The Fairytale

Morning came far too quickly for Aurora, it felt like she had only just fallen asleep only to be awaken by the light flooding in from the window. She stirred a little only to find that she was alone in the bed and Jet was gone. She yawned and crawled out of bed, still a little tired and too tempted to just go and lie back down. She took a moment to orient herself and was able to see just the kind of depressing room they had stuffed Jet into. It was small, much smaller than the room he shared with Shining Armor, and the only furnishing besides the bed was a table where Jet had left his uniform out.

“I see you’re awake, that’s good,” Shining Armor remarked after entering the room.

“Oh, hi Shining, where’s Jet?” Aurora asked, turning to look at the white colt.

“He’s being grilled, again, by Overseer Brute Force and I can tell you, he’s not in a good mood. It’s no longer about Jet, it’s just this entire situation has disrupted everything here at the academy. Everyday we’ve had new ponies come in to do independent investigations and I think we all know that it’s Upper Class just paying off whoever he can to mess with Jet. In any case, Jet has already told them you are here and I’m here to bring you to them to finally get the story from your mouth and put an end to this,” Shining Armor explained.

“I see, well then I better not keep them waiting,” Aurora replied.

Shining Armor brought Aurora down to the room where Jet was being held, but by now there was a crowd of numerous ponies filling the room. Before them stood Jet and Overseers Brute Force, Morning Dew and Administrator Streamline, the egocentric unicorn that managed the military academy.

“And here we have her, young Aurora, completely fine with barely a mark on her,” Streamline began, pointing to the slight bruise that remained on Aurora’s nose. “Already we can see that she was not the subject of extensive assault, just look at Jet Stream, he’s almost twice her size, and anything coming from him would have left this poor filly seriously banged up.”

Aurora couldn’t help but blush a little in embarrassment at how Streamline pointed out her size, especially since she’d never really noticed how much bigger Jet was compared to her. She looked at Jet slightly, who at the moment stood at attention and couldn’t acknowledge her. She now could see just how bad he really looked, Shining Armor hadn’t been looking good, but the stress had really hit Jet badly. You could just tell he was exhausted, every movement seemed to have an added layer of struggle and his eyes looked so dull and lifeless.

“Just because there is nothing visible doesn’t mean nothing happened!” One of the random ponies blurted out.

“You were not given permission to speak, at this time no questions are being accept and random outbursts will not be tolerated,” Brute Force shot back.

“If you don’t believe the visual evidence, then let the young filly tell the story straight from her mouth.” Streamline then waved her over and Aurora obediently stepped forward, but instead of standing in front of him, she stood right next to Jet, who couldn’t help but break his stance.

“To everypony here, I will say this loud and clear, so even the soldiers in Stalliongrad can hear. One week ago, I invited Jet Stream, my coltfriend, to my home to meet my father, Upper Class. During that meeting, my father hit me across my face, giving me the bruise on my nose. Jet Stream stepped in and hit my father back to stop him from hurting me again. Not once did Jet ever harm me, not once did he attack me. I was hit by my father, not by my coltfriend. In addition, to dispel any rumors, Jet has never hurt me, injured me or abused me in any way over the course of our relationship,” Aurora said and to seal her explanation, she grabbed Jet by his head and the two kissed.

The crowd all started talking, but Streamline quickly regained control and demanded that they disperse from campus once and for all or he would request Command Phalanx to bring in soldiers to disperse them. “Now, Cadet Jet, I can see this young filly is deeply in love with you and because you acted only in a protective manner against Upper Class, I have decided to pardon your offense and lift the ban from your leaving campus,” he told Jet. “You may also return to your quarters with Cadet Shining Armor.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jet said, bowing in respect before he and Aurora left the room and met up with Shining Armor outside.

“Well, I must applaud you Aurora, not many ponies could stand up to such a crowd and practically call their father a liar,” he remarked and gave her a little applause with his hooves.

“Well it’s not that big of a deal, he is a liar,” Aurora said and turned her head towards Jet. “But that’s neither here nor there. My father can moan all he wants, he’s done. For now, I think this colt just wants to spend a few hours sleeping with his filly,” she added and gently licked Jet on his cheek.

“You think this is over?” Jet asked; a little weary of anything else being dragged up at this point. For an entire week his entire life was under scrutiny for no good reason and he was tired of the same questions being asked over and over again. One thing they made dug hard at was his life in poverty, trying to position that as a motive for attacking Aurora and her father. It couldn’t be farther from the truth, he didn’t hate rich ponies, he loved Aurora and he had liked Fancypants, he just got very nervous around them.

“I certainly hope so, for your sake. But I’ll leave you two to go back to sleep, maybe tonight we can go and celebrate the end of all this,” Shining armor remarked and started walking off.

Aurora and Jet made their way down to his and Shining’s room. Inside Shining, or more likely Cadence with Shining ‘supervising’, had cleaned up the room after it had been ransacked by detectives. Even the drawing of the two of them Aurora had made had been set in a new frame after some clueless reported dropped it.  Jet collapsed on his bed, yawning slightly and pulling Aurora down on top of him. He held her close and gently started to rub her across the back. He extending his wings out and draped them over his lover, wrapping her in an embrace of feathers. He was so happy, after everything he’d been through; it was amazing to just have her back in his life again. If there had been any doubt about Aurora being the one, it had been squashed the moment he’d seen her last night, just seeing the lengths she had gone to defy her father and be reunited with him. “I love you Aurora,” he softly said to her, but she had already fallen asleep against his chest. He gave her a kiss and gently laid his head back down.

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

“Who the hell is Cadance?” Upper Class asked, starting up at Captain Phalanx from his favorite chair, a cup of wine floating before him.

“Of all ponies, I’d figure you would know. She is the niece of Princess Celestia, the presumed heir to the throne of the Crystal Empire,” Phalanx replied as he approached Upper Class and set some papers down on the side table next to him. “Aurora is said to have been in her company, probably since last week. Unfortunately, this means that Aurora is completely out of your reach. You try to defy her and the hoof of Celestia will squash you like a bug.”

“You are right, Aurora’s smart, she won’t leave the company of either Cadance or that damn colt.” Upper Class leaned back and rubbed his forehead as he tried to analyze the situation. His money ended at royalty, no matter how much money he threw around, nopony would dare stand up to Celestia and in turn Cadance. But that didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t have any options. “When does the next batch of cadets graduate?” he asked.

“At this point, five months,” Phalanx replied.

“Then I know what I need to do. Jet Stream has to be taken out of the equation by whatever means necessary, as long as he can be with Aurora, she will be too stubborn to come back. If we can get rid of Jet, then Aurora will crumble back into her submissive self once more and she’ll be mine again,” Upper Class remarked, glancing over at Phalanx.

“Stalliongrad?” Phalanx asked.

“No, you would think that would be perfect, but Captain Blizzard has completely overhauled operations there so fatalities have sharply fallen. I won’t take my chances that he might die there; I need something quick and more certain than Stalliongrad.”

“Then Captain Sunburst, I take it?”

Upper Class took a drink of his wine and smiled. “Yes, Captain Sunburst, the one officer with enough disregards for the life of a pony to have a fatality rate of over 70%. We’ll send him Jet Stream and watch as that fool gets slaughtered by any number of monsters out beyond the southern border.” He chuckled to himself as he stared at the opposite wall where the picture of his father hung. “Then he will finally approve…”

“Are you sure this will work? If he survives, then he makes a name for himself as a survivor, that would only make it harder for you to get rid of him,” Phalanx pointed out.

“Are you kidding? Manticores, Dragons, Chimaera, gangs, criminals, there are thousands of ways that pony will die, it’s all a matter of what ultimately does him in,” Upper Class replied. “Mark my words, Phalanx; Jet Stream will not survive the Frontier Battalion.”