight putted a hand on her shoulder with a smile.

“No need to worry. This time, we didn’t wait for permission and saved them before Onyx could do anything with them.”

“Despite our best efforts, he and his friends managed to escape. We also got banned to work with the police. Is actually better, we like to be on our own anyway. But I won’t forget the scared faces of Dinky and her friends.” Fletcher shivered.

“And while we had loved to get our hands on Onyx and his buyers, we are grateful you already took care of them.”

“So I guess you are here to bring them home once this is all over?” Speedy concluded. “Yes and to help you. As you know, Sweetie Belle and her owner will be at the Las Pegasus Days Festival. It is highly likely that Aldo knows of your attempts in freeing Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and has high security around her. Now, you may be strong but just because of that, you can’t win every fight. And there will probably a lot of other bad guys too. As we are experts in stealth and in combat, we thought we should back you up.” Midnight explained.

“Okay and what do you have?”
In response, Midnight made a swift move with his right arm and a blade extended from his elbow. Fletcher did the same and a Swiss army knife like device flipped from his wrist and fell into his hand into a swift motion, revealing it to be a bow.

The time it took Speedy to blink, Wolf stood in front of him with a knife close to his throat. “Does that answer your question?” She asked. The blue stallion replied without fear, “Neat.”

The mare slowly grinned, and he noticed she had fangs. “You got guts, I like you.” Then she putted the knife back in a holster attached to her sleeve. “But first, let's repair the engine.” Apple Bloom suggested and the others nodded.
Speedy and Fletcher took a look at it, surprised at what they saw. “The radiator’s broken? How did that happen?” Fray wondered.

“It’s nothing we can fix.” Speedy replied confident. After half an hour, the radiator was fixed and the truck ready to go.
“You can store your car in my vehicle workshop. “ Fynn offered his old friend.
“Thank you.” The unicorn turned to the Mustang. “Nanny, would you be so kind?”

“Of course, master Fletcher.” A robotic but feminine voice replied from the car and it drove independent into the vehicle workshop of the truck, much to Speedy’s surprise.

‘Those Germanes are full of surprises.’ The blue stallion thought, having heard of AL cars but never expected to see one, being kinda fascinated by it.
Then they discussed how they should rescue Sweetie Belle and her daughter.
“As there will be high security, I suggest we do it stealthy.” The bat pony suggested.

“Of course, I'll work to make him lose his money and pretend to be interested, like I did with Apple Bloom.” Speedy replied.

“Good idea. If he shouldn’t respond, we can locate the room she is held in.” Fletcher added.

“Yes, staying in the shadows. Maybe we could pretend to be waiters and manipulate the game so you win.” Wolf said as she tried to get up with an idea.
“That could work.” Fynn liked it, smiling.

“Can Ah help you?” The yellow mare asked, catching everypony off guard.
“I appreciate your eagerness to help, Apple Bloom, but it could be too dangerous for you.” Midnight told with concern.

“Ya think I don't know that?! Me and Speedy have already killed three of the bastards! What's a few more?!” Midnight, Wolf and Fletcher glanced at each other. Bloom took a deep breath and spoke sincerely.

“Please...ya gotta' let me do this. Sweetie and Scootaloo are mah best friends! We grew up together, we did everything together and...and we went through the same hell together...and we promised it would stay that way. “Her voice cracked, gritting her teeth and clenching her fist as memories of their torment flooded back. “But now I'm free and Sweetie is still a prisoner. While we talk, she's probably being put through things ah can't even think about let alone describe! She hasn't seen a friendly face since we all got kidnapped more than five years ago! If we rescue her...Ah want to be there when she's free. Ah need to be there.” Her expression was determined.

The blue stallion gave her a slight smile and sighed. “Alright, I’m sure we can think of something.”

“And for the love of Faust, don’t exaggerate it!” Fynn warned. Speedy chuckled. “Of course, my friend. But one thing’s for sure, this all will end tonight. Las Pegasus, here we come!”

Author's Note

Special thanks to BronyCommander for writing this chapter. It was fun planning this with you.