The Fate of Orion

Swish Thump

Twilight awoke to the familiar surroundings of her room. At first she wasn't sure why she was awake. Then, she realised it was because it was time to wake up and open the library for the morning.

Swish Thump

After briefly running a brush through her mane to get the bed-head out she yawned and headed down to the front door again. She peeked outside out of habit and this time, not seeing any Pegasus night guards on her lawn, she unlocked the door.

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She walked outside and checked the mailbox. Technically it was too early for regular mail but sometimes urgent messages showed up early. No mail. Alright, time for a rousing breakfast.

“Spike!” Twilight called out, wondering where the baby dragon was hiding this morning.

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“Spike! Where are you! It's time for breakfast!” Twilight tapped her hoof on the floor thoughtfully and glanced around the room. She spotted a suitcase neatly tucked into a corner. “Oh... right...”

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Twilight sighed and headed for the basement. Tapping on the door she listened for a response. “Bronze Dust? Are you awake?” she paused, continuing to listen hard. “Bronze? Oh well, I guess he's still trying to get on a normal schedule.”

Spike chose that moment to appear at Twilight's elbow with a cup of coffee for her. “Uh actually I don't think he's asleep right now. Coffee?”

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Twilight jumped slightly in surprise. “Huh? Oh coffee...” she grabbed the cup with her telekinesis and greedily drank the dark liquid inside. “Phew that feels better. What do you mean he's not asleep right now? And what's the thumping noise anyways?”

Spike grinned mischievously. “This, you gotta see.”

...

A perfect arc. That was the only way you could describe it. A perfect arc.

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The arrow traveled from the bow in Bronze Star's hooves with perfect accuracy to the wooden target more then 100 paces away and landed dead onto the bulls-eye. There was no magic here. Simple physics by the looks of it but the stallion hadn't noticed Twilight or Spike watching just yet. He used his telekinesis to lift the bow up to his hooves again and nocked another arrow before dropping his magic and taking aim once again.

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Another perfect shot, this time the arrow struck the target less then an inch away from the one just before it without even ruffling the fletching on the first.

“That's amazing!” Twilight burst out before she could stop herself.

Bronze Star lay down his bow on the grass and turned to face Twilight with a smile. “It's just a hobby of mine. It certainly helps the Night Guard with their training though,” he said. “Good morning, by the way.”

Twilight blushed slightly as she walked out onto the grass of her back lawn. “How? Training the Night Guard?”

The stallion hesitated before answering. “Well I suppose it's not too hard to understand. It's certainly not a secret but it's nothing that just anypony likes to think about honestly. While Princess Celestia's Dawn Guard mostly parade around to gather up wrongdoers and protect the castle, the Night Guard is special ops for the most part. That ranges from anything involving spy work and intelligence gathering in foreign nations to er... more unsavoury work.”

Twilight's eyes widened. “Uhm... you don't mean...”

Bronze nodded. “Yes. Assassination work. There hasn't been call for it in centuries. Or at least, so I'm told by Princess Celestia.”

Spike picked up the bow and tested the string. It gave a high pitched twang when he plucked at it. “How do you use this to train with the Night Guard?” he asked.

Bronze chuckled as he levitated an arrow out of a nearby quiver over to where the three of them were standing. “With this.”

Spike looked at the arrow and then grinned. “Suction cup arrows huh.”

Twilight still had a puzzled look on her face. “I don't see how that helps with stealth training...” she said.

The stallion smiled and said simply, “like this,” before lifting his the suction cup arrow to his bow and firing it into a small bush near where they were standing. It disappeared into the leaves with a loud 'thwop' followed almost immediately by something large, pink and squealing leaping out of the bushes and landing on her back in front of the two of them. The arrow was stuck firmly on her forehead.

“Pinkie! What were you doing hiding in the bushes?!” Twilight exclaimed as the party pony looked up with a loopy expression on her face.

Pinkie jumped up, righted herself and put her face ridiculously close to Twilight's before starting to talk at an extremely fast pace. “I heard there was a new guy in town so I went looking for him and then I found out he had a bow and it was so awesome and I thought I should watch and see how good he was and then it was like amazing and I couldn't get out of hiding and then you showed up and he totally is awesome and where's he from and how come you didn't tell us that he's here and -”

This continued for several seconds before Twilight managed to catch up and shove a hoof in her mouth to silence the pony for a moment. It worked, sort of. Pinkie continued to speak, though her words could not be heard intelligibly since there was a hoof muffling them. “Slow down Pinkie! We can't keep up,” she said, still keeping her hoof in place, despite the fact that it was getting covered in Pinkie slobber. “Pinkie, this is Bronze Star, he's Princess Luna's student and he's staying here to help me with my research on the magic of friendship.” Twilight said, finally removing her hoof and wiping it on the grass. “I haven't had a chance to bring him around to introduce him to everypony because he needed time to get used to being awake in the day time...”

Twilight paused and looked over her shoulder at Bronze Star as he returned from the target with his arrows. “You must be still getting used to being awake so early in the morning, it's only been a day.”

The stallion shrugged. “I think I'm good enough to go about meeting all of your friends. That is what you had planned for when I'd sorted out the nocturnal thing right?” he asked with a smirk.

At this, Pinkie Pie jumped up into the air with a huge gasp. She grinned ear to ear and grabbed Twilight's face with her hooves planted her forehead against the unicorn's.  She managed to narrowly avoid spearing her temporary horn on Twilight's very real one. “You know what this means?!?! I need to go get cakes, streamers and invitations!  STAT!” she yelled before dashing off out of sight in a flash.

Bronze Star blinked and looked over in the direction he saw Pinkie leave. “Uh... that was your friend Pinkamena right?” he asked scratching the side of his head with a hoof. “What was that all abou-”

Pinkie re-appeared directly behind the unicorn stallion and pulled the cord attached to the back end of a large, light blue cannon which immediately belched confetti and streamers everywhere. Spike took cover in the small bush as some of the streamers draped themselves across the horns of the two unicorns and the suction cup horn still stuck to Pinkie's forehead. “It's time for a PARTYYYYY!!!” she yelled before vanishing again, shedding confetti, glitter and various other party supplies in her wake.

Twilight shook the bits of fabric out of her mane and off her horn. “I am never going to get used to that,” she muttered as she turned to see how Luna's student was taking meeting the most rambunctious resident of Ponyville. Much to Twilight's surprise, he was taking it quite well. He hadn't fallen over yet and he hadn't gone completely catatonic. He looked like he was only wondering how she'd snuck up on him like that.

Bronze shook his head, shaking loose a bunch of the party cannon's payload. “That's... quite impressive,” he mused.  “She'd probably give the Night Guard quite the run for its money if she wanted to.”

Twilight grinned. “That's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. I have yet to meet anypony who could spot her when she wants to throw a surprise welcome their way,” she said as she pulled Spike out from under the bush and gave him a slight shake to let him know to pull his claws out of his ears. “It's normal. I expect that most of the town will be at her party to welcome you to Ponyville so it's probably the best way to go make friends. It worked for me after all and I'm a total shut-in.”

Bronze Star smiled a little solemnly. “I... great... I guess... she's much more energetic than the letters you two have been sending to the Princess led me to believe.”

Twilight walked over to the library door and hesitated. With a sigh she looked back over her shoulder “Welcome to Ponyville. It's mostly quiet... mostly.”