The Fairytale

Jet Stream awoke the next morning feeling awful, the worst he had felt in a long, long time. Although he and Shining Armor had returned to the academy fairly early and he had gone to bed hours before everyone else, his entire night had him tossing in his sleep, thinking about what had happened, thinking about Aurora. He felt guilt for leaving her, he should have taken her with him, not leave her at the mercy of her father.

“You finally up?” Shining Armor asked, walking in the room with a sandwich floating in front of him. “You’ve been asleep for over twelve hours now, you already missed breakfast and morning drills,” he added and took a large bit from his sandwich.

“Ugh, yeah I’m up,” Jet murmured a little as he pulled the covers off and got up.

“You can’t stop thinking about her, can you?” Shining asked and walked over to him.

“That scene, leaving her at the door, leaving her with that disgrace of a father, I just can’t get it out of my mind,” he said and shook his head slightly.

“I understand, believe me, it was just awful what happened, but there wasn’t anything more you could have done. Aurora stayed on her own choice and if you had done anything, you’d be in jail right now,” Shining replied.

“I know, I just, I wish I could have done more,” Jet remarked and headed towards the door. “But I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jet and Shining walked across campus, not a word passing between them. While he wanted to try and help, Shining knew there wasn’t anything he could really say at the moment to help Jet. He’d practically lost everything last night, that was not something you could wipe away with a few words. All that could help him right now was time, time to heal and to move on.

“Cadet Jet Stream!” Suddenly one of the Overseers of the academy, Brute Force, appeared seemingly out of nowhere and stopped the two in their tracks.

“Overseer, uh, good morning, sir,” Jet and Shining bother said, saluting him.

“You can cut the formalities, Jet, I need to speak with you,” Brute said and looked at Shining Armor. “You can go on your way Shining Armor, but I might need to speak to you later.”

Shining Armor shrugged at Jet and stepped around the Overseer. Brute Force looked back and motioned for Jet to follow him. They ended up in one of the administrative offices, though not the one belonging to him. They were accompanied by another Overseer, the mare Morning Dew, who was sitting at her desk. Jet was direct to take a seat in front of her while Brute Force blocked the door. Morning Dew was the overall disciplinary of the academy, so the fact that she was involved was a clear indication that Jet Stream was in trouble. It was a little funny, because of her demeanor you couldn’t get upset with her, even when she’s telling you that you’ve been expelled. She could somehow make you feel better while ripping you a new one all at the same time.

“Jet Stream, I think you know why you are here,” she said in a rather calm voice, leaning back slightly in her comically oversized chair. It had actually belonged to the previous Overseer, a minotaur named Iron Will, who left the academy a year ago because he wasn’t receiving the pay raises he wanted and thought he could do better elsewhere. They all figured they shouldn’t waste the furniture, but now it was hard to take anypony seriously when they sat in it.

“This has to do with last night, right?” Jet asked, though he was fairly certain that was the case.

“Indeed, we received a complaint filed against you for engaging in violence with another pony, in this case against Upper Class and his daughter Aurora, resulting in injuries for both parties,” Brute Force explained.

Jet jumped up from where he sat, outraged as such an outlandish accusation. “That is a damn lie, I did not hurt Aurora!” he yelled back, not having a care to give proper respect to authority.

“The report we received indicated you were at fault for her injury,” Morning Dew replied, gently opening a folder and laying some files in front of Jet.

“Never! Upper Class is the one that hurt Aurora, not me!” Jet shot back, extremely angry at this point. He had already lost Aurora and now he was being blamed for her injury. Never in his life would he even think about hurting her. “I could never hurt Aurora, I… I love her, I love her with all my heart.” Jet sat back down and just stared at the ground. He had never said that to her, they had only been a month together, right? How could he love her so fast? But that was the only word he had to explain it, the only word he could use to explain why he did what he did last night. That feeling, it was more than a gut reaction, he had acted out of love for Aurora.

“Do you admit then to attacking Upper Class?” Brute asked.

“Yes, but I only did so to protect Aurora. I thought he planned on hurting her again, so I hit him and put myself in between the two of them so I could stop him,” Jet explained. “I did attack him, but only to protect the filly I love, and I certainly did not attack Aurora, you can ask Shining Armor, he will tell you.”

Morning Dew and Brute Force looked at each other, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. “Well, no charges have been pressed and since you willing admitted to one accusation you won’t be expelled. As for Aurora, we will talk to Shining Armor and make a determination based on the information we have from him and from the authorities. For the time being, you are being placed under probation for four months and are forbidden from leaving campus,” Morning Dew explained. “And if an incident like this is repeated, harsher consequences will follow.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Aurora stared up in amazement at the building; while her home was certainly fancy, this place looked like an entire castle, albeit one smaller than the one Princess Celestia resided in. Strangely enough, it wasn’t that well known; she had spent all last night trying to find it. She only had a name to go by, Cadance, and while she was well-known; few actually knew where she lived. She wanted to go to Shining Armor, but it was not a good idea. Her father had fabricated a lie to the Royal Guards and blamed her injury on Jet Stream. She wanted to tell the truth, but she was not allowed to say anything and was locked up in her room. If that story had made it to the academy, then Jet Stream and maybe even Shining Armor would be in big trouble; it’s doubtful she’d even get close enough to say anything. What she needed right now was help and the only one she thought could help her was Cadance.

The pink unicorn stepped up to the door and knocked her hoof against it. She waited for maybe a minute before the door opened and Cadance appeared. Aurora was actually surprised it was her, she thought she’d have some servants or something, though maybe that was only because that’s how her family did it. Cadance was far more down-to-earth than most other important ponies she had met.

“Aurora? What are you doing here?” she asked, a look of genuine surprise lining her face.

“Cadance, I’m sorry to disrupt you, but I need help and you are the only one I could think of who might help me,” Aurora replied.

Cadance gave her a warm smile and opened the door up more to let her inside. “It’s alright, I’m more than happy to help.”

Aurora went inside and was amazed at how… ordinary everything looked. Now, granted, there was a certain amount of class to it all, but it was not so overblown like at her home. She certainly didn’t have shelves filled with random junk that just sits around and do nothing. Cadance led Aurora up to her personal room and allowed her a chance to collect herself.

“Just make yourself comfortable, how about I make some tea?” Cadance asked.

“No, it’s alright, I’m fine, I just, I don’t know,” Aurora said, more as a random rabble than an actual answer.

“Jet Stream and Shining Armor told me what happened, I’m so sorry about what happened,” Cadance remarked, sitting down next to her and gently laying one of her wings across the unicorn in a comforting manner.

“You saw Jet Stream? Is he alright?” Aurora asked.

“He’s, well, he’s not good. He was really distraught by what happened last night, we only talked for half-an-hour, Shining took him back to the academy shortly afterwards. I haven’t seen them today, but I have a feeling I won’t be able to,” Cadance remarked with a sigh.

“Why is that?” Aurora asked, slipping the saddle bag off of her and setting it aside.

“I’m guessing that the academy will be notified about what happened and some kind of punishment will be doled out to Jet and maybe even Shining, I’m not entirely sure. From what Shining has told me, something of this magnitude could result in an expulsion, though he didn’t think it would come to that. If they know that he only hit your father just to protect you, they might be more lenient,” she explained.

At that point Aurora’s heart sank and she lowered her head to the floor. “Cadance, my father told the Royal Guard that Jet had attacked me.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“Yes, he locked me up in my room, but I could clearly hear him downstairs, telling them how Jet just flipped out and attacked both of us until he got him out of the house.” Aurora couldn’t help but start crying at this moment; somehow her father just kept making worse and worse. All she wanted was to be with Jet and even that seemed a distant fantasy.

Cadance used her wing to wipe Aurora’s tears, and hugged her. While she had known Aurora only a month, she wanted to do whatever she could to make her feel better. She couldn’t stand seeing another pony so upset like she was. “Well, if that is the case, then we need to bring this to the attention to the authorities, your father can be allowed to just blatantly lie like that.”

“It’s not that simple, Cadance, because, well, I ran away. Last night, after the guards had left, I ran away. I knew there was nothing left for me there, so with my mother’s help I was able to leave before my father did anything else. That’s the real reason I am here, until my father gives up, I don’t know if I’m safe anywhere. Somehow he knew about me and Jet, somepony, somewhere saw us and told him,” Aurora explained.

“I understand, so for now we will do whatever we can. But for the moment we can only be patient until Shining is able to tell us what happened to Jet. We can then figure out how to reunite you two, because the most important thing he needs is to see that you still care about him.” Cadance watched as Aurora seemingly just feel asleep on the floor next to her, apparently quite exhausted from everything that had happened. But she was safe, for the moment, and that’s all that mattered. Here her father could never reach her, here she had the protection of a princess, and nothing could defy that, no matter how much money Upper Class threw her way. She wouldn’t betray the trust of a friend, especially not to him.