The Red Moon of Equestria

Princess Celestia was looking at a piece of the dark crystal she made using dark magic, her mane blowing against the nonexistent wind. She along with her sister had just sent Twilight Sparkle, her faithful student, out to save the Crystal Empire from the evil King Sombra. She chose to send Twilight so that it could be a chance to see if Twilight was indeed ready to begin the process of becoming an alicorn, though she wished she didn’t have to lie about her knowledge of the kingdom for the test to work. She may have had complete faith in Twilight, yet doubts still lingered in her mind. For while the young unicorn and her friends had defeated the corrupted Nightmare moon, the trickster god Discord and the vile changeling Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra was a unicorn who could be considered an even greater threat on some levels. King Sombra was an evil unicorn who abused his power and conquered the entirety of the powerful Crystal Empire by himself but was defeated with the combined power of her dear sister and herself, or at least that was that she told her faithful student. She wished she didn’t have to lie about her knowledge of the kingdom, but she had to make sure Twilight was ready.

Despite how she made it seem to Twilight, King Sombra was not so easily defeated by the two of them, almost losing to the corrupt Unicron several times before finally getting the upper hand that one fateful day. And King Sombra was not alone in his conquest, there was a cult of unicorns that helped him. Next to nothing was known of the mysterious unicorns, other than that they were related to the evil unicorn, but for some reason one of them would show up right before Sombra would be defeated and would attack her and her sister, allowing Sombra to escape, and every time he/she showed up, they would disappear just as fast as they came. She remembered none of the unicorns not being particularly powerful, stronger than the average unicorn perhaps but nowhere near as strong as Sombra or either of them, yet they still chose to fight alongside the evil king. Interestingly enough, the unicorns were nowhere to be seen on the day Sombra was finally vanquished and cursed into his icy prison, an odd detail that always haunted her mind to this day.

What Princess Celestia was wary of was that if both the Crystal Empire and Sombra had returned, that would mean that the mysterious unicorn might return as well, a factor that slipped her mind until now. It didn’t help that she was using this as a test for Twilight Sparkle, all be it reluctantly, so she could not be there to help her prized pupil. Her sister, Princess Luna, wanted to go to the empire and stop Sombra before it could get out of hoof, but she insisted that Luna should have faith in Twilight, but she knew faith wouldn’t be enough to calm either of them. The princess’s contemplated going on their own but quickly threw that idea out as everpony would notice if they left, forcing them back to the metaphorical drawing board.

”Perhaps I could get somepony to keep an eye on young Twilight, to act as our eyes and ears” The princess thought, trying to think of somepony she could contact that she trusted enough to make sure Twilight would be safe, but she could not think of anypony who she would be willing to send into such danger. ”Wait... I think I know!”.

She may not have been willing to send anypony into such danger, but she knew somebody who could. Princess Celestia was one of the only ponies that knew of Singal Flare’s secret, the only others being her sister Princess Luna and the newlywed Princess Cadence. She found out when her sister explained that when she entered Signal’s dream, she found herself in what he called “Haven Oasis”, and the strange and terrifying creatures he was forced to fight. He begged that we not reveal this to the others, for which we gladly agreed, but in return, he agreed to stay in Ponyville, where they could keep a close eye on him. While it still pained her to even think of sending any living thing into such danger, the thought of her student being harmed or even worse pained her even more, so looking up at her sister, she cleared her throat before speaking.

“My dear sister,” she said, “you remember our special “visitor” you’ve been watching over correct?”

Her sister looked at her, looking slightly ashamed at the mention of the “visitor”. “You mean Signal Flare correct? I remember him, but I am sad to say that recently I was unable to reach his dream in time before he woke up. The poor thing... But why do you bring him up, my dear sister?”

“I have given it much thought, and I must agree that somepony should go with Twilight Sparkle to protect her, and I think Signal Flare would be the best choice for such a mission.”

Princess Luna looked shocked, taking a step forward in protest. “Are you sure he is the best option sister? The young pegasus has only just mastered the ability to walk, he can’t even fly right now! What makes you think young Twilight wouldn’t end up protecting him instead of him protecting her?”.

“I understand your fears sister, but you know better than anypony that he was a great warrior from where he came from. I believe that somepony with that much experience would be beneficial for the task. I only hope he is ready to fight for a nation once again, especially one he is not native to.” Princess Celestia then started to play with the bit of crystal, levitating it and making it spin around.

“But do you expect him to protect all of them by himself? Surely you must know he had others fight alongside him, correct?” Luna asked, walking to her sister’s side. “Perhaps I could gather the best of our guards with him and-”. But before she could continue, Princess Celestia interrupted her.

“True, but the guards will not need to get involved. I believe that I already know who will go with him.” Princess Luna looked confused as her sister stared at what seemed like nothing in front of her. “Equestria is changing my dear sister, somethings changing it, but for better or for worse I don’t know. I felt it when he first came here, and now I feel it again, only stronger this time.” Princess Celestia dropped the crystal on the floor, making it shatter into a million pieces. “I believe that the Crystal Heart will be the thing to show us what is changing our world. My only fear is how we might react to it.”

Princess Luna raised her eyebrow at her sister, almost needing to hold back a giggle. “Tia, you are not that well suited to the “vague and mysterious” type, that is better suited to me. You should stick to sitting on your throne and smiling to ponies all day.”

Princess Celestia forced herself to hold back a groan as her sister started to walk off.

“You’re going to send one of your royal guards to watch over them anyways aren’t you?” she asked, only to be greeted with a cheerful and almost childish nod from her sister. “Fine... just please have him stay in shadows unless necessary, it ruins the point of the adventure if some other pony does all the work for them.”

After parting ways with a couple bags worth of bits, (and one hour of crying on the inside), Sapphire, Mithirl and I were walking outside, a box holding my new armor on Mithril’s back. Sapphire was looking at her armor, holding it with a levitation spell as she scrutinized every inch of the chest plate. Her armor, or at least from what I saw, was like traditional guard armor minus the shiny bling, being solid chrome like mine. She then put the chest plate on her body, somehow managing to put it on while walking as we made it to the royal courtyard. Surprisingly, we ran into zero guards while walking here, making me wonder whether or not the guards here were just ponies playing dress up and right now was their lunch break.

“Say Signal, how much has Ponyville changed since I went there? It’s been so long since I went there and I would like to know how that town has changed since my “incident” with the Timber Wolves.”

“I’m not the pony you should be asking. I’m the newest pony there, so you might want to ask Twilight or some other pony whose actually been there for more than a couple of months.”

There was an awkward silence between the three of us, the faint sound of... singing of all things filled the air. This lasted for several more minutes until Mithril once again tried to fill the silence.

“So... Heart Breaker, how come you’re sticking around with Signal over here? You’re not the kind of pony to hang around with other ponies unless you have to, and as far as I can tell you’re not being forced to be with him.” Mithril asked, “I mean, you normally just send in and receive your armor via mailpony, but today you actually came into the shop.”.

“I don’t know, he reminds me of somepony I knew once I guess. I don’t know who though... odd.” Sapphire answered, her odd answer distracting me long enough that I didn’t notice a tiny flight of stairs that lead to the courtyard, making me fall down and roll for several feet into Twilight.

“Oof! What just- oh it’s just you Signal... Is Sapphire here too?” she asked, her voice more depressed than usual. I tried to get up, only to fall back down on my flank. Twilight slightly sighed as she picked me up with her magic and put me back on my hooves.

“Um yeah,... going to feel that in the morning, say... are you ok Twilight? What happened?” I asked, instantly wanting to facepalm (or would it be facehoof since ponies don’t have palms?) myself for that dumb question. She probably just came from her test with Celestia and was looking like she just found out that there was no such thing as Santa Hooves, (which sounds just as ridiculous in Equestria as it did on Earth), what did I think happened?

“Did no one hear the aria she just sang?” Spike mumbled, myself barely catching it.

“It’s nothing Signal, Other than the fate of Equestria resting in my hooves yet again, but enough about me! Did walking around Canterlot jog some of your memories back?”

I shook my head, only making Twilight even sadder as Sapphire and Mithril walked over to us.

“There you are Twilight. How did the te-” But before Sapphire could continue, she noticed Twilight’s face and stopped herself, “uh... nevermind.”.

“Wait! So this is Twilight Sparkle, the savior of Equestria?Thought she would be taller And you two know her?! What luck!” Mithril exclaimed, rushing over to Twilight and bowing at her. “ My name is Mithril Smith, a friend of Heart Breaker over here. Now you must get this a lot but thank you so much for putting your flank on the line for us ponies. If it weren’t for you I would still be stuck in my shop fighting off a horde of those cursed changelings.”

Now I could tell you first hand/hoof that despite saving this entire land from three separate world-conquering threats, almost nopony ever actually thanked the mane six besides when they were being thanked by the princesses right after saving the day. At least I hope they did, I mean I only know the mane six did this because other ponies told me about these events, so I could only assume they got an official “thank you” from Celestia and Luna. I could relate somewhat, being a Purifier was a thankless job that, if you were lucky, got you one thank you from a hostage or child right before you leave to go on your next assignment. Heck, we never even got a medal, much less a thank you, for saving the world by our own government. We would just get a “good job” and have our next assignment given. But I guess that was a good thing somewhat, as I don’t think I could do my job if I had a crowd of fanboys following my every move.

“It’s uh... nice to meet you Mithril. You’d be surprised how many ponies go out of their way just to thank me.”

“You mean zero.” I muttered, “Tell you what; how about we go for a walk to one of the bakeries and see if we can’t find you a nice sweet treat for you. I think you need it right now.”

“I second that!” Spike exclaimed, running over to Twilight’s side. I saw the surprise on Mithril’s face as he looked at the baby dragon, his jaw dropping to the floor.

“Is...that s-s-s”

“Spike the dragon? You’re looking at him! And you are?” Spike asked, looking at Mithril, noticing his metal hooves. “Cool hooves! Where’d you get them?”

Twilight, just noticing his hooves, gave Spike a glare that gave me chills. She walked in front of Spike, blushing “Spike! You can’t just ask somepony about something like that!” Twilight chastised, “I am so sorry about that!”.

Mithril chuckled at her apology, saying the same thing to her that he did to me when I saw his hooves. While this was going on, Spike walked over to me, grabbing my head and forcing my ear down to his mouth.

“Are we still on for O&O at your house this weekend, “Druid Marksen”?” He whispered, making me smile. The great thing about O&O was that I got to use my real name as my character name, though honestly, I am so unoriginal when it comes to names that I would still probably use that name even if I was on Earth.

“You bet “Garbunkle”.” I whispered back, playing along with the “secret” that we played the game.

I looked at Twilight and saw her face when she heard Mithril’s story, an appropriate response considering how I doubt she had met many ponies who got injuries like that. “I am sorry to hear that.” Twilight apologized, then looking over at me. “And sorry Signal, but I’ll have to pass on your offer. I need to get back to Ponyville right now.”. She then looked at Sapphire, who was just sitting there, looking at the castle. “Sorry sister, but it looks like you won’t be able to meet the princess today. Maybe another time?”.

Sapphire looked back at Twilight, her face just as emotionless as always. “It’s ok Twilight, but could you at least explain why you look so down?”.

“I’ll explain everything when we make it back to Ponyville.” She explained, “C’mon Spike! We’re going!”.Spike hurried off to Twilight, who was walking off, seemingly forgetting about the three of us.

Mithril came to my side, his face filled with concern. “Is she always like that?” he asked, “also since when did you know the Princess of Friendship?”.

There it was again! I still remember how Rainbow Dash called her the “Princess of Friendship” when we first met, only for Twilight to correct her. “Why did you call her a princess? Do you see any wings on her?” I asked, only for him to, yet again, chuckle like my question was some kind of joke.

“Have you seen what her element of harmony looks like? It’s a crown for Celestia’s sake Hehe!! She may not be an alicorn, but heck if she isn’t some kind of royalty!” He explained, walking past me and following Twilight.

“I guess that...sorta makes sense when you think about it...” I thought, only now realizing that I was alone in the courtyard. HEY! WAIT FOR ME!”

After an awkwardly quiet and might I add long, (the trip is one day), trip back to Ponyville, we finally made it and got off the train. It was around noon by the time we made it back, the sun’s rays hitting my fur as I got off. When I looked around to see where Twilight was, I wasn’t surprised to see her being surrounded by the other Mane five.

“TWILIGHT! How did you do? Did you pass? C’mon! Give us the scoop!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her face practically pressed against Twilights.

Rolling her eyes, Applejack grabbed a rope out of nowhere and lassoed Rainbow Dash away, walking up to Twilight.

“Ya ok, Twi? Ya look like ya jus' found out that Santa Hoove’s is fake”

“*sniff* *sniff* Why do I smell plagiarism?”

“He’s WHAT?!” Pinkie Pie screamed, jumping in the air and somehow staying up there longer than physically possible. So nothing out of the ordinary for the pink pony.

“Uh!... he lives in a lake! That’s what she said! Yeah!” Rainbow Dash lied, a nervous smile on her face. That just earned her a confused glare from everypony around her.

Ignoring the other ponies, Rarity walked in front of Applejack, carefully analyzing Twilight’s face. “She isn’t wrong darling. You look absolutely dreadful! *GASP* don’t tell us you...FAILED?! OH, YOU POOR THING!” she then quickly wrapped her front legs around Twilight, stroking part of her mane. “Do you want some of my emergency self-pity ice cream? I always keep a bucket nearby for emergencies like these!”

I couldn’t tell what was sadder, the fact that she actually did have a personal stash of ice cream she used to comfort herself, or the fact that ponies actually did that here just like people did on Earth.

“Thanks... but that won’t be necessary. Right now I’m tired, so can you come to my place later? Besides, I think me and a certain somepony have to catch up.”. She nudged her head over to Sapphire, who was standing by me and Mithril.

“That’s ok Twilight, we’ll respect your privacy.” Fluttershy said, her voice as quiet and mellow as usual, “Isn’t that right, Rainbow Dash?”.

“What? Uh...Right! We’ll leave you be! Totally!” Rainbow Dash said, a pair of night vision goggles suddenly on her face somehow. Before I could ask how she got those and put them on so fast, Sapphire stepped in front of me.

Rolling her eyes, Sapphire’s horn glowed and the next thing we knew, Rainbow Dash was flying away, screaming bloody murder as the goggles were now over her eyes. I looked at her, surprised, scared, and slightly amused all at the same time.

“What? I would actually like some privacy with my sister.” She said deadpanned, levitating the box that held the rest of her armor. She walked over to Twilight, who now grew a smile on her face as the two of them walked off, small talking as Applejack and Rarity were trying to get the goggles off of Rainbow Dash.

After saying our goodbyes, I walked Mithril back to my house. It was a nice house that I got after months of doing odd jobs, but it was worth every bit. It was near the edge of town, almost isolated from every other house in the town, which was good for me seeing as how crazy the town could get at times. Behind the house was acres of clear meadows and hills, which surprisingly didn’t affect the cost of the house, confirming that ponies here understood almost nothing of how to keep a stable economy. The house was about as big as the average house in Ponyville, with the same color scheme as the other houses, giving it a nice small-town feel which grew on me over time.

“Then the next thing I knew, I was stuck on a cloud for the rest of the day.”, I explained, making Mithril give a hearty laugh as we approached the house. “Took the pegasi over three hours to find me. It’s surprising how well my fur blends into the cloud.”.

“Could you say that was the Highlight of your day?” Mithril joked, not able to hold back the laughter. He almost fell to the ground he was laughing so hard, but I was quick to lean up against him, stopping him from doing so.

“Ugh...why did I tell you that story out of all my stories?” I asked but quickly grew a big smile as I saw how happy he seemed. ”Is this how Pinkie Pie feels all the time?”.

But after that, the sound of glass breaking filled our ears, instantly make both of us look at the house.

“Um... you got a pet?” Mithril asked, but I think he already knew what my answer was. Dropping the armor, in a way that made me wince for a second, we both rushed into the house, or by rush I mean I walked as fast as I could, I just got used to walking after all.

I slammed the door open, mentally face-hoofing myself as I realized that I left the door unlocked. Mithril on the other hoof...well... he at least lived up to his counterpart’s codename, “Wall Breacher”. He made a hole that was somehow an exact outline of his body through the wall right next to the door, with dust, and chips of wood covering his body. I looked at him irritated as we rushed into the kitchen. It was a basic kitchen, an island in the middle of the room, surrounded by the basic amenities of a kitchen. Above the sink, where normally a window stood, yet another perfect outline of what seemed to be a pony remained.

“I swear sometimes I’m living in some cartoon sometimes” I thought, slowly walking over to the window. Broken glass littered the floor, yet strangely no signs of blood stained the room. Even stranger, the broken glass was organized by, from what I could tell, size. “Didn’t this pony at least cut himself a little bit on the glass? At least he’s neat though”. “Samu- I mean Mithril, stay sharp, I think whoever did this is still inside the house.”

“Ok then. Singal, I’m going to go check upstairs... if you're ok with that that is...” Mithril stated, but I gave him a nod, letting him upstairs.

Walking out of the kitchen, I noticed that it was practically pitch black inside, despite it being the middle of the day and two separate holes and an opened door exposing the light into the house. My house wasn’t very big, so it wasn’t like whoever broke in had many places to hide. I tried to turn on a nearby lamp, using my mouth to do so, only for the room to remain dark. The room, like I was in some kind of horror movie, feel almost completely silent, save for my breaths. My body grew tense, my eyes scouring the room for any possible signs of an intruder. Just then, I heard what sounded like somepony slightly moving their hoof above me, making me jump out of way as soon as possible, and just in time too. Not a second after moving out of the way, a shadowy figure came flying down on where I just stood. I couldn’t get a good look the intruder, all I could make out was some strange wings on his body.

I was at a massive disadvantage in this fight. I just got used to walking, much less self-defense, and now I’m being thrust into a fight with some kind of ninja pony. It was drilled into our heads in Purifier boot camp that we were not invincible and as such we should know when to retreat, unfortunately, I doubted that I would be able to outrun (more like outwalk) somepony like him. My only hope now was to stall long enough for Mithril to come back down and pray that he knew how to fight.

“You know I’ve not had that many visitors in this house, but at least they went through the front door.” I retorted, saying it loud enough to hopefully catch Mithril’s attention.

“Tell me about it, one time during rush hour a customer jumped through a window just to get past the line. You’d be surprised at what lengths Canterlot ponies will go to just to get some boots.” Mithril responded, making me groan in annoyance. The whole plan hinged on him not talking so he could get the jump on her, and here he was blurting out his presence!

I nervously laughed as I saw the outline of the intruders head turn over to upstairs before going back to me. Now I don’t how, perhaps my new body somehow remembered somethings from my other life or it was using it’s natural instincts because as soon as the intruder jumped at me, my body instinctively jumped to the side and turned to its side, rearing to buck at the intruder. I don’t know how or why I did it, But I soon regretted it as I felt a surge of pain come through my legs, it felt like I just kicked solid steel when I bucked him but at the least, it did send him back a little bit. I quickly turned back around, the adrenaline starting to run through my body, only to trip on myself like an idiot in my haste and fall to the ground.

The intruder saw this chance and took it, quickly leaping at me. This pony was like a blur, making each moment he made near impossible to react too. He was on top of me now, giving him easy access to my limbs, pinning them down to the floor with his. His hooves felt like cold steel, sending chills throughout my body just at the touch of them. In all the chaos, I felt the belt that held my wings still start to loosen, giving me a great idea. When I tried using my wings in my spare time, my wings would go crazy, flapping all around faster than I thought possible. I could use that to my advantage, so focusing on my wings, I started to feel them steadily rise in activity until eventually, they broke through the belt. Now, most experts in Equestria agreed that if I had some of the strongest wings in Equestria, and if properly mastered, could make me one of the fastest fliers in the land. However, in their current state, my wings were more of a hazard. When I first tried controlling them, I somehow created a tornado that was able to almost destroy Sweet Apple Acres, something I still don’t understand to this day but imagine what happens when wings that strong hit a pony full force.

The intruder was sent flying away from me, my wings fully extended, surprisingly not flailing around like a maniac for once. As he got up I was quick to run at him, ready to slam his head with my hooves, but as I tried to slam them down he somehow became a blur for a quick second. The next thing I knew he was right next to me, slamming his entire body into me, sending me flying into a wall. “OOF!” I grunted, falling to the floor in pain as my wings went limp. ”There goes that advantage.” I thought as the intruder walked over to me, pressing a hoof down on my neck. I felt the air slowly squeeze out of me as the intruder applied more and more pressure. I tried to focus on my wings again, but the lack of oxygen was starting to get to me as everything started to get blurry.

”OH COME ON! I can’t die like this! I REFUSE TO DIE TO A FREAKING PONY, AFTER ALL, I WENT THROUGH! I screamed in my head, trying desperately to breathe to no avail.

But before he could apply any more pressure to my body, I felt the hoof suddenly lift off me, allowing me to take in a deep breath in relief. Looking up I saw what caused the intruder to stop his assault, for above me now stood Mithril Smith. Looking around I saw that the intruder was halfway across the room from us, slightly groaning as his body laid on a broken table.

“*Cough* About time you *cough* showed up!” I said in between my heavy breaths, slowly getting up as my wings slowly extended.

“You’re welcome. Mind introducing your friend?” Mithril joked, trying to avoid my wings.

We then both looked back at the intruder, who was just getting back up from Mithril’s attack. We both readied ourselves, me finally catching my breath. “Filthy thieves! You may have *cough* got the jump on me, but you are foolish if you think you can defeat the greatest soldier in the Lunar Royal Guard!” The intruder hollered, spreading his wings out. Listening to his voice, it sounded familiar yet it was hard to tell as he sounded muffled.

“Wait...what?! YOU BROKE INTO MY HOUSE!” I yelled, my wings flaring (hehe) up.

“Wait...are you the Pegasi known as “Signal Flare”?” The pony asked, taking a step back.

“ugh... it’s going to be one of those days, isn't it? No, I’m Princess Celestia, and this is Princess Luna.” I retorted, “WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!”

After cleaning up the mess, Mithril and I were sat on a couch, with the new pony sat across on the floor. Well, I shouldn’t say pony, turns out he’s a thestral, or bat pony as they are commonly called in Equestria, and apparently the best fighter they have to offer. And I assume it’s a he, kinda hard to tell when its face is covered in armor, along with almost all its body. It was a beautiful set of armor, a grey and black color design with a dark blue outline, which explained why I had a hard time making him out in the dark. The armor design itself was amazing, as it was a plated suit, several plates overlapping each other, which would make it hard for a blade to pierce it. The helmet was a take on th medieval great helmet, a part of the visor being slightly wider where the eyes would be, and a horn protruding from the top of the helmet.

The pony himself stood silently, staring at us. It had been several minutes since he had said anything, giving the room an awkward silence.

“*cough* So uh... what’s your name?” I asked, trying to break the already pretty thick ice.

“And would you mind taking off the helmet? It’s rude to not show your face in an event like this.” Mithril added, attempting to help me break said ice.

The thestral loudly sighed, the helmet blurring his voice.”If you must know-” he murmured, putting his two hooves on his face. He slowly took it off, revealing a short black mane and dark grey skin. Once he fully took it off, my eyes widened while Mithril’s mouth was hanging. SHE had a really short mane, barely passing her ears, and had long eyelashes. The oddest thing, and most disturbing for me, was that on one half of her face, she had a fully white plastic mask covering it. It perfectly covered her one side, with the only visible thing being her other eye. Her eyes were the oddest thing, with a bright yellow iris, but a light grey pupil of all things. “My name is Keen Eye, loyal soldier, guard, and most trusted advisor of Princess Luna. I hope my voice does not catch you off guard.”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I mean I could handle their voices being practically the same, their faces being covered by something, and their eyes being messed up, but their genders?! Never in my life had the question “what would Wilson look like as a girl?” come up, yet somehow the universe decided to give it an answer!

“Don’t worry... it...doesn’t. And uh... why did you come here?” I asked, trying to play cool and failing.

“Her royal highness sent me to deliver you a message. You shall be accompanying the unicorn “Twilight Sparkle” and her friends on an adventure to a long forgotten kingdom. It shall start early in the morning tomorrow. I shall be there as well, as she has deemed me worthy of accompanying you.” she explained, her hoarse voice almost distracting me from what she was saying herself.

I was both excited and confused by all of this, I would finally get to do something new, but honestly, I had no idea why the Princess thought I should go. “What? Why me? I’m just an average, everyday pegasus. Oh tore yes! Finally something EXCITING”

“All her highness said was *ahem* “The young pegasi’s abilities should prove useful on her quest.” For a pony with a hoarse voice (oh the puns), she did a surprisingly accurate imitation of Princess Luna.

“Hold on a second!” Mithril interjected, “What kind of adventure are we talking about here? Is it an “over the weekend” kind of adventure or a “weeks will pass yet it will feel like days” kind of adventure?”.

“Why do you care?” I asked, raising my eyebrow at him.

“I got a shop to take care of remember? However, I got a good feeling about this “adventure”. He then banged his front two hooves together, making a couple sparks fly.

“You're sure? I don’t want to be the one responsible for you getting hurt. I won’t try to stop you, I know that I can’t, but still...”

“Quite frankly, I think some danger is just what I need to spice up my life.”

“To answer your question, the journey shall begin tomorrow and end in at most two days from now.”

“Was I supposed to not have a say in this? I’ll go but I had a choice to go right?”

“Then it’s settled! We leave tomorrow! May Luna watch over your dreams!”

“Hey! Answer my question!”

It was early in the morning in Ponyville as a person walked up to Canterlot High. The person in question was the timid Fluttershy, who had piles of flyers in her arms, each one advertising the local animal shelter that she worked at. The shelter was sadly both low on volunteers and high on animals, with next to no room for any more poor creatures. The shelter advertised itself as a “No kill” shelter, yet it seemed that soon they would have to put down some animals so they could make more room, something Fluttershy was very much against. Ever since then she woke up even earlier than normal so she could both check up on the shelter in the morning and then go to school early where she would try to get others to adopt a pet and possibly lend their help with the shelter. She was initially successful at first, getting the eco-kids to volunteer and a couple adoptions. But after that, she had no such luck, but she refused to let any defenseless animal die when she could have done something.

Standing in front of the Canterlot Wondercolt statue, she readied herself as students started to walk into the school. “Please go to the Ponyville Animal Shelter!” She chanted, this being one of the few things she was openly avid about. “Won’t you help a pet that can’t help itself?” She repeated this chat, asking others to be selfless and help poor animals that never had a home. But yet again she was met with no response, students ignoring her as they went about their day. By the time class was about to start, Fluttershy had gotten, yet again, zero people to help. She felt tears try to escape her eyes, but she held them back with all her might as she opened her backpack, careful to not open the zipper that hid her pets, and attempted to store her flyers, only for one to escape her grasp and fly in the cold morning wind. She tried to grab it but was not fast enough as the flyer flew straight into a random stranger.

”Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen!” She apologized, quickly running over to the man. Upon closer inspection, she was taken aback by the stranger. He was massive, probably as tall as Bulk Biceps if not taller, easily dwarfing her. He wore a basic grey t-shirt with blue pants, the muscles on his arms massive yet modest compared to Bulk. On his head was a basic cap and sunglasses, hiding his eyes from her. One of the odder things about the man to her was his skin color, he was just pale white, not nearly as colorful as anyone she had met in her life. ”Oh...oh my...”.

The man looked at her confused at first until he noticed the flyer on his chest, grabbing the flyer and raising it to his head. “hmm... animal shelter huh?” the man muttered to himself, his voice deeper than she expected. “You work there?”.

Fluttershy slowly nodded her head, reverting herself back to her timid shy self. “W-we’re both understaffed and overfilled with animals, every bit of help counts. A-a-are you i-interested?” She asked, the man bending down slightly to hear her.

“Hm... It’s always nice to have a local as a friend Sure!” The man exclaimed, playfully slapping Fluttershy on the back, making her squeal slightly. “The names...uh... Wall Breacher! Might I ask you a question?”. Fluttershy quickly nodded. “Do you know anything about the strange noises last night?”.

Fluttershy shivered at the mere mention of the “noises” the entire city of Canterlot heard. Late last night the entire city was awoken by a terrifying roar that was like nothing anyone had ever heard before. The roar was so loud in fact that the next day several trees were knocked down and dozens of windows close to the origin of the roar were shattered. The roar came from the neighborhood where Sunset Shimmer lived by, further proof that that girl was nothing but trouble. All I know is that the roar was near a neighborhood of a girl called “Sunset Shimmer”. If you ask me, she has something to do with that scary noise.” She explained, all while “Wall Breacher” looked at her and nodded.

“You got an address?”

”Um...if I may ask... why do you want to know? But you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“No reason, I’m just curious.”

”Oh...umm...ok”

The sound of the bell ringing filled their ears as Fluttershy gasped.

“Oh no! I’m going to be late!”

After giving him the address, Fluttershy quickly ran off, waving goodbye to Wall Breacher as she grew a small smile on her face. For once in what felt like forever she got someone new to help with the shelter, just one yes, but just the act of someone else to go out of their way to help her meant more to her than anyone could imagine.

Yet unbeknownst to the girl, she was being watched by someone from atop the school.

”Hespot wasn’t kidding when she said people had weird names here. But you weren’t actually serious about going to flea central were you?” Wilson asked, sitting on the edge of the school in his purifier armor. No one would have been able to see it as his suit could produce a kind of energy wave that perfectly matched his surroundings like some kind of technological cuttlefish.

Samuel pressed two of his fingers down against his neck, creating a tiny click. “Yes I AM serious WILSON. We’re not going to get anywhere here by just sticking to the shadows and eavesdropping on random people. If we’re going to get any solid leads, we need to talk to people up front and get their trust. Besides I pretty sure they check for fleas before letting them near people.” Samuel explained, chuckling at the idea of a manager explaining why they let kids near flea-infested dogs.

”So... you think you know who's behind this? It’s been a while but I wouldn’t put it past that maniac to do something like this.”

”Sorry to disappoint you boys, but I’m afraid I’m almost just as lost as you are on this.” A new, familiar metallic, voice interjected, making the two look around confused and angry.

“Tore dammit How did you get on this frequency you damn traitor?!” Samuel demanded, trying to keep calm as the cursed voice filled his ears.

”I’d love to tell you, really I would, but that would-”

”-Ruin the surprise; Tore, your cliche. Just say what you want to say and get the hell off of this frequency!”

“....rude... anyhow I just wanted to hi to some old friends! What’s wrong with that?”

“You were never our friend murderer!”

“Hello kettle, meet pot. You’re just as much a killer as I am! Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten Haven Oasis!”

“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK OF THAT YOU PIECE OF CHEV!” Wilson screamed, almost losing balance as he got up from the edge.

And you do? Anyhow, Y'all better pony up before I come into town hear me?” He warned with a new western accent before abruptly breaking off. Then just like that, the new voice left, leaving the two back alone. They both stood silent for several minutes before either of them spoke up.

“You had to open your Tore dam mouth, didn’t you?” Samuel asked, putting his other hand on his face.

”At least we got another lead... but you know what this means right? If he’s here...”

“Then troubles a’ brewing in Ponyville. Get Veronica on the line... Frostbite’s back...”