With the meeting for his school now behind, and a possible coronation somewhere in his future Sol was frustrated immensely. It’s been four months since his meeting with the advisors, ambassadors, and the Princesses and it was getting colder. Having brought up the idea for the Eclipse knights' revival, and recruitment things only got harder for him. Thinking back on it Sol remembered one of the royal advisors accusing him of trying to overthrow the current rulers. Sol had to remind him, he had been turning down the Prince position for months. Yet the accusations kept rolling in until most of the advisors he thought were with him for bettering the country weren’t. Even his ‘friend’ that gifted him the custom silver horse shoes wouldn’t meet his eyes.

This disheartened the young alicorn as he offered to hand over the rights to select the elite from each of the guards. They loved the idea, and moved to make it theirs. The advisors however did hand partial control over the selection process to Sol. The action was more of a,

“If you aren’t going to let us use you and your ideas as we want, then we won’t agree with you.” Well those weren’t the exact words but that was the gist of it that he got. Though it was still a ways out before he had to actually do any of this he was relatively content to finally make some progress to better the world he was in, like his Opa wanted. Though it was anything but enjoyable getting there especially considering the fact that he was an anomaly among ponies.

With advisors, and foreign leaders finally getting word of a new alicorn many sent gifts, and invitations to dinners, dances, and political talks. Among them were the incessant letters from Novo’s daughter, who’s letters she finally read. Her name was Sage, she was roughly around his age. Other letters also came from the leader of Dragon lands offering gold and his daughter. Not to mention the griffons, who even offered their son to him, at least they figured they should stay opened minded. Sol was overwhelmed in so many ways with his advisors turning on him, and the unwanted attention.

All of the chaos that surrounded Sol seemed to have manifested itself. When Sol was in the royal garden he was visited by well he didn’t remember what. All Sol remembered was ‘it’ called itself Discord. Quite the fellow really if you can look past all of the sarcasm, pranks, and horrible fashion sense. Like really polka dot green with banana yellow gross. Discord would pop up every now and then after a meeting. The Dragon thing would go on and on about how much the nobles despised him. But their most recent conversation was rather ominous.

“You know since I like you Sol my boy I’ll tell you something” Discord said floating next to Sol.

“Oh really, then please your Chaos-ship please enlighten me” Sol said sarcastically.

Discord not knowing or not caring continued, “Something big is going to happen, you're involved I don’t know how though. There is just so much chaos around you it’s unnatural.”

“So you actually have a talent, holy shit” Sol mocked. He didn’t dislike discord; it was just that he seemed to be stuck to Sol’s side. Along with his incessant talking Sol felt like pulling his mane out.

“Oh you!” Discord said feigning anger, “I'm serious this time you should watch your back, or you might regret it.”

“What are you on about Dis-”Sol stopped talking. Discord was staring him dead in the eyes; unblinking. Sol got the message and nodded in agreement. This was the only time in three months that Sol had seen Discord so serious. He figured there should be some weight behind it being a god or lord of chaos

“Good now, I’m off to Fluttershy's for tea. You should visit, she was quite fond of you, you have a soft spot for kids, she’d love tha-” Discord was cut off as used his magic to close his mouth.

“Got it. Thanks Mr. LoRd Of ChaoS but I’m missing my lunch. scram” Sol said shooing Discord away.

Undoing the magic Discord pouted, “Hmph fine, I’ll see around. Same time well whenever?” Discord asked and Sol nodded.

“Yup come by whenever and we can talk about my world, I'm sure you’d love to know how contradictory humans are.” Sol said, shaking his head. Discord content with their meeting smiled with his crooked grin and vanished into smoke.

The winter time had begun and hearth's warming was coming up in a few weeks. Sol was pleased to hear that Christmas was a thing here. But with the holidays comes being busy, and that was an understatement with how much he had going on. However that didn’t stop him from going to see Buttercream and little Cinnamon and all of the former stall owners. Since it was the end of harvest season, those that didn’t sell any produce during the winter closed for the holidays. Being the holiday season, Sol found himself in Buttercream's shop more often as he would buy pastries. He would give them out to castle staff and those he knew, partly because he liked being petty towards the advisors.

“Maybe this is how Celestia and Luna have felt dealing with these old fu… ponies” Sol mused to himself, chuckling.

He thought now would be as good a time as any to bring the little colt into the castle. Though that was the second or third thing on his mental checklist. The second third thing was whatever Discord said to him. The second he could give to his pastry chef. The third and most pressing issues… personal issues no that wasn’t it, mare issues. Yeah that summed it up, mare issues, Sol before coming to Equestria in his 22 years on earth hadn’t had a physical relationship or a relationship in general. It felt petty but it weighed heavily on him as he was still a relatively new resident here. The dating norms of the nobles in Equestria , and foreign nations were all over the place.

Sol was now dealing with how he felt about Cadence, and Luna. He already knew how fond he was of Cadence when they met and well ‘stuff’ happened between them. It was Luna that really surprised him, he thought she was just affectionate with most ponies, she was close to and he could not have been more wrong. Luna from what Sol had seen was more aloof with anyone she wasn’t close to. She wasn’t unkind, just detached, when he was with her she felt more well grounded and present. Maybe Sol was overthinking it and she thought they were just friends or the opposite. He did remember Celestia saying that Luna sent out her personal guard to see him to the castle. That could have just been protocol Sol thought. Then remembering he knew the royal protocols since he worked for them. It wasn’t protocol at all and he was trying to not overthink the situation.

“Godsdamn if I can make heads or tails of anypony here,” Sol said, shaking his head. He was currently in a garden he decided to start, along with some of his other ideas, he posed to the advisors a new attraction for the castle to bring in visitors and earn a few bits to pay for a celebration of the castle staff. Sol had to make sure the funds were going to the staff since the advisors were all too ready to accept this idea.

Continuing his garden work, he looked around at the little world he’d made. Sol used magic to keep the sunlight out during the day and allow the moon rays in at night. The night blue magic that enveloped the area had countless flecks of gold, white, light blue and silver stars in all shapes and sizes. It was anything but easy and he had to have Luna help him with it. Sol couldn’t use magic the way most unicorns could and doing things to scale was not his thing. So when he attempted to make the small stars, real mini stars, it ended poorly. Sol burnt the original growhouse to the ground in seconds. Not his proudest moment and that didn’t help his cause trying to give bonuses to the staff.

“Iron and metal are fine but god forbid I try to make mini stars, then it’s a problem. Then they have the nerve to take money for repairs like they cant afford it” Sol sarcastically mumbled to himself

All of the flowers in the garden were nocturnal flowers that he had come across when he first got to Canterlot and Luna showed him around. Tending to his garden he didn’t hear that people had walked through the arch way entrance.

“Lunar lilies, check, next was… Oh hi” Sol said, turning to the ponies that just walked in.

“MR SOL!” The familiar voice called. As soon as Sol recognized it as Cinnamon, he was tackled full force by the colt who had grown since he’d last seen him.

“Sol, I couldn’t stop him, he was on a mission to see you today, I’m so so-”jogging over Buttercream looked worried that Sol was on the ground. Sol picked the colt up in his magic and got up. Taking a deep breath, and then giggling with the colt.

“Hi Cinnamon, I missed you too bud. I was just thinking about you guys. Always a pleasure to see you two” Sol said, his laughter dying down.

“Hey! Hey, is today the day?” Cinnamon said, looking at Sol. His eyes were wide, and pleading, Cinnamon had wanted a tour for months but Sol had been really busy.

“Ya know what fu- ,” Sol coughed and corrected himself, “I mean yes, we can tour today.” The little colt hoof pumping and his smile getting wider. Sol figured now was better than ever, since he needed a distraction.

“YAY! DAD DID YOU HEAR HIM?” Cinnamon said ecstatically.

“Are you sure about this? We don't want to interrupt you when you’ve already done so much for us.” A worried expression made its way onto Buttercream's face.

“Don’t you worry, I’ll take the tyke for the evening, you can come with or,” Sol smirked at Buttercream, “You can take out that nice mare from the flower shop, what was her name again? Amber…”

“Uhm, it's Amber Lilly and yea that's a great idea” Buttercream said sheepishly.

Setting Cinnamon down, Sol walked over to Buttercream, “Go get er’ mate I believe in you. Here take this call it another gift” He said, summoning 2 tickets for a boat ride on the pier.

“I can’t I-” Buttercream looked at Sol’s expression. He knew Sol wasn’t accepting a no. “Your- you’re right Sol, thanks for watching Cinnamon, my Son Dad will be back to get you later ok?” Buttercream said walking over to his son and hugging him.

His giggling dying down, Cinnamon hugged his father back, “Ok daddy be safe!” As their hug ended Buttercream walked out of the garden..

“Alright little buddy let's go see what's going on inside, Whaddya say?” Sol said, looking at the colt. Sol knew he needed to finish checking his flowers but he could always do that later.

“OK Mr. Sol let's go!” Cinnamon said jumping up and down. The two of them made their way out of the garden, and into the courtyard of the castle. To go and give the colt the best goddamn tour he's ever had.

Sol and Cinnamon walked into the castle and began their tour of the castle, and all of the cool spots he’d found. Cinnamon was ecstatic to see all of the castle, and asked Sol question after question.

“So where do you work? Do you see the Princesses often? OH what do you eat?” Cinnamon asked. Sol chuckled and lifted the colt and put him on his back.

“I work in the north tower, I see 3 Princesses multiple times a day, and what I like to eat, hmmm.” Sol pondered the last question for a moment. “I’ve grown fond of the carrot and barley soup here.”

“Barley soup?” Cinnamon asked, confused.

“It's a grain, I’ll have to get you some so you and your dad can try it,” Sol said, taking a turn and walking up a staircase.

“Uhh Mr. Sol where are we-”Cinnamon was cut off..

“Drop the Mr. part, It’s Sol or” Sol paused for a moment, “Older brother yea call me older brother” he said smiling to himself.

Giggling again Cinnamon leaned into Sol’s mane, “Ok bro, where are we going?”

“My office first, and then to see princess Luna, raise the moon,” Sol said. The colt sat up straight upon hearing Luna’s name.

“We’re gonna see the moon rise?!” Cinnamon exclaimed, his voice cracking in the process.

“Yes we are, actually…”Sol got off at the top of the staircase and looked around for a clock, “If I can see the time I can take you.”

Cinnamon upon hearing this looked around frantically for a clock. The little colt so desperately wanted to see his favorite princess. He loved seeing the Lunar princess walk into their store and order bagels. The two of them made their way through the castle when they felt a large rumbling. Sol steadied himself so Cinnamon wouldn’t fall off.

Suddenly there were guards rushing through the castle’s floors. Lunar and Solar guards taking up their arms. Sol was confused about what was going on, until he looked out a window in the hallway. Through the evening sky Sol saw a black cloud floating over the city. It was low hanging and as it swept through the streets Sol swore he saw ponies just disappearing. Sol realized it wasn’t pollution, someone was attacking Canterlot and he was just standing there.

“Cinnamon I don’t wanna scare you bud, but something is happening and I need to leave you for a bit. I will be back ok” Sol said, using his magic and lifting the colt of his back.

“Where are you going?” Cinnamon asked, confused.

“The city, lil buddy you trust me right?” Sol asked. Prompting a nod from the colt. Sol ran down the hallway between the upper towers to Cadence's door. He knocked hurriedly as she answered the door.

“Who is …Oh Sunshine who’s the colt?” Cadence asked, grinning at him.

“Hi Candy, Sorry in a rush this is Cinnamon, Buttercreams kid can you watch him for a bit. Please?” Sol asked, pleading. This made Cadence curious, and she looked around the hallway to see guards everywhere.

“What's going on out there?” asked Cadence with growing concern.

“Candy I don’t know but If you watch lil bro here I’ll come back and let ya know, sounds good?” said Sol hoping she would agree with him.

“Fine, Hi Cinnamon I’m Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Cadence” She smiled at him. Cinnamon beamed up at Sol, as if asking for permission. Sol chuckled and nodded at him and went with Cadence.

“I’ll be back lil bro promise,” Sol said, now galloping down the hallway and down a staircase to the entrance Hall where the guard captains were gathered.

“Oi, IronHoof the hells going on mate?” Sol asked the guard captain.

Looking at Sol the captain grimaced, “It was over as soon as it began,” he said.

“The hell do you mean by that, don’t you keep me out of the loop too!” Sol yelled.

“Citizens have been abducted Sol, the market district and docks were wiped out” IronHoof paused for a moment. “We have sent guards to look for the missing but…”

As soon as Sol heard the docks he bolted out of the castle. The area IronHoof just mentioned was where Buttercream was on his date. He prayed that he was wrong and it was the docks further down, he prayed that Cinnamons father was ok.

“Please sweet Jesus be wrong about this, just this once be wrong.” Sol said, panting as he saw the docks come into view. He scanned the area and saw the boat that he gave Buttercream tickets to. Sol used his magic to follow Buttercream's magic signature. He saw the Lunar guards looking around the area, before he was stopped by one of them.

“Areas off limits, no ones allowed in her-”The Lunar guard stopped when she recognized him.

“Hey Fion, Let me look around Please It’s urgent, please let me through” Sol begged. Fion looked at him, and stepped aside. She knew that look in his eyes, one of a dying hope and she knew anything she said wouldn’t stop him.

“Go ahead Sol, you owe me a favor though” She said as he ran past her.

“Yea I sure do, you’ll get time off, I promise” Sol called hurrying to the dock. He began to look around the boat. Then he collapsed and saw the tickets he gave Buttercream sitting on the boat, and Buttercream's magic signature had disappeared into thin air, the trail had gone cold. He felt so guilty, he encouraged his friend to take his tickets to the pier instead of him. He could have given him a restaurant recommendation instead. Why did whoever or whatever it was have to take his friend? Sol hopped off the boat and sat on the pier heartbroken about his friend's disappearance. How would he explain Cinnamon? It took Sol a few hours to collect himself before he could walk again. As he got back to the castle he saw a guard handing out a sheet of paper.

Sol walked up to him and asked, “What’re ya handing out?”

“List of the confirmed missing sir, here” The guard said, handing Sol the list. Scanning through it, it was worse than he thought. The Dawn family that ran the fruit stand, the Snow family that sold vegetables, and so many more names. Sol knew them all, they had all disappeared from Canterlot. Sol holding back tears went into the royal garden and stared at the moon. Sol thought of Discords warning and cursed himself. He should have been more on guard especially since a god told him to be. Yet, he ignored the warning and now ponies were missing. He didn’t get to show Cinnamon the moonrise, or how he did the stars. Though Sol was too sad to even want to put them in the sky.

“Sol why are you out here?” Cadence's voice called from across the garden.

“Big brother what-”Cinnamon stopped talking. He saw tears falling down Sol’s cheeks.

“I'm sorry Cinnamon, I'm so, so Sorry” was all Sol could get out as he cried.

Author's Note

Where did the missing ponies go?! Whomst foal napped them! Shorter chapter here as I re-organize for the next parts of the story.