Book 3 The Shadows: obscured by the shadows

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten

Chapter One

Many moons ago, there was a battle.

All around were darkness and confusion. It seemed as if no one knew for sure whether they were fighting a friend or foe within the utter chaos.

It was a raid taking place on several little towns outside of Equestria’s borders. Those that could, were fighting. Those that couldn’t, were pleading or crying for something to save them.

In the midst of this rose a monster unlike anything they had ever seen. They knew not where he came from, but any creature that even stopped to consider it was already thrown down like trees from a landslide.

And by his side, was a most terrible...

She woke up.

An orchid colored unicorn came out of her slumber and tried to remember exactly where she was.

She could feel the warm air, the same warm air that had lulled her to sleep in the first place, and hear the shrill whistle that ended it. But even though she felt something stirring inside her, she brushed it off with her usual firmness, picked up her hooves, and trotted into the train car before her.

Oh, shoot!

She almost snapped out loud as she found herself trying to avoid a small toy on the floor in front of her. Her hooves gracefully sidestepped as she kept her balance and kept trotting.

A small filly had left the toy there and was now focusing her attention on some coloring pages nearby. Her parents were busy consulting a guide book and were clearly making some last minute plans on a vacation elsewhere, and, being unable to watch her, let her amuse herself as she pleased. The unicorn managed to walk around both the offensive toy and its owner with ease before settling down into a nearby seat and turning to stare out the window.

There she was, the terrible Tempest Shadow.

And she was a little nervous.

She was going to see Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, soon to be princess over all Equestria. But it wasn’t the title or the journey ahead that scared her.

Seated on board a pink and swirly cushioned bench, the unicorn with a broken and dysfuntional horn tried the best she could to collect herself.

She let her hooves glide over her scarf. Made from the fabric of her Storm King uniform, it and the cape she kept draped over her body were the only physical reminders of her time under his control.

It had been over a year, almost two years, since she reformed, but she felt it would take a while longer to finally relearn about herself and ponykind.

But she wasn’t sure how long it would take to get used to her old name again:

Fizzlepop Berrytwist.

She started to doze off again, but then her name repeated, this time noticeably louder and more real, and she had to turn around and look toward the aisle.

“Fizzlepop Berrytwist?” a confused earth pony conductor looked at her.

A peaceful glint shone in her eye as proof that she was listening.

“I’m checking the tickets,” he continued once he had her attention. “There’s been some sort of extra security going up lately. We have to recheck tickets within the cars now.”

Fizzlepop nodded without another thought and stuck a hoof in one of her side pockets, reaching in and pulling hers out to show him.

The conductor pony took a careful look at it before trotting on to the next pony.

Fizzlepop Berrytwist.

It seemed like a weird name now, struggling to get off her tongue, and she’d almost forgotten it the last few times it had come up.

She wondered if her friends would remember her. But unfortunately thinking like this only reminded her about the only pony she had really spoken to for years after she had left the comforts of Equestria for the first time.

She winced.

Partly from her thoughts, and partly from the filly screaming as another one of her toys fell under a seat, presumably to be lost forever.

Tempest’s relationship with the grey stallion, her “Second,” hadn’t turned out well either. She was nothing but a murderer. And it left an ache inside her when she thought about what she had done to a pony slightly younger than herself that had looked up to her for so long.

Her friends may have abandoned her but they didn’t leave her to die.

A new silence reigned over the car, as the unicorn noticed the filly stop her whimpering as she found the toy she had lost, and then Tempest continued her own train of thought.

She looked toward the window again and could see her own reflection, including the scar over one of her eyes, a constant reminder of how her risk taking could lead to misfortune.

With one more wince of regret and a resigned sigh, she decided to finally let herself rest.

No matter what, she had left all of that behind for a reason.

She had been dreaming for a while when, with another shrill blow of the conductor’s whistle, the train finally came to a stop in Ponyville.

New Pony Report:

This just in:

Local rumors have it that suspicious activities are going on in the woods. Ponies and creatures are advised to take caution when traveling alone. As of Tuesday, authorities will be adding extra precaution on modes of transportation. Please be advised to comply with any and all directions.

Thank you.

Chapter Two

The whistle’s sound had Tempest up and alert in an instant and peering into the crowd below.

But she still felt the need to rub her eyes. There was an unusually large amount of ponies out today, but there were also some creatures that Tempest wasn’t used to seeing intermingling in the crowd.

It wasn’t hard, however, to notice her welcome party. Nearby was the very same Twilight Sparkle, along with her dragon...

Spike? With wings now, huh.

They greeted Tempest...Fizzlepop...warmly and started walking her around town. Some ponies were curious to see who the newcomer was and what she was doing here, but others were trying their best to act natural and leave.

Tempest...Fizzlepop...still noticed, and it led her mind to wander. Spike and Twilight didn’t seem to see it at all as they continued to try to chat with her half hearted responses.

They were taking a turn around one of these neighborhoods while their guest was in this distracted state when she thought she saw something that caught her attention.

He was covered in saddlebags, but he seemed to have the right height and color...

But it can’t be.

In spite of herself, she took a longer look in that direction.

No, it’s not him.

Twilight Sparkle noticed her guest pause and paused herself.

“Everything ok?”

“Yes,” Fizzlepop said, acting calm, cool, and relaxed once more as she started walking forward again, “everything is fine.”

Soon, Fizzlepop saw the Castle of Friendship looming in front of them. Made out of multicolored crystals, it seemed like a fairytale castle oddly set among the cottages of Ponyville.

“You’re lucky you came when you did. It’s a school holiday,” Twilight excitedly explained as they walked through a large set of doors and into a room with a huge crystal table and similar thrones set around it.

“Only until tomorrow, darling. The students that didn’t go out and about already are absolutely going stir crazy, and I don’t blame them,” they heard a sophisticated voice speak out.

It was Rarity’s, and she only took that second to speak before going back to her work. She was inspecting her notebooks and glancing between them and the project she was working on.

It was a beautiful new scarf, with a brilliant strand of gems lining it in chevrons near the ends. It didn’t look like it would be comfy, but Rarity let the newcomer try it on and it felt like paradise! It was going to be a present for Rarity’s sister, Sweetie Belle, who had just helped another pony get their cutie mark, and whom Rarity still felt like she was neglecting sometimes.

Taking a nap on another seat nearby with her hat pulled over her face was the only other pony in the room, Applejack. The dirt on her coat was easily visible and a twig or two was sticking in her hair and in her ever present hat. She had spent a long day on the farm, her beloved home Sweet Apple Acres, before this and deserved the nap.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could be heard talking in another hallway. Fizzlepop could just barely hear the muffled sounds of Rainbow’s raspy voice and Fluttershy’s soft, stream like one. Those two were polar opposites in many ways but were always close friends. One gentle, and the other bold, they were always looking out for each other since fillyhood. It was a bond that anypony, including Fizzlepop, could see and she felt a little bittersweet at the thought of not having such a bond herself.

Pinkie Pie could only be witnessed through smell, as smells of freshly baked goods wafted from what must have been the kitchen down the hall.

It all felt so natural and homey that Fizzlepop felt like she could be comfortable, and, even though it wasn’t totally her style, like she never wanted to leave.

Twilight had already tried asking earlier on the walk, but she once again asked about the names of Fizzlepop’s old filly friends, and upon hearing their names, Spring Rain and Glitter Drops, Twilight looked a little confused.

“Hmmm, I don’t think I’ve heard of them,” she said, before adding more cheerily, “Pinkie Pie knows everypony, though, so I’m sure she’s seen them before.”

The three continued onward to the nearby kitchen. The new unicorn could see cakes piled up to the ceiling in a disorganized array, while still managing to stay in their spot without collapsing or intermixing with one another. And they all smelled and looked delicious.

A particularly beautiful red velvet cake was nearest the door. The icing on it was perfectly uniform, with blue spirals over a delicate pink. It reminded her that even though she was living at large, she hadn’t exactly been living large. She felt mesmerized looking at it, wondering who all the cakes were for, and ended up not hearing the first time Pinkie Pie addressed her.

This again?, she grimaced internally as she answered the pink pony with the names of her friends.

Pinkie Pie looked up thoughtfully. Her mane picked up a spoon filled with batter from another upcoming cake and she licked it before placing it back into a different bowl, much to Twilight’s dismay and her companion’s bewilderment.

“Huh, I dunno. I think I may know someone who might though!”

She bounced back to the oven to pull out another glorious cake. To the horror of Twilight and surprise of Fizzlepop, Pinkie bolted the entire cake down her throat before they headed out the door.

*** *** *** ***

With Pinkie around it wasn’t long before they made it there.

“No, I don’t see their names in the public records. They could have been pulled, though. We had a break in a while ago and noticed a few files were taken,” a grey haired mare told them, walking them across Town Hall.

The three ponies and dragon found themselves in a semicircle room, with blue cabinets along the curved section of wall and windows across the top. It seemed like a nice, out of the way place to keep and read the records, but they could see what Mayor Mare was talking about.

A few of the window panes had been smashed, and two of the cabinets were toppled over onto each other in the corner. Some of the drawers of other shelves were clearly left ajar. But otherwise, the room was intact.

Twilight Sparkle was going to start interrogating Mayor Mare right then and there, but she was stopped by a shout from Spike, who was struggling to pull out a newer looking folder from one of the cabinets in the center of the wall. Twilight levitated him and the folder over and the eager ponies peered over each other to see what was inside.

Sure enough, Fizzlepop recognized the pictures of her two old friends.

“Their last known location is...” the other two ponies, minus Mayor Mare, squinted a bit. The writing had smudged and faded and it looked like gibberish on the page.

“Hmmm, I can’t tell but I think I know what town it is talking about,” Twilight said, “Pinkie Pie and I can take you there ourselves.”

“That won’t be necessary. Now that I know where they are, I’d like to go for myself,” Fizzlepop responded.

With a thank you to Mayor Mare, the three ponies and Spike trotted out of Town Hall and soon parted ways.

Fizzlepop was two streets away from the retreating backs of Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike when she caught a glimpse of two other ponies trotting down the street in the opposite direction.

One of them was a unicorn who was laughing and bouncing around. This unicorn was teasing an earth pony walking next to her, a grey pony wearing a suit.

Tempest...Fizzlepop...ducked away before either caught a glimpse of her.

“See, you look good in it! I told you!” the purple and blonde unicorn was saying.

“Well, of course, I do. I look good in anything,” he said, trying to pretend he hadn’t already said he would hate it just five minutes ago.

“Not that old thing you used to wear,” the unicorn said before finding herself tumbling over. The stallion had just slightly tapped her and set her off balance just as her hoof was coming down.

She brushed herself off. She felt as bouncy as ever. And seeing Edgy stick his tongue out afterwards only helped her brighten up more. Her new business was doing well, Edgy was her assistant, and she felt good overall.

They continued trotting by.

But Edgy and Tempest had seen each other.

He had tripped Starry partly to tease her, but also partly to stop them both in their tracks. He wanted to have time to get a better glimpse of the familiar orchid colored unicorn he thought he saw across the way.

Tempest had recognized him, too. From the front view and with that level of overconfidence, there was no mistaking it.

She wasn’t sure how she felt. He was alive and seemed happy in his new life. It was miraculous, but she had seen miracles with her own eyes before.

He probably didn’t recognize me.

With his memory wiped, at least he wouldn’t remember what she had done to him.

She had to make her apologies with her two oldest friends, but him? She wouldn’t have to talk to him at all. As far as he was concerned, they had never met.

Edgy and Starry continued walking.

Starry’s not going to find out about this. I won’t let it happen.

As far as she is concerned, we’ve never met.

New Pony Report:

Ponyville Town Hall Robbed!

Mayor Mare not taking in reporters at this time.

Locals have conflicting stories. Some say they saw multiple figures, others that this was a one pony attack. Some say this was an inside job.

Check back for the latest news and announcements on N.P.R..

Chapter Three

Fizzlepop woke up the next day trying to remember where she was. It took her a second before yesterday’s memories returned and it finally hit her that she was in one of the rooms of the Castle of Friendship where they were letting her stay for the time being.

She trotted down the hallway and around the large table from yesterday, but she couldn’t find anypony until it dawned on her that they must all be at the school next door.

She walked in, cautiously, she didn’t know exactly where to look for Twilight, though she did see Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and some other blue pony talking in one hallway.

Thankfully, some purple unicorn bumped into her.

“You must be Tempest? I’m Starlight,” Starlight Glimmer introduced herself. She seemed pleasant and sincere.

“Nice to meet you,” was all she could think to say, before adding, “I’m looking for Twilight.”

Starlight offered her help, and they walked through another hallway and turned left and came to a large office.

Twilight Sparkle was talking to Spike over some scroll when they walked in.

With a friendly smile on her face, Starlight left Tempest there and went on her way.

“What’s up?” Twilight asked the newcomer, with a slightly puzzled look.

Tempest felt the scar over her eye burn.

“I wanted to ask for your help. I’ve been exploring Equestria for some time, but I still don’t feel ready. This is new to me,” she explained slowly.

Twilight nodded.

“Well, we’ll help you with that! I have the perfect way to do it in mind, although, it’s going to be slightly modified. Last time I tried this it was a disaster!” she nervously snorted.

As Twilight went on, Fizzlepop came to realize she was going to spend one day a piece with each of Twilight’s friends, in the hope that they could give her a brief review of each element of friendship: laughter, kindness, loyalty, generosity, and honesty.

“I’d love to teach you more about magic, as well,” Twilight added, “but I think we already went over that lesson.”

Fizzlepop nodded. She had seen it firsthoof and came to know friendship again because of it.

For starters, Fizzlepop had to help at Sugarcube Corner. The Cakes who normally ran it were out for the day, and Pinkie Pie would have otherwise been there all by herself. Fizzlepop didn’t think it would be too hard. She had once worked in a tavern, and though it took some getting used to, she got a hold of her duties and was soon flying through all the baking and orders in the shop.

Twilight Sparkle stopped by in the middle of the day and walked up to Pinkie Pie, who was sitting at a counter watching Fizzlepop’s progress.

“How’s she doing?” Twilight asked, sounding upbeat as she watched Fizzlepop zooming through putting cupcakes in order in the front. Unfortunately, as they were watching, Fizzlepop had temporarily forgotten her own strength, leaving icing and cake bits all over the wall and floor.

Pinkie Pie chuckled, but said more seriously, “I dunno, Twilight,” then in a whisper, “she’s scaring the Cakes!” And Pinkie Pie swiveled Twilight’s head toward the corner of the shop to look at two cakeboxes with googly eyes. On their faces were drawn horrified expressions.

Twilight rolled her eyes.

The next day, Fizzlepop had to care for Fluttershy’s sanctuary animals. She didn’t think it would be too hard, but then she realized how weird it was just to see them. Outside of Equestria, there were creatures that looked so much like these. She wasn’t sure, also, how exactly to “take care” of them.

Fluttershy left Angel with her and walked off to have tea at her cottage with Twilight Sparkle.

Everything was fine until Angel hopped over to them in a mad hurry.

“What is it, Angel?” Fluttershy sweetly asked, watching his frantic charades until her eyes widened and she bolted.

Twilight hurriedly teleported herself over and saw what Angel must have told Fluttershy.

All the animals were either in battle formation or locked up. Fluttershy was flying around in a flutter. The animals were stock still until Tempest called out:

“Forward! March!”

Every animal moved forward at a pace.

“Roll to the left!”

Every animal did its best to comply.

A few birds hopped up and passed around treats after each command.

Angel sulkily went back to a cage in his dunce corner, placing a makeshift leaf hat on and closing the doors on himself.

Fluttershy fainted to the ground near Twilight’s hooves.

“She’s just training them!?” she gasped, as Twilight calmed her down.

It was the same thing with Rainbow Dash and her doing a seven legged race the next day. Fizzlepop thought it would be easy, but they struggled to keep in step. She walked firmly and swiftly, but so out of step with her partner that she left poor Rainbow Dash to struggle and flop around trying to keep it together the best she could. They knocked a few out of the race, though, and came in second.

Rarity tried having Fizzlepop help her with clothes for the orphans the day after, but Tempest created such plain clothes that it gave Rarity a heart attack.

And Applejack? Apple Bloom and her friends still aren’t sure what to make of what happened that day.

Twilight called Starlight to meet up with her later that day in her office.

“Yes, Twilight?” Starlight asked.

“We need to talk about Fizzlepop,” Twilight told her, “She’s doing great, but I think you can probably help her more, knowing what you’ve been through.”

Starlight thought about it for a minute, before responding with, “Well, I don’t know about that. I can try.”

“That’s all I ask!” Twilight said and hurried her out the door.

*** *** ***

Starlight made her way to the guest’s room and knocked on the door.

She could hear the hoofsteps going up to the door as Fizzlepop cautiously cracked it. Seeing Starlight there, Fizzlepop opened the door wider and let her in.

As she did so, Starlight looked around the room.

It seemed so bare. There were no keepsakes, no photos, no knick knacks that really showed who Fizzlepop was.

“So, how’s your week been?” she found herself saying, in the hopes to break the awkward silence.

Fizzlepop wasn’t sure where to begin, but she told Starlight as much as she could.

“I don’t know how any of that was supposed to help. I still feel unprepared to meet my friends again,” Fizzlepop muttered.

Starlight instinctively put a hoof on her shoulder. She almost pulled it back when Fizzlepop met her eyes, but she left it there.

“Well, you’ll probably never feel prepared.”

“Thanks,” Fizzlepop mumbled. She looked toward her window and down onto the street below when her eyes widened.

It was him!

Starlight kept going.

“I can tell you, it’s hard sometimes. Not knowing how other ponies will respond, whether or not they will forgive you, or even if you fully forgive them. But the best thing to do is go for it, you know? The worst thing would be to not know.”

Fizzlepop looked back at Starlight in surprise.

“You really think so?”

“I know so!”

“Well, thank you for your help,” Fizzlepop said, and ran out the door. Starlight looked back toward the now empty doorway in confusion.

“I wasn’t sure that would work,” she said under her breath, and trotted back to the school.

Chapter Four

Tempest ran out of the front door of the castle.

She was grateful for Starlight’s talk and all of Twilight’s help, but she knew there was just one thing that she had to do, just one shadow over her mind.

She raced around the front of the castle, but couldn’t see him around anymore. But she began walking the streets with resolve.

If Second was still here in Ponyville, she’d find him.

She just didn’t know where to begin.

She found herself meandering through the streets in the hopes that she would just casually bump into him again. But once the afternoon went by and she was starting to feel hungry, she found herself settling in to a local diner, feeling a bit discouraged with herself for thinking that a miracle would just happen.

“And what will it be, Miss?” the waiter asked. He looked way too snooty, with his collar and mustache, for a Ponyville pony, but she briefly glanced at the menu and picked out a sandwich and some hay fries on the side.

“Make that two.”

She turned around at the voice.

Praise Celestia!, miracles do happen.

At a table somewhere behind her she saw the same grey stallion and purple and blonde unicorn!

It was the perfect chance for her to talk to them now that both her waiter and theirs were leaving. Taking a quick look around, she saw a pony couple that was slowing down and glancing around the tables. Tempest beckoned a hoof to them and they hesitantly took her table.

Shifting back to her goal, she took in a slow breath.

And closed her eyes.

And walked forward.

Starry Emerald stopped what she was doing. She had been so hungry after working in her shop all day that she had told Edgy she just wanted to stop by a diner and order everything on the menu. She almost did.

“I want a #11, #13, a little bit of the #12, and a whole lot of the #5! And I want a water...but some of that new smoothie and...”

“Star.”

Edgy stopped her just in time before the waiter ran out of paper to write it all down.

Edgy let Star make one more request, an order for hay fries. And, after telling the waiter to “make that two,” they let him go.

Starry thought she heard an unusual tone in Edgy’s voice, though. She took one glance at his face before swiveling her eyes around behind him to the object of his attention, who was getting up and walking their direction.

“Edgy...” she began.

“I know, Star.”

“Hello...,” Fizzlepop began, hesitating when she realized she didn’t know what to call the grey one. It occurred to her that calling him “Second” or anything else of the sort was not going to make sense to him anymore. The memory spell was supposed to be permanent. And she didn’t even know who the other pony was.

Edgy didn’t speak a word.

“There aren’t any tables and I...need food,” it wasn’t hard to convince them when her stomach growled.

“Hi!” Starry chimed in. She meant it to be cheery, but her own stomach and the hunger that was slowly working its way through her system caused it to come out sounding forced.

There was an awkward silence.

“You can come up and eat with us, if you’d like,” Starry tried to recover. Her tone still wobbled, remembering stories of Tempest’s Canterlot takeover, but she didn’t want to be rude.

“Thank you. I didn’t think I would be welcome.”

“Well, nah, it’s fine,” Starry quickly added, “Me and Edgy here were actually out of town during what happened, we...” Starry gasped and cut off.

Edgy was sitting like a rock.

Tempest awkwardly walked past Starry and sat where she would be farther away from Edgy. However, they were still almost facing each other. Edgy wished that he had a menu that he could hold in front of him or something, but the waiter had already left and taken it with him.

Thankfully, the snootier waiter had noticed Fizzlepop changed tables and came over with her food and water, temporarily distracting her.

A feeling Edgy couldn’t quite understand was taking over him.

“Star?” Edgy whispered, trying to get Starry’s attention but finding it taken by another waiter coming toward them.

Edgy tried to wait until he left, but he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Star, can you give us a moment?” he whispered, glancing at Tempest slowly chewing on her sandwich.

Starry didn’t understand. Seeing her confused expression, he gave up and firmly placed his front hooves on the table in front of him.

“Tempest,” he finally said, grimly, “it’s been a while.”

Tempest continued working on her food and swallowed.

“So you do remember?” she calmly responded.

“Every. Single. Thing. I noticed you were here in Ponyville the other week, too. I heard you changed,” he said with a growl in his throat.

Tempest nodded.

“The Storm King betrayed me,” she could already hear in his mind what he would respond with, “but it’s okay. I’ve come to apologize.”

“No need.”

“What?”

It wasn’t like Second to give her lip.

Starry made no comment in the middle of this, only half paying attention. Not wanting to interrupt, the waiter had set the rest of the drinks and the food down, before trotting away, giving such threatening sideeyes to the other guests who were looking on, that they all turned away and pretended not to hear.

“I said, ‘no need.’ No need, because, I really have to thank you.”

“What?”

“Let’s see, if you hadn’t left me there, I wouldn’t have made a change for the better,” he began to act out ticking them off his hooves, “You also would probably be the same pony, serving that idiot. And thank you, because, if I was there, I’d have taken over Canterlot just fine.”

“What.”

“You heard me.”

“You wouldn’t have been any more successful than I was.”

“Care to prove it?”

Starry felt herself tense up as she saw a light flare up in both their eyes.

“To combat it is!” the two finally said in unison, clapping their hooves together and giving them a brief shake.

Starry suddenly decided she was going to regret this.

*** *** *** ***

After Starry got a to go box for the rest of her food, she trotted after the two who had already gone ahead to an open clearing just inside of Ponyville’s park. They didn’t want to accidentally hurt anypony. The park had an open field perfect for running around and rough housing and there were few ponies walking around today.

“Star, be our witness. Then we’ll prove once and for all that I am the greatest fighter ever in Ponyville,” Edgy announced.

“I remember you hesitated the first time I had you lead your own regiment. You were a chicken then and you are still a chicken now,” Tempest scoffed.

Starry rolled her eyes, but hurriedly settled down on the grass to finish eating what she had brought as the two continued squaring off.

Finally, Edgy made the first move.

He sent a swiping kick toward Tempest’s hooves but she neatly glided over. Her back hoof connected with his left cheek and he found himself flying back.

“I wouldn’t have gotten you with that one a few years ago. Must be getting soft,” she mocked.

“You watch it,” he said, as his hooves slid onto the ground, throwing dirt and debris behind him.

The few ponies that were in the park tried to keep away from the goings on, but now some of them noticed the fighting and decided to find a comfortable place to sit and watch curiously.

Nopony could blame them, though.

The two continued sending kicks and swipes at each other. Though Tempest mocked Edgy for being out of practice, she couldn’t deny that she was as well. It was long since either had to fight like this.

Starry found a crowd gathering around them as they continued. She nearly forgot how awkward she had felt as she watched in awe, too. It was like some rhythmic dance. Neither could get ahold of the other.

Tempest was clearly avoiding using her horn for its magic, but that didn’t stop her from using it to ram into Edgy’s side, or from using all her hooves to batter into him.

All Edgy had going for him was his stockier body, his strength, and his perseverence.

But Tempest was swifter.

With one final wallop, Edgy was on the ground, face first.

The other ponies in the park cheered and clapped for her.

Starry was prepared to jump up and run to Edgy, but then she saw Tempest walk toward her defeated opponent. Tempest reached out a hoof and Edgy flatly denied it and slowly lifted himself up.

“255,” she said, bluntly.

“Really?” he said with annoyance.

“That’s how many times you’d lost.”

“You told me you stopped counting.”

“You told me you’d keep practicing.”

Edgy looked at the victor up and down, and, for a second, looked like he was a bit embarrassed.

But to Starry’s surprise they both grinned.

They had finally made up. For, in spite of past disagreements, orders were orders, bygones were bygones, and comrades once together, through shared trauma will be together again.

Starry turned away. For some reason, seeing them laugh together didn’t bring her any happiness. A part of her wanted to find out why, why she suddenly felt so alone. But looking back toward Edgy suddenly made her gasp.

Edgy looked toward Starry’s direction.

But she wasn’t staring back at his eyes.

She was looking at his flank.

At some point during the battle, the ponies had managed to tear at each other’s clothes. And before Starry’s very eyes, she realized another similarity they shared.

They were both blank flanks.

Chapter Five

Edgy blushed, he couldn’t help it. One of his better kept secrets from Star, and he blew it at the same time as just about everything else.

He turned toward Tempest as he followed Starry’s eyes, and Tempest gave him a hard look before slinging her cape back in place.

But Edgy soon went back into battle mode.

“I guess we all know who won, but what did you think of it, Star?” Edgy asked expectantly. He was like a completely different pony. Star didn’t say anything, so he continued.

“Star, I didn’t want you to find out about any of this...”

“Aw, Edgy,” she said, a little trembly before more happily adding, “Well, I can see you two need to catch up. I actually have a lot of work to do! Remember the order I have coming up in Manehattan? Those socialites, am I right?”

She got up stiffly, presumably from her time awkwardly sitting on the ground, and began hoofing her way back home.

The chill evening air had been settling on her fur, but she was shivering more from the chill inside her. There was so much she had to understand. She only passed by a few ponies heading indoors, and she was grateful for that.

She finally made it to her front door and sighed. She felt like it was painfully obvious that she wasn’t too thrilled about the revelation, but she couldn’t help that now.

She was just about to open the door when a familiar voice called out behind her.

“Em?”

She turned around.

Behind her were two of the ponies she could depend on the most.

“Bee! Postage Stamp? What are you two doing here?”

“We just wanted to hang out. We also had something to talk to you about,” Bee told her. “Can we come in?”

Starry vigorously agreed and let them in and all three managed to find their way into her living room.

Starry began straightening up a few chairs for her friends and then opening a window to let the cool air in. It had been getting later in the evening and the sun was beginning to set. Starry found her way to a seat and waited for them to settle in as well.

“You picked the perfect time to come over,” Starry said with a grimace, “I just found out something...weird...”

“Edgy has evil powers???” Postage Stamp said with a grin.

“What? No. But, well, sort of,” she began, trying her best to explain that one of her worst fears was basically confirmed, but she hesitated when thinking about the other shock. Her friends weren’t phased at all.

“Em, maybe this is a good thing,” Bee responded, “Besides, the rest of us thought it was obvious.”

Starry was a bit put off, but said nothing.

She was listening to sounds from outside the window. She could hear the night air starting to creep through the trees outside. Her pet squirrel Rochester and his wife Jane were probably tucking in their babies for the night, and she could hear them calmly chattering away.

It helped her cool down a bit before she continued.

“So what did you all want to talk about?” Starry asked.

“Well, nothing much, honestly...except it’s about Cass,” Bee said, ending her sentence more firmly than she began.

Postage nodded.

Starry looked surprised.

“What about her? Where is she?”

“She said she was going out to visit somepony important, but she wouldn’t tell us who,” Bee answered, “I’ve been worried about her, too.”

“Oh?” Starry said. She hadn’t thought much about Cass recently, and so she sat there racking her brains to try to remember if she had noticed anything unusual about Cass, but could think of nothing.

“Yeah, we’ve actually kind of been talking about this for a while...,” Postage Stamp added and resettled himself in his chair as Bee spoke again.

“She hasn’t been in the best of shape lately,” Bee continued, “and we were hoping that maybe you had seen something.”

Starry shook one of her back hooves slightly and it made a small tapping sound on the hard wooden floor.

“I don’t think so. I’m so sorry. It’s just that I’ve been so busy with all the new traveling and projects and trying to help out Edgy...”

“We figured...but it was worth a shot,” Postage Stamp said.

Starry began to tap even more.

Starry was still thinking about Edgy and Tempest, and how they were fighting and having a good time. She couldn’t remember the last time she and her friends had done anything fun together either and it just made it worse.

Starry was ready to hear just about anything, except what she actually heard.

At first she had thought that the tapping she was hearing was coming from her own nervous tapping from earlier, but she had looked down at her hooves and realized that she wasn’t tapping anymore but the sound kept going.

Feeling her body tense up, she turned toward where she thought she heard the tapping coming from and saw a hooded figure crouched in the window.

Starry was about to put up a protection spell as Postage Stamp jumped between Bee and the intruder when the intruder suddenly threw something at Starry and everything went dark.

Chapter Six

Edgy found himself reaching Starry’s direction as he watched her leave, before falling back.

Once they had seen her off in the distance, he and Tempest settled back on their haunches on a nearby bench. The park they were in had gone back to its peaceful tranquility. All the ponies watching on had trotted off back to their homes as the excitement died down and the sun began to fall.

Tempest was waiting for this opportunity.

She took one last look to make sure no other pony was in hearing distance.

“So...you remember...everything that happened to you before you came here?”

Edgy nodded and looked away from Tempest.

“I wanted to say that I’m glad you’re doing okay. You managed to fit in,” Tempest continued, in an awkward businesslike manner, “You probably heard about what happened.”

Edgy nodded.

“What do you think you’ll be doing after this?”

Edgy hadn’t thought about it before, but...

“There’s nothing for me out there anymore,” he finally admitted, “I’ve quit the mercenary way of life. I’ve quit being the villain in my own story. I’ve got someone I want to take care of.”

The memory of a long, terrifying wait crossed his mind. He shifted his weight a bit. Tempest had left some bruises on his right flank and it made it hard to sit.

“So, what about you?’

Tempest shrugged.

“I’m not sure. I think I’ll travel more. Maybe take a friend with me,” she chuckled.

“Who?”

“You wouldn’t know her.”

“Oh.”

The evening air was getting chillier. Edgy continued looking off into the distance.

He opened his mouth to ask her something, but he was suddenly cut short by a voice calling out from the sky above them.

“She’s missing!” it said, loud and panicked.

Tempest was a little confused and tried to look up, but Edgy dove lower to the ground and put a hoof around her to push her down, too, as a pegasus pony crashed onto the ground behind them, nearly grazing them as she swooped by.

The two ponies turned around to see a frenzied Cass panting and gulping air as she tried to hurriedly tell them something.

“...it was...somepony...sudden...can’t breathe...took her...took Starry...”

That was all he needed to hear.

“Take me to her!” he commanded.

Cass finally stopped panting and nodded before flapping her wings and taking off toward the woods with the two ponies following closely behind on the ground. After a minute, she finally seemed to be well enough to make coherent sentences again.

“Some figure in a dark cloak just came and took her away! I saw them head off this way and had to get you two.”

“This cloak,” Tempest chimed in, “was there a symbol on it?”

“I couldn’t really tell…”

“Hmm, there has to be hoofprints or some sign of them from where you last saw your friend.”

They came to the edge of the woods and Cass nodded.

“Yes, I think...yes, right here!” she called out. And sure enough when the other two ponies looked at the ground, though it was a little hard to make out in the dying light, there were some tracks in the ground, showing some sort of large creature had come through there recently.

Edgy could only think of one thing to do.

He didn’t even care that Cass was there to see. He needed to find Star and make sure she was okay. He whispered to his hoof and two minipones came out.

Cass looked on curiously as the two shadows found form and stepped onto the ground near the tracks before hovering into the forest ahead of them.

“Follow me. I can see them just fine no matter how dark it gets,” Edgy told Tempest as he began following them into the woods.

“What about me?” Cass called out as they began trotting away.

“Stay put! I don’t need another innocent pony in danger,” Edgy yelled back as he vanished into the brush.

Edgy and Tempest slammed through the trees and found themselves heading across another clearing before going into trees again. The world around them was barely lit, but the minipones were still clearly visible. Even when they went through the trees again, the minipones seemed to give off a dark glow of their own.

Tempest had to follow along, quickly guessing which way Edgy was turning so that they were nearly in step with each other.

It didn’t take long with the two racing onward before they found themselves coming up to a large structure in the middle of nowhere.

Chapter Seven

The minipones stopped some distance away while Edgy and Tempest found a hiding spot to group up and plan.

The structure ahead of them looked like some sort of factory building, but it was hollowed out and left to rot. However, it was clearly not empty now.

It looked two stories high, made out of white concrete on the first floor and red brick on the top. There was a flimsy metal layering on part of the walls outside and a few windows, but Edgy and Tempest couldn’t see Starry inside them from this distance, if she was even in there.

There were guards hanging around the building. Each of them wore a cloak, and Tempest finally got a look at one as a guard turned around during their patrol.

“I knew it.”

“What was it?,” Edgy asked, barely turning away from the windows.

“A blood moon,” she grimly said, “They are part of the Blood Moon.”

“That annoying cult? What are they doing here?”

“Apparently,” Tempest said, peering at them one more time, “they’ve finally decided to turn to picking on ponies now that they can no longer be a thorn in the Storm King’s side.”

As they peered around the area, they could see outside of the building was the biggest hedgehog they had ever seen. Along with him were four other strange animals in the same black cloaks with the blood stained crescent moon symbol on their backs. The hedgehog was giving orders to someone else, who had come from the inside with a slip of paper and retreated back inside.

“If I take out the big guy, you and the shadows can circle around and take out the other four.”

“Sounds like a plan. I get four, you get one,” Edgy said sarcastically.

“It's you three. You want the big guy then?” Tempest snapped, but Edgy was already on his way toward the building, blending in with the shadows with the help of his minipones surrounding him.

No one noticed as he made his way to a far corner where a solitary guard was looking the other direction.

Edgy let one minipone fly out and grab the guard’s face, muffling any sort of noise or scream he would have made and smothering him until he passed out. Edgy and the two minipones carefully carried the limp body away before the others could notice, being careful not to let the body drag on the ground.

However, one of the other guards caught him in the corner of her eye, and she pulled out some sort of device to aim at the retreating figure.

That’s when the three let the body drop with a thud onto the ground and launched themselves at their would be attacker. The minipones went after her shoulders, pulling her up into the air before Edgy bucked her into the distance where she lay on the ground in a crumpled heap.

The last two and the hedgehog were armed and ready and began firing their devices at Edgy, sending out energy beams into the night when Tempest flung herself out of seemingly nowhere and landed in the midst of them, finding the strength within her and the speed to knock both of them off their feet and slam the hedgehog onto the ground with such force onto the other two that they were not going to be a problem anymore.

Guess I got more after all, Tempest thought to herself as she looked around at the ground where the guard’s devices were strewn around. She carefully picked two of them up to observe curiously before slipping them into her pockets.

She signaled to Edgy with a wave of a hoof that they were going to check inside the windows and the doorway before entering the building itself. There was no sense in getting ambushed. He nodded his agreement and checked from the left side of the door while she checked the right, and then he still sent in his minipones through first, with strict instructions to find Starry first and make sure she was okay.

Tempest hung around outside the door while Edgy did one last perimeter check to look out for other openings on the ground floor of the building.

The minipones split up once they got inside.

The building had a large open shop floor with a railed stairway on the left side leading to an office. It was a huge warehouse. On the other side, the shadows could see a familiar purple pony held in a wooden cage. Lucky for her captors that they knew she could handle metal with ease.

One of the shadows crept closer to her. It was easy along the sides of the walls, far away from the few candles the guards had lit to illuminate the vast area.

She looked like she wasn’t doing much. She was laying down on one side of the cage, looking for all the world like she was moping. But, she held a hoof above her head, holding her hair around her horn. One would need to look extra close to see it glowing.

The minipone’s features were as muffled as usual, but its dark, cool eyes were lit up with a new fire.

The guards must have taken her mercury vial, but the minipone could see she had found a small rusty nail and reshaped it into a small knife to carefully saw away at her prison.

In front of her unknown observer, she was about halfway through on one cut, but it would take forever to cut through enough bars. There weren’t any hinges on the cage. That would have been too easy. Instead, the cage was a heavy wooden one with an open bottom that she was thrown under. It would take several of the cloaked figures to lift, but the minipone figured that Edgy and Tempest could take care of it once the enemy was out of the way.

The other minipone was slinking its way up the railing toward where the main office was.

It was a nightmare.

The whole area had clearly been rusting and breaking apart, and the new occupants did nothing but throw some of their belongings on an old table and some chairs and leave the rest of the ruins alone.

The minipone had perfect vision in the darkness, but, even so, it had a hard time noticing the two forms of prisoners tied up in the corner of the room.

Squeezing itself under the door, the minipone began to creep up toward them when it was suddenly no more.

Edgy felt his minipone come back to his hoof unbidden as he was creeping around the back, and his stomach turned. But he finished what he was doing and crawled back to Tempest at the front door.

“There is one door in the back but it’s jammed shut, and the windows are small and broken.”

“See anything else through the windows?”

“Nope, but I’ll have to ask my little friends.”

The minipone that had spied on Starry dutifully came back to its master. It relayed the information to Edgy who called it back into his hoof for the time being.

“Where’s the other one?” Tempest asked.

“That’s the main problem. Someone, somehow, managed to send him back to me. They must already know we’re here.”

“Seems like we don’t have much of a choice now, then.”

“Right.”

“Alright, we go in at three, two, one...”

The two rushed through the door.

Chapter Eight

At that moment, instead of seeing only the open floor, a swarm of creatures melted into view.

“Invisibility shields, I see,” Tempest said, “Clever.”

Now that the creatures were in sight, the two could get a good look at them as the two sides circled each other.

There were a few lizards holding more of those strange weapons like the guards outside. These were somewhat slimy looking fellows, hunched over and crooked. There were a few creatures that even Tempest and Edgy couldn’t quite place, holding a various assortment of weapons. There was a deer or two. And over them all was another large hedgehog with a mace.

“This reminds me of what happened at Applejack’s...” Tempest felt herself mutter, but Edgy didn’t stop to question her.

He was trying to look around them to see where Starry’s cage was, but all he could see was bits and pieces of the edges of the cage’s frame.

Neither side seemed to want to make the first move, until one of the deer produced a small cloth bag from its cloak and slammed it onto the ground in front of them, covering the whole warehouse in a dark mist.

But soon a large blast came flying at the two rescuers, knocking them both over and causing the darkness to fade away. The cloaked characters were up for battle.

One of the ugly looking thugs lunged out of the receding darkness and grabbed Edgy by the throat and lifted him up. Edgy could feel its paws gripping tightly around him.

“Second, use your shadows!” Tempest hissed toward Edgy’s direction.

But whether because he didn’t hear or because he wanted to ignore it, he didn’t respond. Instead, he frantically started kicking his back legs toward his attacker.

Another one of the thugs attempted to toss Tempest onto the ground before she leapt out of the way, only to be knocked down by another.

“Stupid ponies,” the one holding Edgy said before his head cocked to the side a bit to look at Tempest awkwardly rising.

“You all act like you aren’t flesh and blood, like the rest of us, that can just snap, and rip, and tear.”

He emphasized each verb with pounding Edgy’s body into the nearby wall. Each crash punctuated with Edgy’s brain begging him to gasp for more air but with him knowing full well he could not.

Thankfully, Tempest leapt to her hooves, bowling her opponents over and releasing a blast of energy toward Edgy’s.

The villain caught it in his hands, causing him to drop Edgy, who weakly limped away, eyes narrowed more with vengeance than pain. The villain toyed with the energy blast like it was a ball.

“Now, now, who wants to play catch?”

Tempest pushed Edgy aside and just barely caught the edge of the impact as it grazed her shoulder. It would have left a deep scar to match her other one if she had caught it full on.

The two continued battling their way through. Edgy finally was able to keep most of the members distracted while Tempest found her way toward Starry’s cage.

But Starry was gone.

Tempest had no time to figure out what happened when she heard a loud call.

Looking up, she saw one ugly cloaked badger holding something yellow and purple in his claws. Tempest didn’t think twice. Dodging past Edgy going one against ten, she made her way toward the upper deck, ricocheting off attackers, objects, and the walls until she was face to face with their leader.

He drew out some sort of blade from his cloak. It had purple lines weaving around it that looked like they were made from amethysts. He brought it up to Starry’s head with a snicker.

“You want her, eh, little pony?”

Tempest gritted her teeth.

She charged toward the two and watched as the blade turned toward her. With a flick of the creature’s wrist, Starry was dropped toward the ground below, and Tempest was busy deflecting blows and aiming to land her own onto the brute.

From below, Starry had managed to create a small bubble below her of a force field to soften her landing. All around her was Edgy fighting off the cloaked invaders. He seemed amazing. And Starry could just faintly remember the time he had saved her from the storm guards when they first met in Canterlot.

She pulled out her rusted nail, which was now shaped like a fierce knitting needle.

And once again, they were saving each other.

The two took on their own enemies, landing cuts and punches and kicks as if the enemy were on an erratic assembly line to be finished off.

Tempest was still above fighting off the badger when she found herself knocked toward the railing and looking out at the scene in front of her.

Edgy was finally fighting with his shadowy minipones and taking out those who were trying to close in around him, ambushing them with his own ambush. Starry was too busy fending other cloaked figures off with her makeshift weapon to seem to notice the added help, and Tempest could see Starry’s eyes glowing a brilliant blue, instead of its normal green, at each slash.

To Starry, for some reason, Edgy seemed to be handling everything just fine. It seemed like every time she glanced back, there were less attackers and more room.

Everything was going fine, until one deer managed to evade all of her needle attacks.

Starry felt his presence as he launched himself and his antlers at her. She only had a second to react, and all she could do was wince.

But Edgy saw it.

Starry wasn’t sure what happened. One minute, everything in front of her went dark and she braced herself with a small gasp, wondering if the deer had hit her already. But soon the darkness was gone, and in front of her was the deer, looking pitiful on the floor.

Starry wasn’t sure what to do next, until she heard the sound of metal screeching above her.

Taking a chance, she peered up and saw there was a dangling panel above Tempest and the badger’s heads.

In one huge effort, Starry made a decision, beginning to levitate the panel off the ceiling with her magic. With a yank and a creak, it began to slide downward with ragged jerks.

The two fighters directly below it briefly peered up to see the commotion, but they couldn’t stop what they were doing. It was life or death for them either way. They both tried to knock the other one to where the panel was about to fall.

Starry couldn’t take her eyes away from the panel now. She shuffled as best as she could to put Edgy at her back and focused squarely on the ceiling.

With one final tug, the panel sped downward. Starry felt like yelping as the badger made one last attempt to push Tempest in its way, but the whole floor those two were on crashed with the panel’s weight.

The two ponies on the ground suddenly felt their saliva stick in their throat. Seeing their leader fall, all the able bodied attackers remaining dissipated into the darkness.

Edgy and Starry found themselves running over to where their friend had fallen.

In the mess of wreckage, they could see the badger’s furry form looming, but not moving. They couldn’t see Tempest’s at all from where they stood. For a second, it looked like he was going to get up, and Edgy was about to pounce when the badger fell to his other side, just as disgusting but no longer breathing.

From over the top of the villain’s form, they saw a familiar face pop up. Edgy jumped in spite of himself, and Starry was even feeling a bit relieved.

“Well, that was nothing like that time we battled that stray griffin,” Tempest smiled weakly as she got up.

“He was definitely not as light as a feather,” Edgy replied, rotating one of his shoulders slightly to emphasize. Now that they stopped talking, they realized the silence reigning over the warehouse and turned to look at Starry.

Starry was surveying the whole place. She was looking back toward the cage they had kept her in, and back toward the door where the creatures had departed. Edgy noticed her silently trot over to one spot and stoop down to pick something up. It looked small from this distance, but he could see it sparkle.

Edgy felt just as concerned as he was earlier. Thoughts about the only other time she had done as much damage flitted across his mind, but only for a moment.

Tempest looked around the cloak of the badger and pulled out some sort of communication device and smashed it beneath her hooves.

“Now they can’t get a hold of us again,” she said, and indicated it, “Tracking device,” she added, as she noticed Starry’s staring.

Edgy felt uneasy. There was something that wasn’t quite right. His mind frantically searched itself before he realized Starry must have seen his minipones. He tried his best to study her face, still staring around blankly. After all that had gone on, it would make sense that she would be dazed, but he worried his own secret had added to it.

Tempest Shadow looked around, too.

“We need to leave here. Nopony here is safe if the Blood Moon knows we’re in Ponyville.”

“The Blood Moon?” Starry asked, still dazed.

“Yes. We only knew of them during our time with the Storm King. They were rivals we tried to take out many times. But these were just some mercenary rookies. If they were the actual thing, we wouldn’t have gotten off so easy.”

“Who says you’ve gotten off at all?” an indescribable voice called out.

The three of them looked around the wasteland of the old factory floor. There were several bodies scattered here and there and more rusted pieces of what was the staircase and the panel, but none of them could tell who had spoken until a glowing pegasus pony appeared over a pile of the wreckage.

“Missed me?”

Starry’s scream was stuck in her throat.

Because, it looked like Cass.

But her eyes were not Cass’s usual bright, mischievious eyes, but were instead cold, grey discs. Cass’s wings, too, normally free and flapping gaily, were poking through a heavy and oppressive black cloak with a blood moon on it.

“Who are you?” Edgy called out, sensing that something was wrong.

It giggled with very little expression on Cass’s face except a small wry grin. The hollow eyes, if they were eyes, were still resolutely facing straight forward. The voice had a hideous echo, but it continued with more calm.

“The Right Hoof of Grogar. But you peasants can call me Dingledein for all I care. I’ve been watching all of you for two years now through this disgusting pony. And you all are going to wish my mercenaries had finished you off before I got to you.”

“Yeah, well, funny thing is that I know that pony you’re controlling and she’s no match for us,” Edgy taunted, “So I think you’re going to have to do better than that.”

“Doesn’t matter. You can’t hurt me; you’ll only be hurting her if you touch me. Besides,” and here the voice got excited again, “you wouldn’t want them hurt either.”

Suddenly, a levitation glow whipped out the clump that had been hiding in the upper room.

“Bee and Poster Stamp!” Edgy said.

Starry didn’t even correct Edgy.

“Listen here, you ponies. I don’t care about your kind one bit. If you all don’t leave Starry here with me and my men,” and here suddenly several creatures from the floor around them rose up, and each of them had the same soulless eyes and eerie glow and hollow movements that left the others feeling sick, “I’ll kill all four of you. Take your pick.”

The other two ponies next to Tempest were dumbfounded. Outnumbered and jittery with the adrenaline rush from before, they could only stare.

Fizzlepop wouldn’t have known what to do. But Tempest didn’t even flinch.

“How about a new deal?” Tempest shouted, “I take all four of them off your hooves and you get the hay away from Ponyville!”

And with that, she aimed one of the weapons she had pulled off one of the outside guards and aimed it directly at Cass’s front.

Bang!

Starry screamed.

Even Edgy was shocked.

All the bodies in front of them with the soulless eyes fell face forward on the ground, and Cass’s body stopped glowing and suddenly fell onto the ground below.

Starry and Edgy both ran up to it. Her other friends found themselves landing on their feet on the ground below with Tempest coming up to calmly untie their bonds.

Starry could feel her warm tears dripping off the edge of her snout as she cradled her friend’s body in her hooves.

The body was face down, and Starry gently, carefully rolled her over.

Her friend seemed as heavy as Starry would have suspected. But as she moved her, she could hear a small sparking noise that got louder and louder.

And there, in front of her, Cass breathed!

Starry’s tears gave way to confusion and shock. Cass wiggled a little weakly and blinked up at her friend. And in the middle of her front, a small necklace was busted open with some wiring stuck out and sparking. Starry stared at it before she realized how familiar it looked.

“The necklace I fixed before we went to Canterlot!” Starry exclaimed.

Tempest nodded and walked up with the other two.

“Right. I noticed it hanging out of the cloak as they were laughing. I figured it would be the source of the control. That, or the cape.”

“Thank you so much,” Starry cried, and she hugged her friend, who was looking groggy but was starting to rise.

Edgy looked around at the reawoken enemies. No longer alive, their corpses rested peacefully where they had fallen.

“Whatever connection you cut off when you shot her must have shut them down, too.”

“Yes, but unfortunately we can’t stay here,” Tempest quickly glanced around, “We need to talk.”

Tempest went to pull Edgy aside as the other four ponies huddled together. She whispered to Edgy once they were out of earshot.

“Would you be willing to help me on one last adventure together, Second?”

Edgy looked at her.

“Not without Star.”

Tempest hesitated.

“Are you sure? She hasn’t been trained. She might get hurt.”

“She can handle it,” Edgy insisted, “She handled this.”

Noticing Tempest still hesitate, he added, “I promise you she can do it. She’s as much of a friend to me...as you are.”

Tempest could see a gleam in his eyes that she never saw in them before as she felt her orchid colored face grow warm.

“And it’s Edgy now, by the way.”

*** *** ***

The other four ponies across the room weren’t doing much better. They were comforting each other until Bee spoke up.

“Em, it’s not safe for you here anymore.”

Cass and Starry looked at her in surprise.

“Why not?”

“While we were trapped, whoever that guy was was talking to some of the others about you. He had a piece of parchment in his cloak somewhere that he kept looking at.”

Starry yanked the cloak off of Cass and began rummaging around in it before pulling out some sort of document.

Bee and Postage Stamp huddled up next to her as she carefully held it in the glow of her horn.

“No...I was sent to this orphanage,” she said, pointing out a name on the parchment, “and those are my parents’ names from what I was told. If they knew all this, who knows what else they know?”

Starry shuddered and rolled the paper up, slipping it over to Bee, who promptly stowed it away in her wings.

Starry, satisfied that it was secure, looked back at the heap with a shudder.

“I have to know what else they have been up to.”

*** *** ***

Edgy and Tempest walked back up to the crowd.

“Starry Emerald, Edgy” Tempest said, still unsure about the name, “and I have to seek out and defeat the Blood Moon. Equestria won’t be safe if they are still around. When we do, would you join us?”

“Are you all sure you can do it?” Bee hesitantly interrupted.

“I don’t know if we three can do it on our own, but I know of someone that can help us. But no matter what, we can’t leave Equestria unprotected.”

“Yeah, but Twi...” Bee began.

“Twilight Sparkle and her friends know nothing about this and they don’t have to,” Tempest informed her. “They have enough on their hooves. Second, uh, Edgy and I were trained to take down these sorts of groups. We are probably the only ones that can do this.”

“Well, I’m okay with it.”

The others looked at Starry. She looked back at them, unfazed.

“Starry, are you sure?”

“Yes, Edgy,” she placed a hoof on Bee’s wing as Bee put a comforting hoof on her shoulder, “I’m sure.”

Chapter Nine

It was early in the morning at Starry’s house and her living room was in chaotic disarray. There were some bags, some things half packed into storage containers, and some things moved to make room for other things and left in a precarious spot.

Starry spent the whole evening the day before arguing with Edgy before they finally had an idea of what they were going to do. But even though they came to a stopping point, the issue wasn’t quite resolved. And it showed along with Starry’s smile when she greeted her friends as they came to see her off.

Cass and Bee came into Starry’s house crying. Cass trotted in with Bee as a support. Too scared to fly in her state, she had been trotting the whole morning.

Starry could feel the wet morning dew on her friend’s hooves as Cass hugged her, but she didn’t see the glare that went in Edgy’s direction, nor did she see Bee’s look of approval.

Postage Stamp came in with a grin saying that he heard a commotion, but before he could finish his sentence he was cut off by a hug by Starry.

Cass and Bee made several promises that they would keep up her house and check on Rochester and his family. And Starry felt, that at least in this instance, maybe they would be trusted to do that. But just in case, Postage Stamp whispered in an aside that, if they failed, he would do it for them.

Starry was just about to turn toward the open door with Edgy when Cass and Bee grabbed her by the shoulders to whirl her around once more.

“We have one last thing we gotta give you!”

Starry waited expectantly as Cass grabbed her hoof and placed something small and light weight into it. It was very small, made of brass, and had a few little wisps of curves coming off the sides.

Starry froze.

“This is...” Starry began.

“Yep, it’s the first piece of jewelry you ever made for us,” Cass told her, slightly tearing up in her eyes and finding it mirrored in Starry’s.

“I found it again. You’re going to need something to remember us. Open it.”

Starry was confused, but she used her magic to undo what looked like a sheath and found a small scale on the inside.

“Tempest and Starlight helped us with this one. Starlight found a spell to turn one of Spike’s scales into a memory chip,” Bee explained.

Starry stared into it.

There, in the many hued shine, she could see a picture of herself and her friends.

Her eyes began to sting.

Starry couldn’t take her eyes off it. It wasn’t too long ago she had her life in Ponyville, and her friends, and she had been one pony shooting toward the sky.

But now.

Starry and the two pegasus ponies hugged once more.

“I’m going to miss you two.”

“We’ll miss you, t...”

“Nah,” Cass interrupted Bee, “You aren’t going to miss us one bit.”

Cass began shoving a disgruntled Edgy and a wistful Starry out the door.

“You’re going to have all the fun, you know that?”

Postage Stamp and Bee just shook their heads at Cass’s last comment as they waved goodbye to their friends, not knowing where they would go next

Chapter Ten

Tempest had just finished packing up her guest room when she turned and bumped right into a purple unicorn.

“Starlight?”

“Hey, just seeing what you were up to. The scale work okay?”

“Yes,” Tempest said before shifting gears, “I have to tell you something important about my friends.”

Starlight opened her mouth, but Tempest interrupted.

“I won’t be seeing them. We have bigger problems to face. Don’t tell Twilight and the others, but the world I come from is in danger.”

“I believe you. Just, don’t forget about us here in Equestria,” a voice spoke out from the shadows to reveal the very same Twilight and her friends.

Tempest thought about her week in Ponyville, the ponies that she had met and all the things they had her do, and in spite of herself she felt her eyes sting as Twilight reached in for what they didn’t know would be one last hug.

“No, I sure won’t.”

*** *** ***

She had agreed to meet the other two at the outskirts of Ponyville before leading them a little farther away. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but was surprised to see them already there and waiting for her.

Tempest Shadow took her two new recruits a little ways outside of Ponyville, past the hilly apple orchards and toward a comfortable spot away from everything. There were actually very few trees outside of the orchard, and Starry could see the tips of some of the Ponyville houses on one side, and the wide open fields ahead.

“Alright,” Tempest barked out, now acting more like the way she did when she had an army to command, “We only fought some Blood Moon mercenaries. The actual Blood Moon is much worse. We must work as a tight knit team if we’re going to survive another attack.”

Starry fidgeted with one of her bags. She had felt some bug crawling on her, looked over to see what it was, and was watching it crawl from her hoof to the bag while Tempest was talking.

“We’re going to have to do some reconnaissance elsewhere,” Tempest stated. The Blood Moon had similar haunts to the Storm King. If we go to where the Storm King used to be, we’ll find out more about the Blood Moon.”

“Starry Emerald,” Tempest nearly barked at Starry, bringing her attention back, “once again, are you sure you want to do this?”

Starry nodded and added a hurried “yes...ma’am.”

Tempest continued her hard look.

“The Blood Moon knows about Ponyville. However, they have no reason to attack now. Twilight and her friends will be safe and ignorant as long as we can help it. But we have to go after the Blood Moon first. Before we do anything else,” Tempest added, “we have to lay out one more ground rule.”

She looked into their expectant faces.

“We’re a team now. So no more secrets, no more lies. We’re going to defeat whatever comes our way. Together,” Tempest told her new recruits.

The image of a certain scroll flew through Starry’s mind at the same time as Edgy’s hooves held the ground firmer.

But they nodded in agreement and began walking off together with a new stream of chatter from Starry, eye rolling from Edgy, and Tempest’s resolved march forward.

Tempest knew, as long as she was there, she would do all she could to right her wrongs.

But that, is a story for another time.

Author's Note

Just want to add in an honest thank you to anyone that has made it this far. These were mostly stories just for my boyfriend, but I'm so glad other people have been able to read and enjoy them!